Hard X-ray Detector (HXD) on Board Suzaku

• Main Authors: Takahashi, T, Abe, K, Endo, M, Endo, Y, Ezoe, Y, Fukazawa, Y, Hamaya, M, Hirakuri, S, Hong, S, Horii, M, Inoue, H, Isobe, N, Itoh, T, Iyomoto, N, Kamae, T, Kasama, D, Kataoka, J, Kato, H, Kawaharada, M, Kawano, N, Kawashima, K, Kawasoe, S, Kishishita, T, Kitaguchi, T, Kobayashi, Y, Kokubun, M, Kotoku, J, Kouda, M, Kubota, A, Kuroda, Y, Madejski, G, Makishima, K, Masukawa, K, Matsumoto, Y, Mitani, T, Miyawaki, R, Mizuno, T, Mori, K, Mori, M, Murashima, M, Murakami, T, Nakazawa, K, Niko, H, Nomachi, M, Okada, Y, Ohno, M, Oonuki, K, Ota, N, Ozawa, H, Sato, G, Shinoda, S, Sugiho, M, Suzuki, M, Taguchi, K, Takahashi, H, Takahashi, I, Takeda, S, Tamura, K, Tamura, T, Tanaka, T, Tanihata, C, Tashiro, M, Terada, Y, Tominaga, S, Uchiyama, Y, Watanabe, S, Yamaoka, K, Yanagida, T, Yonetoku, D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 07-11-2006
• Subjects: Physics - Astrophysics of Galaxies; Physics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics; Physics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics; Physics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena; Physics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics; Physics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0611232

The Hard X-ray Detector (HXD) on board Suzaku covers a wide energy range from
10 keV to 600 keV by combination of silicon PIN diodes and GSO scintillators.
The HXD is designed to achieve an extremely low in-orbit back ground based on a
combination of new techniques, including the concept of well-type active shield
counter. With an effective area of 142 cm^2 at 20 keV and 273 cm2 at 150 keV,
the background level at the sea level reached ~1x10^{-5} cts s^{-1} cm^{-2}
keV^{-1} at 30 keV for the PI N diodes, and ~2x10^{-5} cts s^{-1} cm^{-2}
keV^{-1} at 100 keV, and ~7x10^{-6} cts s^{-1} cm^{-2} keV^{-1} at 200 keV for
the phoswich counter. Tight active shielding of the HXD results in a large
array of guard counters surrounding the main detector parts. These
anti-coincidence counters, made of ~4 cm thick BGO crystals, have a large
effective area for sub-MeV to MeV gamma-rays. They work as an excellent
gamma-ray burst monitor with limited angular resolution (~5 degree). The
on-board signal-processing system and the data transmitted to the ground are
also described.