The Imaging Compton Telescope Comptel on the Gamma Ray Observatory

Author

Schönfelder, V. ; Diehl, R. ; Lichti, G.G. ; Steinle, H. ; Swanenburg, B.N. ; Deerenberg, A.J.M. ; Aarts, H. ; Lockwood, J. ; Webber, W. ; Macri, J. ; Ryan, J. ; Simpson, G. ; Taylor, B.G. ; Bennett, K. ; Snelling, M.

Author_Institution

Max Planck Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik 8046 Garching, B. Federal Republic of Germany

Volume

31

Issue

1

fYear

1984

Firstpage

766

Lastpage

770

Abstract

This instrument is based on a newly established concept of Â¿-ray detection in the very difficult 1-30 MeV range. It employs the unique feature of a two-step interaction of the y-ray: a Compton scattering collision in a first detector followed by an interaction in a second detector element. COMPTEL has been designed to perform a very sensitive survey of the y-ray sky. Extreme care has been taken to minimize background so that the detection limits of COMPTEL will be dominated by source counting statistics. It combines a wide field of view (about 1 steradian) with a good angular resolution. The design criteria of COMPTEL and the perforrmance of a Science Model are described.

Keywords

Detectors; Electromagnetic scattering; Energy resolution; Instruments; Observatories; Optical imaging; Production; Statistics; Telescopes; X-ray scattering;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TNS.1984.4333363

Filename

4333363