Development of a quasi-monoenergetic 6 MeV gamma facility

Suzanne F. Nowicki; Stanley D. Hunter; Julia G. Bodnarik; Michael P. Dion; Ann M. Parsons; Jeffrey Schweitzer; Seunghee Son

doi:10.1117/12.925473

25 September 2012 Development of a quasi-monoenergetic 6 MeV gamma facility

Suzanne F. Nowicki, Stanley D. Hunter, Julia G. Bodnarik, Michael P. Dion, Ann M. Parsons, Jeffrey Schweitzer, Seunghee Son

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8443, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray; 844337 (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.925473
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2012, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Abstract

The Advanced Energetic Pair Telescope (AdEPT) will explore the universe in the medium-energy range from about 5 MeV to greater than 200 MeV via gamma-ray pair production. AdEPT will provide high angular resolution observations and for the first time high polarization sensitivity over this essentially unexplored energy range. The NASA/GSFC quasi-monoenergetic 6 MeV Gamma Facility was built to characterize detector’s response of planetary science and astrophysics instrumentation to be done in house. It will provide the ability to study pair production imaging of the AdEPT pair telescope at the difficult low end of its energy range. There is no natural radioactive isotope that provides a gamma ray with energy above the 2.614 MeV line of ²²⁸Th. The quasi-monoenergetic 6 MeV gamma-ray source provides a calibration point at significantly higher energy and is thus necessary to the design and testing of astrophysics and planetary neutron/gamma-ray instruments. This paper presents the mechanical design of the facility and the measured activity of the source.

Citation Download Citation

Suzanne F. Nowicki, Stanley D. Hunter, Julia G. Bodnarik, Michael P. Dion, Ann M. Parsons, Jeffrey Schweitzer, and Seunghee Son "Development of a quasi-monoenergetic 6 MeV gamma facility", Proc. SPIE 8443, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 844337 (25 September 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.925473

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