Issue EAS Publications Series Volume 37, 2009 Astrophysics Detector Workshop 2008 Page(s) 181 - 188 DOI 10.1051/eas/0937022 Published online 11 June 2009

Astrophysics Detector Workshop 2008
P. Kern (ed)
EAS Publications Series, 37 (2009) 181-188
DOI: 10.1051/eas/0937022

Gas pixel detector for x-ray observation

D. Attié¹, P. Colas¹, E. Delagnes¹, Y. Giomataris¹, M. Campbell², X. Llopart², M. Chefdeville³, H. van der Graaf³, J. Timmermans³ and J. Visschers<sup>3

1</sup>  CEA, Irfu, SPP, Centre de Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France;
²  CERN, 1211 Genève 23, Switzerland
³  NIKHEF, Kruislaan 409, Amsterdam 1098 SJ, The Netherlands

david.attie@cea.fr

Published online: 11 June 2009

Abstract
We report on the status of the R&D for a digital Time Projection Chamber based on Micromegas detectors using the CMOS chip TimePix as a direct readout anode protected by highly resistive a-Si:H layer. A small chamber was built as a demonstrator of the 2-D and 3-D imaging capabilities of this technique. We illustrate the new capabilities of this detector for x-ray observation with data taken from radioactive sources. This small TPC is a very useful tool both for studying gas properties thanks to its good efficiency for single electrons, and for reconstructing photoelectron direction for use as a soft x-ray polarimeter.

© EAS, EDP Sciences 2009

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