Speaker
Description
The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) represents the current state-of-the-art of astrophysical X-ray polarimetry. This mission is a collaboration between NASA and ASI and it has been launched on 9 December 2021: it can measure the linear polarization of different astrophysical sources over the photon energy range 2-8 keV.
The core of IXPE Detector Unit and future X-ray polarimetry missions is the Gas Pixel Detector (GPD). It can be calibrated and characterized using the X-ray Calibration Facility (XCF), available at the Physics Department at the University of Turin. The XCF is a table-top, open-design irradiation setup for research: it offers beams of photons at different energies and with different spatial and polarization configurations. The radiation source can be chosen between a single-anode and a multi-anode X-ray tube and, in addition, the XCF can provide two beam-lines: one of them is linearly polarized through Bragg diffraction on a number of crystals that are selected to fulfil the Bragg condition at the primary beam energy. Both beams can be monitored and characterized using a Silicon Drift Detector and a CMOS ASI ZWO Camera, adapted to acquire X-ray spectra and display the beams.
Thanks to a handling system, the GPD can measure both the unpolarized and polarized beam: a comparison between these two signals provides a way to characterize the GPD itself. In addition, to study long-term variations of the GPD response, it is possible to use a $^{55}Fe$ radiative source.
Initially conceived as a calibration source to qualify GPDs, the XCF can satisfy evolving requirements to support R&D programs of innovative position-energy and polarization-sensitive X-ray detectors.
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