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T. J. O'Neill, D. Blattacharya, D. D. Dixon, V. Kong, C. Minor, T. Miyagi, M. Polsen, A. D. Zych (Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Riverside), J. Samimi (Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran), A. Akyüz (University of Cukurova, Adana, Turkey)
A prototype of the Tracking and Imaging Gamma-Ray Experiment (TIGRE) is being constructed. TIGRE is a Compton gamma-ray telescope concept for a future space mission in high-energy astrophysics. It is sensitive from 300 keV to 10 MeV, with Compton recoil electron tracking to give unique incident event directions. From 10 to 100 MeV it is also an electron-positron gamma-ray pair telescope. Multi-layers of 10 cm x 10 cm x 300 micron silicon strip detectors serve as the Compton converter with electron tracking between successive layers. A position-sensitive calorimeter is used to detect the scattered gamma ray. When germanium or CdZnTe detectors are used for the calorimeter TIGRE has the best achievable performance, approaching few arc minute and few keV resolutions. These will be used to determine the definition and origin of the diffuse line emissions from the Galactic Center Region and measure the development and decay of nuclear line emissions in supernova explosions. Polarization measurements will be possible for the first time. TIGRE's wide field-of-view (>pi sr.) will allow monitoring of many AGN blazars and pulsars in this critical intermediate energy range. The silicon tracker is currently being used with a CsI(Tl) position-sensitive calorimeter. Laboratory measurements and background-limited sensitivities will be presented. Both atmospheric albedo gamma ray and neutron backgrounds are included. The authors wish to acknowledge the continuing support of NASA Grant NAG5-5116.