Design and tests of the hard X-ray polarimeter X-Calibur
/ Authors
M. Beilicke, M. Baring, S. Barthelmy, W. Binns, J. Buckley, R. Cowsik, P. Dowkontt, A. Garson, Q. Guo, Y. Haba
and 12 more authors
M. Israel, F. Kislat, H. Kunieda, K. Lee, J. Martin, H. Matsumoto, T. Miyazawa, T. Okajima, J. Schnittman, K. Tamura, J. Tueller, H. Krawczynski
/ Abstract
X-ray polarimetry promises to give qualitatively new information about high-energy astrophysical sources, such as binary black hole systems, micro-quasars, active galactic nuclei, and gamma-ray bursts. We designed, built and tested a hard X-ray polarimeter, X-Calibur, to be used in the focal plane of the balloon-borne InFOCuS grazing incidence hard X-ray telescope. X-Calibur combines a low-Z Compton scatterer with a CZT detector assembly to measure the polarization of 20-60 keV X-rays making use of the fact that polarized photons Compton scatter preferentially perpendicular to the electric field orientation. The X-Calibur detector assembly is completed, tested, and calibrated; a first flight is scheduled from Ft. Sumner, NM, in fall 2014. In principal, a similar space-borne experiment could be operated in the 5-100 keV regime. X-Calibur achieves a high detection efficiency of order unity.
Journal: 2014 IEEE Aerospace Conference
DOI: 10.1117/12.893713