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RESEARCH PRODUCT

A CdTe position sensitive spectrometer for hard X- and soft γ-ray polarimetry

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description

Coded Imager and Polarimeter for High Energy Radiation (CIPHER) is a hard X- and soft gamma- ray spectroscopic and polarimetric coded mask telescope based on an array of Cadmium telluride microspectrometers. The position sensitive detector (PSD) will be arranged in 4 modules of 32 x 32 crystals, each of 2 x 2 mm(2) cross-section and 10 mm thickness giving a total active area of about 160 cm(2), operating over a wide energy range (similar to10 keV to 1 MeV). Each PSD module is obtained by aligning 32 linear arrays of micro-detectors each also containing the integrated analog front end electronics on a thin ceramic layer. The CIPHER instrument will be proposed for a balloon experiment, both in order to assess the performance of such an instrumental concept for a small/medium size satellite (or an external ISS-alpha payload) survey mission and to perform an innovative high energy polarisation measurement. Herein we describe the CIPHER position sensitive spectrometer design, together with current development on CdTe detectors array and on a low noise and low power consumption ASIC for the analog front end electronics. Furthermore we present the expected performance in terms of image and spectral quality (spatial and energy resolution) and polarimetric capabilities for such a detector. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.