A new telescope for wide-band gamma-ray astronomy: The Silicon Compton Recoil Telescope (SCRT)

Abstract

A new prototype gamma-ray telescope is described which is sensitive from 0.3 to 30 MeV as a Compton telescope and to 100 MeV as a pair detector. The Silicon Compton Recoil Telescope (SCRT) uses multilayers of silicon strip detectors as a Compton gamma-ray converter. Recoil electrons are tracked with the silicon strip detectors, and their energy losses and directions are measured. The direction and energy of the Compton-scattered gamma rays are measured with CsI(Tl)-photodiode detectors. Thus unique directions and energies are found for each incident gamma ray for the first time and without the background of overlapping rings. SCRT is the first Compton telescope to image the gamma-ray sky directly. It can also detect electron-positron pairs from gamma rays above 5 MeV, extending SCRT's sensitivity to above 100 MeV. Typical resolutions are 3% (FWHM) in energy at 2 MeV and 0.5 deg (1 sigma) in angle. The proposed prototype SCRT instrument has a sensitive area of 650 sq cm, a detection efficiency of 3%, a size reduction by about an order of magnitude, and a sensitivity of 15 millicrab for a typical Compton Observatory exposure. SCRT can also measure the polarization of the incident gamma rays, especially at low energies and large scattered angles. Simulation calculations and a discussion of results with a laboratory model are presented.

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