Related papers: Proportional counters and microchannel plates
A new method for correcting the charge signal from the large proportional counter is proposed. The correction method makes it possible to take into account the loss of primary ionization electrons in the presence of weakly increasing micro…
Usually, positions of spacecraft on interplanetary or deep space missions are determined by radar tracking from ground stations, a method by which uncertainty increases with distance from Earth. As an alternative, a spacecraft equipped with…
We have developed and successfully tested a prototype of a new type of high position resolution hybrid X-ray detector. It contains a thin wall lead glass capillary plate converter of X-rays combined with a microgap parallel-plate avalanche…
The rise of high energy astrophysics and solar physics in the 20th century is linked to the development of space telescopes; since the 1960s they have given access to the X-ray and gamma-ray sky, revealing the most violent phenomena in the…
Much of the baryonic matter in the Universe, including the most active and luminous sources, are best studied in the X-ray band. Key advances in X-ray optics and detectors have paved the way for the Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite (AXIS),…
Significant advances in science always take place when the state of the art in instrumentation improves dramatically. NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory represents such an advance. Launched in July of 1999, Chandra is an observatory designed…
One of the challenges of X-ray astronomy is how to both collect large numbers of photons yet attain high angular resolution. Because X-ray telescopes utilize grazing optics, to collect more photons requires a larger acceptance angle which…
A foil-microchannel plate (MCP) detector, which uses electrostatic lenses and possesses both good position and timing resolutions, has been designed and simulated for beam diagnostics and mass measurements at the next-generation…
We report on the response of microchannel plates (MCPs) to single relativistic particles and to electromagnetic showers. Particle detection by means of secondary emission of electrons at the MCP surface has long been proposed and is used…
A prototype multiwire proportional chamber (MWPC) was developed to demonstrate the feasibility of constructing a radiopure time projection chamber with MWPC track readout to assay materials for alpha- and beta-emitting surface contaminants…
Exoplanet research has shown an incessant growth since the first claim of a hot giant planet around a solar-like star in the mid-1990s. Today, the new facilities are working to spot the first habitable rocky planets around low-mass stars as…
In the ROSAT era of the mid-1990's, the problems facing deep X-ray surveys could be largely solved with 10 m class telescopes. In the first decade of this new millennium, with X-ray telescopes such as the Chandra X-ray Observatory and…
A neutron imaging detector based on neutron-sensitive microchannel plates (MCPs) was constructed and tested at beamlines of thermal and cold neutrons. The MCPs are made of a glass mixture containing B-10 and natural Gd, which makes the bulk…
We describe a high resolution imaging detector based on a single 80 mm micro-channel-plate (MCP) and a phosphor screen mounted on a UHV flange of only 100 mm inner diameter. It relies on standard components and we describe its performance…
A simple X-ray imaging system using off-the-shelf electronics and simple reconstruction algorithms aiming a spatial resolution of 1.7 mm ($\sim 3\,\%$ of the detector length) is described in this work. For this, two 100 cm$^2$ Gas Electron…
The polarisation of x-ray photons can be determined by measuring the direction of emission of a K-shell photoelectron. Effective exploitation of this effect below 10 keV would allow development of a highly sensitive x-ray polarimeter…
The precise origins of the millisecond radio pulsars, discovered in the early 1980s, remain uncertain until this day. They plausibly evolve from accreting low magnetic-field neutron stars in X-ray binary systems. If so, these stars should…
Detection of weak radial velocity shifts of host stars induced by orbiting planets is an important technique for discovering and characterizing planets beyond our solar system. Optical frequency combs enable calibration of stellar radial…
The Microchannel X-ray Telescope (MXT) is a compact and lightweight focusing X-ray telescope, which is part of the space payload of the SVOM mission. The main goal of the MXT instrument is to precisely localize and physically characterize…
Grazing-incidence X-ray optics have revolutionized X-ray astrophysics. The ability to concentrate flux to a tiny detection region provides a dramatic reduction in background and a consequent very large improvement in sensitivity. The X-ray…