A simulation study for the expected performance of Sharjah-Sat-1 payload improved X-Ray Detector (iXRD) in the orbital background radiation

Abstract

Sharjah-Sat-1 is a 3U cubesat with a CdZnTe based hard X-ray detector, called iXRD (improved X-ray Detector) as a scientific payload with the primary objective of monitoring bright X-ray sources in the galaxy. We investigated the effects of the in-orbit background radiation on the iXRD based on Geant4 simulations. Several background components were included in the simulations such as the cosmic diffuse gamma-rays, galactic cosmic rays (protons and alpha particles), trapped protons and electrons, and albedo radiation arising from the upper layer of the atmosphere. The most dominant component is the albedo photon radiation which contributes at low and high energies alike in the instrument energy range of 20 keV - 200 keV. On the other hand, the cosmic diffuse gamma-ray contribution is the strongest between 20 keV and 60 keV in which most of the astrophysics source flux is expected. The third effective component is the galactic cosmic protons. The radiation due to the trapped particles, the albedo neutrons, and the cosmic alpha particles are negligible when the polar regions and the South Atlantic Anomaly region are excluded in the analysis. The total background count rates are ~0.36 and ~0.85 counts/s for the energy bands of 20 - 60 keV and 20 - 200 keV, respectively. We performed charge transportation simulations to determine the spectral response of the iXRD and used it in sensitivity calculations as well. The simulation framework was validated with experimental studies. The estimated sensitivity of 180 mCrab between the energy band of 20 keV - 100 keV indicates that the iXRD could achieve its scientific goals.