Observations of the soft X-ray background with the XQC microcalorimeter sounding rocket

F. S. Porter*, R. Almy, E. Apodaca, E. Figueroa-Feliciano, M. Galeazzi, R. Kelley, D. McCammon, C. K. Stahle, A. E. Szymkowiak, W. T. Sanders

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

On March 28, 1999 the X-ray Quantum Calorimeter (XQC) sounding rocket instrument completed its third flight to observe the soft X-ray background in the 0.02-1.0 keV energy band. The detector system is a 36-pixel ion implanted microcalorimeter array with 0.5×2.0 mm HgTe absorbers that is operated at 60 mK with a single-stage adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator. The detector array, mounting system, thin film filters and dewar infrastructure have all undergone substantial improvements since the last flight. The result is a scientifically successful observation of the diffuse soft X-ray background that reveals several emission lines from highly ionized elements in the interstellar medium. Preliminary results show strong emission from both O VII and O VIII. In this paper, we discuss problems and their solutions for this mature Low-Temperature Detector (LTD) instrument and recent astrophysical results.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)175-179
Number of pages5
JournalNuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Volume444
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 7 2000
Event8th International Workshop on Low Temperature Detectors (LTD-8) - Dalfsen, Neth
Duration: Aug 15 1999Aug 20 1999

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • Instrumentation

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