Abstract
We describe the high pressure xenon imaging gas scintillation drift chamber with waveshifting fiber readout, a novel detector for hard X-ray (30 keV to at least 300 keV) observations. This technique promises good energy resolution (24%/√ E (keV) FWHM), excellent imaging ( ∼ 200 μm FWHM), and very high sensitivity due to large effective area and low backgrounds. We describe a balloon-borne payload for astrophysical observations based on this concepts called SIGHT (Scintillation Imaging Gas-filled Hard X-ray Telescope). Along with the good energy resolution, SIGHT offers imaging of diffuse sources to 1.5 arc min and 3σ sensitivity as good as 3 × 10 −5 γ cm −2 s −1 (line) and 4 × 10 −6 γ cm −2 s −1 keV −1 (continuum) at 70 keV for 10 4 s observing time with a full BGO shield. We finally examine the potential for future evolution of the concept.
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