In the past decade, gas scintillation proportional counters (GSPCs) have proved their reliability and usefulness in space applications. The combination of high quantum efficiency over a wide energy range, large effective area, good spectral resolution, and high time resolution has given GSPCs a special role in x-ray astronomy. A wide variety of possible configurations makes matching of particular requirements possible. An exact understanding of the physics involved is essential for the further improvement and precise calibration of GSPCs. This paper shows that synchrotron radiation sources, with their continuously variable energies, fluxes, and collimation, provide the ideal tool by which to study the physical processes occurring in GSPCs as well as being perfectly suited for the calibration of such instruments.

Date Published: 1 October 1991
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 1549, EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Instrumentation for Astronomy II, (1 October 1991); doi: 10.1117/12.48361

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1549:
EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Instrumentation for Astronomy II
Oswald H. W. Siegmund; Richard E. Rothschild, Editor(s)