A high-energy Compton polarimeter for the POET SMEX mission

Peter F. Bloser; Mark L. McConnell; Jason S. Legere; Camden D. Ertley; Joanne E. Hill; Marc Kippen; James M. Ryan

doi:10.1117/12.2056868

24 July 2014 A high-energy Compton polarimeter for the POET SMEX mission

Peter F. Bloser, Mark L. McConnell, Jason S. Legere, Camden D. Ertley, Joanne E. Hill, Marc Kippen, James M. Ryan

Proceedings Volume 9144, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray; 91441I (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2056868
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2014, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

Abstract

The primary science goal of the Polarimeters for Energetic Transients (POET) mission is to measure the polarization of gamma-ray bursts over a wide energy range, from X rays to soft gamma rays. The higher-energy portion of this band (50 - 500 keV) will be covered by the High Energy Polarimeter (HEP) instrument, a non-imaging, wide field of view Compton polarimeter. Incident high-energy photons will Compton scatter in low-Z, plastic scintillator detector elements and be subsequently absorbed in high-Z, CsI(Tl) scintillator elements; polarization is detected by measuring an asymmetry in the azimuthal scatter angle distribution. The HEP design is based on our considerable experience with the development and flight of the Gamma-Ray Polarimeter Experiment (GRAPE) balloon payload. We present the design of the POET HEP instrument, which incorporates lessons learned from the GRAPE balloon design and previous work on Explorer proposal efforts, and its expected performance on a two-year SMEX mission.

Citation Download Citation

Peter F. Bloser, Mark L. McConnell, Jason S. Legere, Camden D. Ertley, Joanne E. Hill, Marc Kippen, and James M. Ryan "A high-energy Compton polarimeter for the POET SMEX mission", Proc. SPIE 9144, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 91441I (24 July 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2056868

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