Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2010 · 21 citations · 0 references
Natural SciencesAstronomyPhysicsOpticsSpectroscopyX-ray AstronomyPolarization OpticsTelescope OpticsX-ray OpticsX-ray PolarimetryX-ray SpectroscopyX-ray TelescopesFocal Plane DetectorsHard X-ray OpticsHard X-ray SpectroscopyHard X-ray TelescopesImaging X-ray PolarimetryPhotoelectric PolarimetryPolarimeter DesignPolarimetric Instrument Design
The New Hard X-Ray Imaging and Polarimetric Mission makes a synergic use of Hard X-Ray Imaging, Spectroscopy and Polarimetry, as independent diagnostic of the same physical systems. It exploits the technology of multi-layer optics that, with a focal length of 10 m, allow for spectroscopic and imaging, with a resolution from 15 to 20 arcseconds, on the band 0.2 - 80 keV. One of the four telescopes is devoted to polarimetry. Since the band of a photoelectric polarimeter is not that wide, we foresee two of them, one tuned on the lower energy band (2-10 keV) and another one tuned on higher energies (6 - 35 keV). The blurring due to the inclined penetration of photons in the gas , thanks to the long focal length is practically negligible. In practice the polarimeters fully exploit the resolution the telescope and NHXM can perform angular resolved simultaneous spectroscopy and polarimetry on the band 2 - 35 keV. We are also studying the possibility to extend the band up to 80 keV by means of a focal plane scattering polarimeter.