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[16.12] A Thick, Pixelated Silicon Detector for a Large-Area X-ray Timing Mission

P. Ray, B. Phlips, E. Wulf, K. Wood, M. Wolff (NRL), D. Chakrabarty (MIT), BNL Instrumentation Team

The RXTE mission has been a resounding success over the last decade, showing that large-area X-ray timing is a powerful tool for probing matter in the most extreme environments of gravity, temperature, and magnetic field by studying phenomena in the kHz frequency range. A follow-on mission with an order of magnitude more effective area would make great progress in several areas where RXTE has just given us tantalizing glimpses. Such a mission will require a new detector technology and we are proposing to develop large-area, thick silicon detectors that will enable such a mission. Silicon detectors, when pixelated to reduce the capacitance, can cover the energy range from 2 to 30 keV with superb efficiency at a cost, weight, power, and volume per unit area that will allow an effective area of 6--10 m² in a MIDEX-class mission. We will present the details of our detector design and development effort which we think will be enabling for several possible mission architectures.

A proposal to NASA to fund this effort is pending.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: Paul.Ray@nrl.navy.mil

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #3
© 2004. The American Astronomical Soceity.