In-Orbit Performance of the Hard X-Ray Detector on Board Suzaku

• Published in: Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan Vol. 59; no. sp1; pp. S53 - S76
• Main Authors: Kokubun, Motohide, Makishima, Kazuo, Takahashi, Tadayuki, Murakami, Toshio, Tashiro, Makoto, Fukazawa, Yasushi, Kamae, Tuneyoshi, Madejski, Greg M., Nakazawa, Kazuhiro, Yamaoka, Kazutaka, Terada, Yukikatsu, Yonetoku, Daisuke, Watanabe, Shin, Tamagawa, Toru, Mizuno, Tsunefumi, Kubota, Aya, Isobe, Naoki, Takahashi, Isao, Sato, Goro, Takahashi, Hiromitsu, Hong, Soojing, Kawaharada, Madoka, Kawano, Naomi, Mitani, Takefumi, Murashima, Mio, Suzuki, Masaya, Abe, Keiichi, Miyawaki, Ryouhei, Ohno, Masanori, Tanaka, Takaaki, Yanagida, Takayuki, Itoh, Takeshi, Ohnuki, Kousuke, Tamura, Ken-ichi, Endo, Yasuhiko, Hirakuri, Shinya, Hiruta, Tatsuro, Kitaguchi, Takao, Kishishita, Tetsuichi, Sugita, Satoshi, Takahashi, Takuya, Takeda, Shin’ichiro, Enoto, Teruaki, Hirasawa, Ayumi, Katsuta, Jun’ichiro, Matsumura, Satoshi, Onda, Kaori, Sato, Mitsuhiro, Ushio, Masayoshi, Ishikawa, Shin-nosuke, Murase, Koichi, Odaka, Hirokazu, Suzuki, Masanobu, Yaji, Yuichi, Yamada, Shinya, Yamasaki, Tomonori, Yuasa, Takayuki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Oxford Universtiy Press 30-01-2007
• Subjects: instrumentation: detectors; X-rays: general; X-rays: individual (Crab Nebula)
• ISSN: 0004-6264; 2053-051X
• DOI: 10.1093/pasj/59.sp1.S53

The in-orbit performance and calibration of the Hard X-ray Detector (HXD) on board the X-ray astronomy satellite Suzaku are described. Its basic performances, including a wide energy bandpass of 10–600 keV, energy resolutions of
$\sim 4 \,\mathrm{keV}$
(FWHM) at 40 keV and
$\sim 11\%$
at 511 keV, and a high background rejection efficiency, have been confirmed by extensive in-orbit calibrations. The long-term gains of PIN-Si diodes have been stable within 1% for half a year, and those of scintillators have decreased by 5–20%. The residual non-X-ray background of the HXD is the lowest among past non-imaging hard X-ray instruments in energy ranges of 15–70 and 150–500 keV. We provide accurate calibrations of energy responses, angular responses, timing accuracy of the HXD, and relative normalizations to the X-ray CCD cameras using multiple observations of the Crab Nebula.