Optical imaging chamber for x-ray astronomy

Robert A. Austin; Brian D. Ramsey

doi:10.1117/12.147148

1 August 1993 Optical imaging chamber for x-ray astronomy

Robert A. Austin, Brian D. Ramsey

Author Affiliations +

Optical Engineering, Vol. 32, Issue 8, (August 1993). https://doi.org/10.1117/12.147148

Abstract

The light emitted by electron avalanches in a parallel plate chamber can be used to image the tracks of photoelectrons liberated by the interaction of an incident x-ray with the gas filling the chamber. The differing morphologies of photoelectron tracks and high-energy charged particle tracks can be used for background rejection. The initial direction (before scattering) of the liberated photoelectron also contains information about the polarization of the incident radiation. We have built a small test chamber with which we have imaged photoelectron tracks using an intensified CCD camera. Our results show that optical imaging could be used in a hard x-ray imaging polarimeter useful for astronomy.

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Robert A. Austin and Brian D. Ramsey "Optical imaging chamber for x-ray astronomy," Optical Engineering 32(8), (1 August 1993). https://doi.org/10.1117/12.147148

Published: 1 August 1993

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