Development of the balloon-borne Galactic Explorer Coded Aperture Mask and Compton Telescope (GECCO) prototype

Richard S. Woolf; A. A. Moiseev; Aleksey Bolotnikov; Nicholas Cannady; Gabriella Carini; John F. Krizmanic; John W. Mitchell; Bernard F. Phlips; Makoto Sasaki; Daniel Shy; Lucas Smith; David J. Thompson; Eric Yates; Klaus Ziock; Andreas Zoglauer

doi:10.1117/12.2630681

31 August 2022 Development of the balloon-borne Galactic Explorer Coded Aperture Mask and Compton Telescope (GECCO) prototype

Richard S. Woolf, A. A. Moiseev, Aleksey Bolotnikov, Nicholas Cannady, Gabriella Carini, John F. Krizmanic, John W. Mitchell, Bernard F. Phlips, Makoto Sasaki, Daniel Shy, Lucas Smith, David J. Thompson, Eric Yates, Klaus Ziock, Andreas Zoglauer

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 12181, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray; 121812J (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2630681
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2022, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Abstract

In this paper we describe ProtoGECCO–a prototype instrument for the Galactic Explorer with a Coded aperture mask and Compton Telescope (GECCO). ProtoGECCO is comprised of two main imaging calorimeters. The top calorimeter is an array of cadmium zinc telluride (CZT); the bottom calorimeter is an array of high-light yield Gd₃Al₂Ga₃O₁₂:Ce (GAGG) fingers with silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) readout. The calorimeters are surrounded by a thallium-doped cesium iodide (CsI:Tl) active shield. ProtoGECCO employs the techniques of both coded aperture imaging and a Compton telescope. The main goals of the prototype are to further develop the instrument technology, thereby raising the technical readiness level (TRL), and to fly on a high-altitude balloon from Fort Sumner, NM. The results of this work are directly applicable to future space instruments that require detectors with large area; excellent spatial, energy, and angular resolution; and high detection efficiency. Such future missions will address problems in the MeV domain of gamma-ray astronomy—one of the most underexplored windows on the universe.

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Richard S. Woolf, A. A. Moiseev, Aleksey Bolotnikov, Nicholas Cannady, Gabriella Carini, John F. Krizmanic, John W. Mitchell, Bernard F. Phlips, Makoto Sasaki, Daniel Shy, Lucas Smith, David J. Thompson, Eric Yates, Klaus Ziock, and Andreas Zoglauer "Development of the balloon-borne Galactic Explorer Coded Aperture Mask and Compton Telescope (GECCO) prototype", Proc. SPIE 12181, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 121812J (31 August 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2630681

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