A Transmissive X-ray Polarimeter Design For Hard X-ray Focusing Telescopes
Abstract
The X-ray Timing and Polarization (XTP) is a mission concept for a future space borne X-ray observatory and is currently selected for early phase study. We present a new design of X-ray polarimeter based on the time projection gas chamber. The polarimeter, placed above the focal plane, has an additional rear window that allows hard X-rays to penetrate (a transmission of nearly 80% at 6 keV) through it and reach the detector on the focal plane. Such a design is to compensate the low detection efficiency of gas detectors, at a low cost of sensitivity, and can maximize the science return of multilayer hard X-ray telescopes without the risk of moving focal plane instruments. The sensitivity in terms of minimum detectable polarization, based on current instrument configuration, is expected to be 3% for a 1mCrab source given an observing time of 10^5 s. We present preliminary test results, including photoelectron tracks and modulation curves, using a test chamber and polarized X-ray sources in the lab.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1509.04389,
title = {A Transmissive X-ray Polarimeter Design For Hard X-ray Focusing Telescopes},
author = {Hong Li and Hua Feng and Jianfeng Ji and Zhi Deng and Li He and Ming Zeng and Tenglin Li and Yinong Liu and Peiyin Heng and Qiong Wu and Dong Han and Yongwei Dong and Fangjun Lu and Shuangnan Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1509.04389},
year = {2015}
}