The effect of the displacement damage on the Charge Collection Efficiency in Silicon Drift Detectors for the LOFT satellite

The technology of Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs) has been selected for the two instruments aboard the Large Observatory For X-ray Timing (LOFT) space mission. LOFT underwent a three year long assessment phase as candidate for the M3 launch opportunity within the "Cosmic Vision 2015 -- 2025" long-term science plan of the European Space Agency. During the LOFT assessment phase, we studied the displacement damage produced in the SDDs by the protons trapped in the Earth's magnetosphere. In a previous paper we discussed the effects of the Non Ionising Energy Losses from protons on the SDD leakage current. In this paper we report the measurement of the variation of Charge Collection Efficiency produced by displacement damage caused by protons and the comparison with the expected damage in orbit.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication by Journal of Instrumentatio

Hyper-velocity impact test and simulation of a double-wall shield concept for the Wide Field Monitor aboard LOFT

The space mission LOFT (Large Observatory For X-ray Timing) was selected in 2011 by ESA as one of the candidates for the M3 launch opportunity. LOFT is equipped with two instruments, the Large Area Detector (LAD) and the Wide Field Monitor (WFM), based on Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs). In orbit, they would be exposed to hyper-velocity impacts by environmental dust particles, which might alter the surface properties of the SDDs. In order to assess the risk posed by these events, we performed simulations in ESABASE2 and laboratory tests. Tests on SDD prototypes aimed at verifying to what extent the structural damages produced by impacts affect the SDD functionality have been performed at the Van de Graaff dust accelerator at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK) in Heidelberg. For the WFM, where we expect a rate of risky impacts notably higher than for the LAD, we designed, simulated and successfully tested at the plasma accelerator at the Technical University in Munich (TUM) a double-wall shielding configuration based on thin foils of Kapton and Polypropylene. In this paper we summarize all the assessment, focussing on the experimental test campaign at TUM.Comment: Proc. SPIE 9144, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 91446

Measurement of the effect of Non Ionising Energy Losses on the leakage current of Silicon Drift Detector prototypes for the LOFT satellite

The silicon drift detectors are at the basis of the instrumentation aboard the Large Observatory For x-ray Timing (LOFT) satellite mission, which underwent a three year assessment phase within the "Cosmic Vision 2015 - 2025" long-term science plan of the European Space Agency. Silicon detectors are especially sensitive to the displacement damage, produced by the non ionising energy losses of charged and neutral particles, leading to an increase of the device leakage current and thus worsening the spectral resolution. During the LOFT assessment phase, we irradiated two silicon drift detectors with a proton beam at the Proton Irradiation Facility in the accelerator of the Paul Scherrer Institute and we measured the increase in leakage current. In this paper we report the results of the irradiation and we discuss the impact of the radiation damage on the LOFT scientific performance.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication by Journal of Instrumentation (JINST

Radiation tests of the Silicon Drift Detectors for LOFT

During the three years long assessment phase of the LOFT mission, candidate to the M3 launch opportunity of the ESA Cosmic Vision programme, we estimated and measured the radiation damage of the silicon drift detectors (SDDs) of the satellite instrumentation. In particular, we irradiated the detectors with protons (of 0.8 and 11 MeV energy) to study the increment of leakage current and the variation of the charge collection efficiency produced by the displacement damage, and we "bombarded" the detectors with hypervelocity dust grains to measure the effect of the debris impacts. In this paper we describe the measurements and discuss the results in the context of the LOFT mission.Comment: Proc. SPIE 9144, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 91446

Simulations of the X-ray imaging capabilities of the Silicon Drift Detectors (SDD) for the LOFT Wide Field Monitor

The Large Observatory For X-ray Timing (LOFT), selected by ESA as one of the four Cosmic Vision M3 candidate missions to undergo an assessment phase, will revolutionize the study of compact objects in our galaxy and of the brightest supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei. The Large Area Detector (LAD), carrying an unprecedented effective area of 10 m^2, is complemented by a coded-mask Wide Field Monitor, in charge of monitoring a large fraction of the sky potentially accessible to the LAD, to provide the history and context for the sources observed by LAD and to trigger its observations on their most interesting and extreme states. In this paper we present detailed simulations of the imaging capabilities of the Silicon Drift Detectors developed for the LOFT Wide Field Monitor detection plane. The simulations explore a large parameter space for both the detector design and the environmental conditions, allowing us to optimize the detector characteristics and demonstrating the X-ray imaging performance of the large-area SDDs in the 2-50 keV energy band.Comment: Proceedings of SPIE, Vol. 8443, Paper No. 8443-210, 201

