Gamma-ray imaging with thick position-sensitive silicon detectors

The construction of a prototype Compton imager at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is nearly complete. The instrument is an 8-layer stacked silicon detector and is based on the “3-Compton” energy reconstruction technique. The silicon detectors are 2 mm thick, double-sided, orthogonal strip detectors. Instrumentation and performance of the individual detectors and layers are presented along with simulations of the completed instrument. Implications of the instrument for real world applications and future work involving the final assembly are discussed.