Detector Development for X-Ray Polarimeter

Abstract

POLIX is an X-ray Polarimeter for astronomical observations in the energy band of 5-30 keV. The instrument is made of a collimator, a scatterer and four X-ray proportional counter detectors surrounding the scatterer. The scatterer is made of low atomic mass material which causes anisotropic Thomson scattering of incoming polarised X-rays. The collimator restricts the field of view to 3 degree x 3 degree so as to have only one bright source in the field of view for most observations and it is also designed to minimize the dead area between the cells and also to minimize the mass. These requirement are met with a collimator made of tapered hexagonal cells with a flat top angular response. This flat top response helps in mitigating any small pointing error of the satellite.