X-ray polarimetry using the photoeffect in a CCD detector

Buschhorn, G.; Kotthaus, R.; Kufner, W.; Rössl, W.; Rzepka, M.; Schmidt, Klaus; Genz, H.; Gräf, H.‐D.; Hoffmann-Stascheck, P.; Nething, U.; Richter, A.; Dix, W.‐R.; Illing, Gerd; Lohmann, Michael; Pflüger, J.; Reime, B.; Schildwächter, L.

doi:10.1016/0168-9002(94)90595-9

Cited by 28 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…The first demonstration with a CCD was presented by Tsunemi et al 17 In that experiment, a CCD with a pixel size of 12 µm was employed. A CCD with a smaller pixel size of 6.8 µm was employed in the following experiment conducted by Buschhorn et al 18 Polarimetric performance can be optimized with data reduction. 19 Although x-ray CCDs were utilized in most of the x-ray astronomical satellites since ASCA, no positive detection of polarization has been reported.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

X-ray imaging polarimetry with a 2.5-μm pixel CMOS sensor for visible light at room temperature

Asakura

Hayashida

Hanasaka

et al. 2019

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst.

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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 as an x-ray photoelectron tracking polarimeter. The CMOS detector we employ is developed by GPixel Inc., and has a pixel size of 2.5 µm × 2.5 µm. Although it is designed for visible light, we succeed in detecting x-ray photons with an energy resolution of 176 eV (FWHM) at 5.9 keV at room temperature and the atmospheric condition. We measure the x-ray detection efficiency and polarimetry sensitivity by irradiating polarized monochromatic x-rays at BL20B2 in SPring-8, the synchrotron radiation facility in Japan. We obtain modulation factors of 7.63% ± 0.07% and 15.5% ± 0.4% at 12.4 keV and 24.8 keV, respectively. It demonstrates that this sensor can be used as an x-ray imaging spectrometer and polarimeter with the highest spatial resolution ever tested.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

X-ray imaging polarimetry with a 2.5-μm pixel CMOS sensor for visible light at room temperature

Asakura

Hayashida

Hanasaka

et al. 2019

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst.

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“…However, X-ray polarization measurements below 10 keV have only succeeded for the Crab Nebula with measurements made by a Bragg scattering polarimeter on a sounding rocket and on the OSO-8 satellite in the 1970s [3,4]. In the interim, photoelectric polarimeters with greater sensitivity have been developed, first using CCDs [5,6] and more recently gas detectors [7,8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance of the PRAXyS X-ray polarimeter

Iwakiri

Black

Cole

et al. 2016

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A:

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The performance of the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) polarimeter for the Polarimeter for Relativistic Astrophysical X-ray Sources (PRAXyS) Small Explorer was evaluated using polarized and unpolarized X-ray sources. The PRAXyS mission will enable exploration of the universe through X-ray polarimetry in the 2-10 keV energy band. We carried out performance tests of the polarimeter at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, National Synchrotron Light Source (BNL-NSLS) and at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The polarimeter was tested with linearly polarized, monochromatic X-rays at 11 different energies between 2.5 and 8.0 keV. At maximum sensitivity, the measured modulation factors at 2.7, 4.5 and 8.0 keV are 27%, 43% and 59%, respectively and the measured angle of polarization is consistent with the expected value at all energies. Measurements with a broadband, unpolarized X-ray source placed a limit of less than 1% on false polarization in the PRAXyS polarimeter.

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“…The GPD is the most advanced 2-D imaging polarimeter with high polarimetric sensitivity and spatial resolution with respect to other instruments. For example CCDs were considered to perform polarimetry (Tsunemi et al 1992;Buschhorn et al 1994) by exploiting the border effect among neighbour pixels to detect photoelectron polarization. However, this technique is heavily limited by systematics due to the small range of photoelectrons in silicon (only ≃1.5µm at 10 keV) with respect to the pixel size.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The GPD is the most advanced two-dimensional (2D) imaging polarimeter with high polarimetric sensitivity and spatial resolution with respect to other instruments. For example, CCDs were considered to perform polarimetry (Tsunemi et al 1992; Buschhorn et al 1994) by exploiting the border effect among neighbor pixels to detect Table 1 JET-X Telescope Characteristics (Spiga et al 2014) …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Imaging Properties of the Gas Pixel Detector as a Focal Plane Polarimeter

Fabiani

Costa

Monte

et al. 2014

ApJS

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X-rays are particularly suited to probing the physics of extreme objects. However, despite the enormous improvements of X-ray astronomy in imaging, spectroscopy, and timing, polarimetry remains largely unexplored. We propose the photoelectric polarimeter Gas Pixel Detector (GPD) as a candidate instrument to fill the gap created by more than 30 yr without measurements. The GPD, in the focus of a telescope, will increase the sensitivity of orders of magnitude. Moreover, since it can measure the energy, the position, the arrival time, and the polarization angle of every single photon, it allows us to perform polarimetry of subsets of data singled out from the spectrum, the light curve, or an image of the source. The GPD has an intrinsic, very fine imaging capability, and in this work we report on the calibration campaign carried out in 2012 at the PANTER X-ray testing facility of the Max-PlanckInstitut für extraterrestrische Physik of Garching (Germany) in which, for the first time, we coupled it with a JET-X optics module with a focal length of 3.5 m and an angular resolution of 18 arcsec at 4.5 keV. This configuration was proposed in 2012 aboard the X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer (XIPE) in response to the ESA call for a small mission. We derived the imaging and polarimetric performance for extended sources like pulsar wind nebulae and supernova remnants as case studies for the XIPE configuration and also discuss possible improvements by coupling the detector with advanced optics that have a finer angular resolution and larger effective areas to study extended objects with more detail.

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X-ray polarimetry using the photoeffect in a CCD detector

Cited by 28 publications

References 16 publications

X-ray imaging polarimetry with a 2.5-μm pixel CMOS sensor for visible light at room temperature

X-ray imaging polarimetry with a 2.5-μm pixel CMOS sensor for visible light at room temperature

Performance of the PRAXyS X-ray polarimeter

The Imaging Properties of the Gas Pixel Detector as a Focal Plane Polarimeter

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