Beam Test of a Prototype Phoswich Detector Assembly forthe PoGOLite Astronomical Soft Gamma-ray Polarimeter

Journal Article · Wed Jan 17 00:00:00 EST 2007 · Nuclear Instrumentation and Methods (NIM) A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2006.09.109· OSTI ID:897727

Kanai, Y; Ueno, M; Kataoka, J; Arimoto, M; Kawai, N; Yamamoto, K; Mizuno, T; Fukazawa, Y; Kiss, M; Ylinen, T; Bettolo, C Marini; Carlson, P; Rogers, R; Tajima, H; Thurston, T S; Saito, Y; Gunji, S; Bjornsson, C-I; Larsson, S

We report about the beam test on a prototype of the balloon-based astronomical soft gamma-ray polarimeter, PoGOLite (Polarized Gamma-ray Observer--Light Version) conducted at KEK Photon Factory, a synchrotron radiation facility in Japan. The synchrotron beam was set at 30, 50, and 70 keV and its polarization was monitored by a calibrated polarimeter. The goal of the experiment was to validate the flight design of the polarimeter. PoGOLite is designed to measure polarization by detecting a Compton scattering and the subsequent photo-absorption in an array of 217 well-type phoswich detector cells (PDCs). The test setup included a first flight model PDC and a front-end electronics to select and reconstruct valid Compton scattering events. The experiment has verified that the flight PDC can detect recoil electrons and select valid Compton scattering events down to 30 keV from background. The measure azimuthal modulations (34.4 %, 35.8 % and 37.2 % at 30, 50, and 70 keV, respectively) agreed within 10% (relative) with the predictions by Geant4 implemented with dependence on the initial and final photon polarizations.

• Research Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76SF00515
• OSTI ID: 897727
• Report Number(s): SLAC-PUB-12299
• Journal Information: Nuclear Instrumentation and Methods (NIM) A, Journal Name: Nuclear Instrumentation and Methods (NIM) A
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
Astrophysics
ASTRO
INST
SYNCHRAD
COMPTON EFFECT
DESIGN
ELECTRONS
KEK PHOTON FACTORY
PHOTONS
POLARIMETERS
POLARIZATION
SYNCHROTRON RADIATION
SYNCHROTRONS