Fast X-ray timing observations are a method to probe strong gravity fields around compact massive objects. The European X-ray Evolving Universe Spectroscopy (XEUS) mission with its large collecting area telescope will be able to deliver the required extremely good photon statistics for these studies. The fast timing detector in the focal plane must be able to operate at up to 10⁷ incoming photons from the brightest X-ray objects in the sky with an energy resolution of 200 eV FWHM at 5.9 keV at a dead time not exceeding 1% and a time resolution of 10 μsec. Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs) with their extremely small value of the readout capacitance have proved that they can handle high count rates with simultaneous good energy resolution. For the XEUS fast timing detector it is proposed to operate a multi-channel SDD at an out of focus position to distribute the flux of photons over a number of detector cells.

Date Published: 3 February 2004
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 5165, X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Instrumentation for Astronomy XIII, (3 February 2004); doi: 10.1117/12.507163

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5165:
X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Instrumentation for Astronomy XIII
Kathryn A. Flanagan; Oswald H. W. Siegmund, Editor(s)