Related papers: An X-ray polarimeter for hard X-ray optics
In astronomy there are basically four kinds of observations to extract the information carried by electromagnetic radiation: photometry, imaging, spectroscopy and polarimetry. By optimal exploitation of the first three techniques, X-ray…
We are developing an imaging polarimeter by combining a fine-pixel CMOS image sensor with a coded aperture mask as part of the cipher project, aiming to achieve X-ray polarimetry in the energy range of…
The Gas Pixel Detector belongs to the very limited class of gas detectors optimized for the measurement of X-ray polarization in the emission of astrophysical sources. The choice of the mixture in which X-ray photons are absorbed and…
The LAMP (Lightweight Asymmetry and Magnetism Probe) X-ray telescope is a mission concept to measure the polarization of X-ray astronomical sources at 250 eV via imaging mirrors that reflect at incidence angles near the polarization angle,…
The Gas Pixel Detector (GPD) is a new generation device which, thanks to its 50 um pixels, is capable of imaging the photoelectrons tracks produced by photoelectric absorption in a gas. Since the direction of emission of the photoelectrons…
POLAR is space-borne detector designed for a precise measurement of gamma-ray polarization of the prompt emissions of Gamma-Ray Bursts in the energy range 50 keV - 500 keV. POLAR is a compact Compton polarimeter consisting of 40$\times$ 40…
In recent years, a number of purpose-built scintillator-based polarimeters have studied bright astronomical sources for the first time in the hard X-ray band (tens to hundreds of keV). The addition of polarimetry can help data…
This paper reviews the development status of GRAPE (the Gamma-Ray Polarimeter Experiment), a hard X-ray Compton Polarimeter. The purpose of GRAPE is to measure the polarization of hard X-rays in the 50-300 keV energy range. We are…
POLAR is a compact polarimeter dedicated to measure the polarization of GRBs between 50-300 keV. The light collection of 200*6*6mm3 plastic bars has been simulated and optimized in order to get uniform response to x-rays at different points…
POLAR is a compact wide field space-borne detector dedicated for precise measurements of the linear polarization of hard X-rays emitted by transient sources in the energy range from 50 keV to 500 keV. It consists of 1600 plastic…
The detection of photons above 10 keV through MeV and GeV energies is challenging due to the penetrating nature of the radiation, which can require large detector volumes, resulting in correspondingly high background. In this energy range,…
We present continued development of laterally graded multilayer mirrors (LGMLs) for a telescope design capable of measuring linear X-ray polarization over a broad spectral band. The multilayer-coated mirrors are used as Bragg reflectors at…
A number of techniques are being developed to solve the monstrous sensitivity gap that exists between the energy ranges of good sensitivity of the Compton and of the pair telescopes and to extend polarimetry to the MeV gamma-ray world. I…
The MIT X-ray Polarimetry Beamline is a facility that we developed for testing components for possible use in X-ray polarimetry. Over the past few years, we have demonstrated that the X-ray source can generate nearly 100% polarized X-rays…
Polarimetry is an area of high energy astrophysics which is still relatively unexplored, even though it is recognized that this type of measurement could drastically increase our knowledge of the physics and geometry of high energy sources.…
It has been recently proposed (Boggs, Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 503 (2003) 562), to use polarization of Compton scattered gamma-rays to improve the imaging performance of Compton telescopes. Building upon that work, we detected the…
We devised and built a light, compact and transportable X-ray polarized source based on the Bragg diffraction at nearly 45 degrees. The source is composed by a crystal coupled to a small power X-ray tube. The angles of incidence are…
X-ray polarimetry in astronomy has not been exploited well, despite its importance. The recent innovation of instruments is changing this situation. We focus on a complementary MOS (CMOS) pixel detector with small pixel size and employ it…
In this work we present an active Compton scattering polarimeter as a focal plane instrument able to extend the X-ray polarimetry towards hard X-rays. Other authors have already studied various instrument design by means of Monte Carlo…
PoGOLite is a hard X-ray polarimeter operating in the 25-100 keV energy band. The instrument design is optimised for the observation of compact astrophysical sources. Observations are conducted from a stabilised stratospheric balloon…