Characterization of the radiation damage in the Chandra x-ray CCDs

Prigozhin, G.; Kissel, S.; Bautz, Marshall W.; Grant, Catherine E.; LaMarr, Beverly; Foster, R.F.; Ricker, G.

doi:10.1117/12.409106

Cited by 64 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…It was only after the launch of Chandra, a few months before XMM-Newton, that the problem of soft protons was recognised. 7 These protons are stopped in less than a micron of material and are potentially very damaging for front-illuminated devices such as the EPIC-MOS CCDs as shown by laboratory measurements. 8 In comparison the EPIC-pn is self-shielded against soft proton damage as it is a 280 µm thick back-illuminated device.…”

Section: The Soft Proton Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

In-orbit performance of the EPIC-MOS detectors on XMM-Newton

Sembay

Abbey

Altiéri³

et al. 2004

UV and Gamma-Ray Space Telescope Systems

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XMM-Newton was launched into space on a highly eccentric 48 hour orbit on December 10th 1999. XMMNewton is now in its fifth year of operation and has been an outstanding success, observing the Cosmos with imaging, spectroscopy and timing capabilities in the X-ray and optical wavebands. The EPIC-MOS CCD X-ray detectors comprise two out of three of the focal plane instruments on XMM-Newton. In this paper we discuss key aspects of the current status and performance history of the charge transfer ineffiency (CTI), energy resolution and spectral redistribution function (rmf) of EPIC-MOS in its fifth year of operation.

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Section: The Soft Proton Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

In-orbit performance of the EPIC-MOS detectors on XMM-Newton

Sembay

Abbey

Altiéri³

et al. 2004

UV and Gamma-Ray Space Telescope Systems

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“…Because of lack of better knowledge the same proton fluence has been applied to ACIS-FI. Dividing the "lethal" dose by the on-CCD proton brightness a measure for the functional lifetime of the CCDs is estimated and listed in the last column of Table (1). According to these estimates the functional lifetime of the ACIS-FI would have been just a few days, the MOS CCDs would have degraded very quickly within a day or so.…”

Section: ≫10 Yearsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Multiplying the grasp with the incident proton fluence gives the on-CCD proton brightness, listed in column 6 of Table (1). The fluence has been taken from an Estec document 6 and represents the conditions in the XMMNewton type of orbit.…”

Section: ≫10 Yearsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Very early in the mission a performance degradation, predominantly with the front illuminated CCD detector ACIS-FI was noticed. Apparently some damage was done to the CCD which resulted in degradation of spectral performance due to an increase of charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) 1 . Investigation of the problem revealed that the most likely source for the damaging were protons with energies between 100 keV and a few MeV 2 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Grazing incidence reflection and scattering of MeV protons

Aschenbach

2007

SPIE Proceedings

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Treating protons as de Broglie waves shows that up to a few MeV energies protons experience total external reflection using the index of refraction concept for the target earlier applied to electrons. Angular scattering distributions can be explained by random surface scattering as known for X-rays. Applied to the Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray telescopes the calculated reflection efficiencies can explain the observed degradation of the X-ray CCDs for both missions. Some discussion about the possibility of realizing imaging sub-MeV and MeV proton optics is presented.

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“…Soon after launch it was discovered that the FI CCDs had suffered radiation damage from exposure to soft protons scattered off the Observatory's grazing-incidence optics during passages through the Earth's radiation belts. 2,3 Since mid-September 1999, ACIS has been protected during radiation belt passages and there is an ongoing effort to prevent further damage and to develop hardware and software strategies to mitigate the effects of charge transfer inefficiency on data analysis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temperature dependence of charge transfer inefficiency in Chandra X-ray CCDs

et al. 2006

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Soon after launch, the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS), one of the focal plane instruments on the Chandra X-ray Observatory, suffered radiation damage from exposure to soft protons during passages through the Earth's radiation belts. The primary effect of the damage was to increase the charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) of the eight front illuminated CCDs by more than two orders of magnitude. The ACIS instrument team is continuing to study the properties of the damage with an emphasis on developing techniques to mitigate CTI and spectral resolution degradation. We present the initial temperature dependence of ACIS CTI from -120 to -60 degrees Celsius and the current temperature dependence after more than six years of continuing slow radiation damage. We use the change of shape of the temperature dependence to speculate on the nature of the damaging particles.

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Characterization of the radiation damage in the Chandra x-ray CCDs

Cited by 64 publications

References 7 publications

In-orbit performance of the EPIC-MOS detectors on XMM-Newton

In-orbit performance of the EPIC-MOS detectors on XMM-Newton

Grazing incidence reflection and scattering of MeV protons

Temperature dependence of charge transfer inefficiency in Chandra X-ray CCDs

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