A Facility for Soft Proton Irradiation and Instrument Testing for Future Space Missions

Author

Diebold, Sebastian ; Jochum, Josef ; Kendziorra, Eckhard ; Perinati, Emanuele ; Santangelo, Andrea ; Tenzer, Chris

Author_Institution

Kepler Center for Astro & Particle Phys., Univ. Tubingen, Tubingen, Germany

Volume

61

Issue

4

fYear

2014

fDate

Aug. 2014

Firstpage

1937

Lastpage

1942

Abstract

Orbital soft protons (from tens of keV to a few MeV) can seriously degrade the performance of astronomical X-ray detectors. An irradiation setup for large detectors as well as passive satellite components has been constructed at the accelerator facility of the University of Tübingen. The experimental setup and recent applications are briefly described. Simulations and measurements of an improved aperture design are presented in detail. Modifications of the irradiation setup to enable measurements of the small angle scattering efficiency of Wolter-type X-ray mirror shells are underway. Details of the implementation and the current status are given.

Keywords

X-ray detection; astronomical instruments; proton effects; solid-state nuclear track detectors; University of Tübingen; Wolter-type X-ray mirror shells; accelerator facility; astronomical X-ray detectors; future space missions; instrument testing; orbital soft protons; soft proton irradiation; Apertures; Detectors; Laser beams; Monitoring; Protons; Radiation effects; Scattering; Astrophysics instrumentation; X-ray astronomy; radiation facility; soft proton radiation; space radiation effects;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TNS.2013.2292711

Filename

6705660