In-flight performance of the soft x-ray spectrometer detector system on Astro-H

Frederick S. Porter; Kevin R. Boyce; Meng P. Chiao; Megan E. Eckart; Ryuichi Fujimoto; Yoshitaka Ishisaki; Caroline Anne Kilbourne; Maurice A. Leutenegger; Daniel McCammon; Kazuhisa Mitsuda; Kosuke Sato; Hiromi Seta; Makoto Sawada; Gary A. Sneiderman; Andrew E. Szymkowiak; Yoh Takei; Makoto S. Tashiro; Masahiro Tsujimoto; Tomomi Watanabe; Shinya Yamada

doi:10.1117/1.JATIS.4.1.011218

20 February 2018 In-flight performance of the soft x-ray spectrometer detector system on Astro-H

Frederick S. Porter, Kevin R. Boyce, Meng P. Chiao, Megan E. Eckart, Ryuichi Fujimoto, Yoshitaka Ishisaki, Caroline Anne Kilbourne, Maurice A. Leutenegger, Daniel McCammon, Kazuhisa Mitsuda, Kosuke Sato, Hiromi Seta, Makoto Sawada, Gary A. Sneiderman, Andrew E. Szymkowiak, Yoh Takei, Makoto S. Tashiro, Masahiro Tsujimoto, Tomomi Watanabe, Shinya Yamada

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Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, Vol. 4, Issue 1, 011218 (February 2018). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.4.1.011218

Abstract

The soft x-ray spectrometer (SXS) instrument was launched aboard the Astro-H (Hitomi) observatory on February 17, 2016. The SXS is based on a high-sensitivity x-ray calorimeter detector system that has been successfully deployed in many ground and suborbital spectrometers. The instrument was to provide essential diagnostics for nearly every class of x-ray emitting objects from the atmosphere of Jupiter to the outskirts of galaxy clusters, without degradation for spatially extended objects. The SXS detector system consisted of a 36-pixel cryogenic microcalorimeter array operated at a heat sink temperature of 50 mK. In preflight testing, the detector system demonstrated a resolving power of better than 1300 at 6 keV with a simultaneous bandpass from below 0.3 keV to above 12 keV with a timing precision better than 100 μs. In addition, a solid-state anticoincidence detector was placed directly behind the detector array for background suppression. The detector error budget included the measured interference from the SXS cooling system and the spacecraft. Additional margin for on-orbit gain stability and on-orbit spacecraft interference were also included predicting an on-orbit performance that meets or exceeds the 7-eV FWHM at 6-keV requirement. The actual on-orbit spectral resolution was better than 5 eV FWHM at 6 keV, easily satisfying the instrument requirement. Here, we discuss the actual on-orbit performance of the SXS detector system and compare this to performance in preflight testing and the on-orbit predictions. We will also discuss the on-orbit gain stability, additional on-orbit interference, and measurements of the on-orbit background.

CC BY: © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

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Frederick S. Porter, Kevin R. Boyce, Meng P. Chiao, Megan E. Eckart, Ryuichi Fujimoto, Yoshitaka Ishisaki, Caroline Anne Kilbourne, Maurice A. Leutenegger, Daniel McCammon, Kazuhisa Mitsuda, Kosuke Sato, Hiromi Seta, Makoto Sawada, Gary A. Sneiderman, Andrew E. Szymkowiak, Yoh Takei, Makoto S. Tashiro, Masahiro Tsujimoto, Tomomi Watanabe, and Shinya Yamada "In-flight performance of the soft x-ray spectrometer detector system on Astro-H," Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems 4(1), 011218 (20 February 2018). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.4.1.011218

Received: 18 August 2017; Accepted: 19 January 2018; Published: 20 February 2018

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