Development of High Energy Resolution. Hard X-ray Detectors

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We have developed high sensitivity, high energy resolution hard X-ray/soft gamma-ray detectors for a wide range of applications. In the energy band where NaI (Tl) has benn used (100keV-1MeV), we developed two new inorganic scintillators (GSO and YAP) with Hitachi Chemical (GSO) and Inst. of Nuclear Physics, Minsk, Belarus (YAP) to practically applicable levels. In the lower energy band (10keV-100keV), we developed thick PIN photodiodes (0.5-1.5mm).These two technologies have been combined in the well-type phoswich counter with PIN diodes proposed for astronomical hard X-ray detection. The detectors has been adopted as an instrument on board a Japanese satellite project Astro-E.The final products have given the following characteristics.GSO, Energy resolution - 7.0%(fwhm)at 662keVYAP, Energy resolution - 5.8% at 662keVlight yield-35% of NaI(Tl)at 552keVSi PIN Photodiode Depletion thickness - 1.5mmEnergy resolution <3.0keVWe then worked on a pulse shape discriminator optimized for our well-type phowich counter. A proto-type circuit was made on a bread-board and tested successfully and the design has been put into an ASIC design of LSI.In the final year of the project, we produce a prototype chip. We are now in the second round designing stage.