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Jones, Lawrence S.
(2023).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.00016b53
Abstract
Soft X-rays with energies below 2 keV are of tremendous scientific utility for planetary science but are particularly challenging to detect and analyse due to their low energies and short attenuation lengths. Solid state image sensor based X-ray detectors, derived from charge coupled devices (CCDs) and CMOS image sensors (CISs), have the potential to capture information about a soft X-ray flux in the time, spatial, and energy domains, and so are a potent scientific tool. Developing X-ray detector technology is enabling the application of soft X-ray imaging spectrometers in ever more demanding environments, with the current state of the art CIS promising the potential for high temperature, Fano-limited, performance.
This thesis investigates the use of solid state image sensors for soft- X-ray imaging spectroscopy in space-based applications. Specifically: an evaluation of the radiation damage experienced by the swept charge devices (SCDs) of the Chandrayaan-2 Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer (CLASS) which was shown to be within expectations and consistent with the requirements for continued science operation; and a study of X-ray detectors for the Auroral X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (AXIS) instrument aboard the Disturbed and quiet-time Ionosphere System at High Altitudes (DISHA) mission, resulting in the adoption of a novel CIS X-ray detector into the instrument design.
The AXIS study has found that the newly developed CISs are now equal to their CCD counterparts in some soft X-ray imaging spectroscopy applications, potentially enabling new science targets to be pursued. The successful recommendation to change the AXIS instrument X-ray detector from the more mature EMCCD CCD201-20 of the baseline design, to the less mature but better performing CIS221-X and its derivatives represents a milestone in the development of CIS X-ray detector technology.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
