A 5 in. Si(Li)/Pb sampling calorimeter telescope for observation of cosmic gamma rays in the GeV region

Abstract

A 5 in. diameter Si(Li)/Pb sampling calorimeter with a depth of 28 radiation lengths (30 unit cells × 0.93 radiation lengths) has been constructed. The energy and angular resolutions of the calorimeter have been investigated using CERN SPS positron beams with energies of 10 to 147.8 GeV. The calorimeter shows good linearity over this energy region and the energy resolution is expressed well by σE (rms)/E = (16.9 ± 0.9)%/ √E[GeV], where E represents the incident beam energy. The angular resolution of the calorimeter for a single event is 0.3° (rms) at 80 GeV/c. The agreement between these results and Monte Carlo simulations is good. We are showing a new design of the Si(Li)/Pb sampling calorimeter telescope (SSCT) with an angular resolution (point source localization capability) of about 0.04° (rms) for bright galactic gamma-ray sources. We believe that this telescope is a suitable detector for future observations of cosmic gamma rays in the GeV region, especially when used to search for point sources.