The X-Gamma Imaging Spectrometer (XGIS) onboard THESEUS

A compact and modular X and gamma-ray imaging spectrometer (XGIS) has been designed as one of the instruments foreseen on-board the THESEUS mission proposed in response to the ESA M5 call. The experiment envisages the use of CsI scintillator bars read out at both ends by single-cell 25 mm 2 Silicon Drift Detectors. Events absorbed in the Silicon layer (lower energy X rays) and events absorbed in the scintillator crystal (higher energy X rays and Gamma-rays) are discriminated using the on-board electronics. A coded mask provides imaging capabilities at low energies, thus allowing a compact and sensitive instrument in a wide energy band (~2 keV up to ~20 MeV). The instrument design, expected performance and the characterization performed on a series of laboratory prototypes are discussed.Comment: To be published in the Proceedings of the THESEUS Workshop 2017 (http://www.isdc.unige.ch/theseus/workshop2017.html), Journal of the Italian Astronomical Society (Mem.SAIt), Editors L. Amati, E. Bozzo, M. Della Valle, D. Gotz, P. O'Brien. Details on the THESEUS mission concept can be found in the white paper Amati et al. 2017 (arXiv:171004638) and Stratta et al. 2017 (arXiv:1712.08153

Development and tests of a new prototype detector for the XAFS beamline at Elettra Synchrotron in Trieste

The XAFS beamline at Elettra Synchrotron in Trieste combines X-ray absorption spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction to provide chemically specific structural information of materials. It operates in the energy range 2.4-27 keV by using a silicon double reflection Bragg monochromator. The fluorescence measurement is performed in place of the absorption spectroscopy when the sample transparency is too low for transmission measurements or the element to study is too diluted in the sample. We report on the development and on the preliminary tests of a new prototype detector based on Silicon Drift Detectors technology and the SIRIO ultra low noise front-end ASIC. The new system will be able to reduce drastically the time needed to perform fluorescence measurements, while keeping a short dead time and maintaining an adequate energy resolution to perform spectroscopy. The custom-made silicon sensor and the electronics are designed specifically for the beamline requirements.Comment: Proceeding of the 6YRM 12th-14th Oct 2015 - L'Aquila (Italy). Accepted for publication on Journal of Physics: Conference Serie

Accelerator experiments with soft protons and hyper-velocity dust particles: application to ongoing projects of future X-ray missions

We report on our activities, currently in progress, aimed at performing accelerator experiments with soft protons and hyper-velocity dust particles. They include tests of different types of X-ray detectors and related components (such as filters) and measurements of scattering of soft protons and hyper-velocity dust particles off X-ray mirror shells. These activities have been identified as a goal in the context of a number of ongoing space projects in order to assess the risk posed by environmental radiation and dust and qualify the adopted instrumentation with respect to possible damage or performance degradation. In this paper we focus on tests for the Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs) used aboard the LOFT space mission. We use the Van de Graaff accelerators at the University of T\"ubingen and at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK) in Heidelberg, for soft proton and hyper-velocity dust tests respectively. We present the experimental set-up adopted to perform the tests, status of the activities and some very preliminary results achieved at present time.Comment: Proceedings of SPIE, Vol. 8443, Paper No. 8443-24, 201

Steps towards the hyperfine splitting measurement of the muonic hydrogen ground state: pulsed muon beam and detection system characterization

The high precision measurement of the hyperfine splitting of the muonic-hydrogen atom ground state with pulsed and intense muon beam requires careful technological choices both in the construction of a gas target and of the detectors. In June 2014, the pressurized gas target of the FAMU experiment was exposed to the low energy pulsed muon beam at the RIKEN RAL muon facility. The objectives of the test were the characterization of the target, the hodoscope and the X-ray detectors. The apparatus consisted of a beam hodoscope and X-rays detectors made with high purity Germanium and Lanthanum Bromide crystals. In this paper the experimental setup is described and the results of the detector characterization are presented.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures, published and open access on JINS