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Ramsey, B. D.

Publications and source records attributed to Ramsey, B. D..

At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1997

Neutron Induced Backgrounds In the MIXE X-Ray Detector at Balloon Altitudes

The MIXE detector developed at NASA/MSFC is designed for x-ray astronomy and consists of a multiwire proportional counter sensitive to photons less than 150 keV. The detector has been flown on several balloon flights with higher than expected background levels observed. Previous predictions of the detector background due to atmospheric gamma-ray and cosmic diffuse sources were much less (factor of 3) than flight background measurements. The work reported here was undertaken to determine if the additional contribution from gamma-rays generated by albedo and cosmic-ray induced neutrons in the detector and payload assembly could account for the background levels observed. Monte Carlo nuclear interaction and radiation transport simulations were made for the ambient cosmic-ray environment corresponding to a previous MEE balloon flight at 3 g/cm(exp 2) residual atmosphere and 42 N geomagnetic latitude. The omnidirectional albedo neutron spectrum and the GCR proton spectrum which were used as input to the calculations are shown. For the albedo angular distribution, the predicted up/down flux ratio of 2.5 was used together with the angular dependence measured by Preszler, et al.

Armstrong, T. W.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Development of a Hybrid Gas Detector/Phoswich for Hard X-Ray Astronomy

A hybrid detector is under development for use as a balloon-borne instrument in hard x-ray astronomy. The detector provides broad band coverage by coupling an optical avalanche chamber to a phoswich. The optical avalanche chamber yields superior instrument response at low energies while the scintillator takes over at the higher energies where the gas becomes transparent: at 25 keV, the addition of the gas chamber improves the energy resolution by a factor of 2.5 and the spatial resolution by a factor of 10 as compared to the stand-alone response of the phoswich. A half-scale prototype instrument is being constructed for test purposes and to help resolve a number of design questions involving the coupling of the two components.

Pimperl, M. M.↗
NASA NTRS1994

The Imaging Properties of a Silicon Wafer X-Ray Telescope

Silicon wafers have excellent optical properties --- low microroughness and good medium-scale flatness --- which Make them suitable candidates for inexpensive flat-plate grazing-incidence x-ray mirrors. On short spatial scales (less than 3 mm) the surface quality of silicon wafers rivals that expected of the Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) high-resolution optics. On larger spatial scales, however, performance may be degraded by the departure from flatness of the wafer and by distortions induced by the mounting scheme. In order to investigate such effects, we designed and constructed a prototype silicon-wafer x-ray telescope. The device was then tested in both visible light and x rays. The telescope module consists of 94 150-mm-diameter wafers, densely packed into the first stage of a Kirkpatrick-Baez configuration. X-ray tests at three energies (4.5, 6.4, and 8.0 keV) showed an energy-independent line spread function with full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 150 arcseconds, dominated by deviations from large-scale flatness.

Joy, M. K.↗
NASA NTRS1993

A Hybrid Gas Detector/Phoswich for Hard X-ray Astronomy

A hybrid detector, which combines an optical avalanche chamber with a phoswich, is currently under development. The optical avalanche chamber - a proportional counter designed to give large quantities of light photons during charge multiplication, mounts on the front of the scintillator and gives response at low energies, while the solid scintillator takes over at energies where the gas becomes transparent (greater than 90 keV). Both sections of the hybrid will be read out by a common set of photomultipliers under the phoswich. The addition of the gas section to the phoswich improves the energy resolution of the instrument by a factor of 2.5 at 25 keV and the spatial resolution by a factor of 10 at the same energy. The net result is an instrument with broad band coverage and high sensitivity which will be used for coded aperture imaging on long duration balloon flights.

Ramsey, B. D.↗
NASA NTRS1992

The microstrip proportional counter

Microstrip detectors in which the usual discrete anode and cathode wires are replaced by conducting strips on an insulating or partially insulating substrate are fabricated using integrated circuit-type photolithographic techniques and hence offer very high spatial accuracy and uniformity, together with the capability of producing extremely fine electrode structures. Microstrip proportional counters have now been variously reported having an energy resolution of better than 11 percent FWHM at 5.9 keV. They have been fabricated with anode bars down to 2 microns and on a variety of substrate materials including thin films which can be molded to different shapes. This review will examine the development of the microstrip detector with emphasis on the qualities which make this detector particularly interesting for use in astronomy.

Ramsey, B. D.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Microstrip proportional counter development at MSFC

Microstrip detectors are an exciting new development in proportional counter design fabricated using integrated circuit-type photolithography techniques; they therefore offer very high spatial accuracy and uniformity. A development program is underway at NASA-Marshall to produce large-area microstrips for use in an X-ray detector balloon flight program and to investigate the general performance limits of these new devices. Microstrips tested so far have been fabricated both in-house using standard photolithographic techniques and by an outside contractor using electron beam technology. Various substrate materials have been tested along with different electrode configurations. The distributions of pickup on subdivided cathodes on both top and bottom surfaces of the microstrips are also being investigated for use as two-dimensional imaging detectors. Data from these tests in the development of a large-area device will be presented.

Fulton, M. A.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Performance of a multistep fluorescence-gated proportional counter for hard X-ray astronomy

Results from the first flight of our proportional counter in an imaging telescope led us to rebuild the detector. We have used a Penning gas mixture (xenon + 1 percent isobutylene) and introduced a preamplification region to improve the energy resolution. We have rebuilt the pressure vessel making novel use of molybdenum as the housing material in order to reduce the residual instrument background, particularly in the fluorescence-gated mode for which the detector design has been optimized. We have also increased the sensitive gas depth from 9 to 14 cm to further increase the sensitivity to both fluorescent pairs and conventional singles. Our calibrations have shown that the overall energy resolution of the detector has been enhanced by a factor of 2, and we predict that the sensitivity at float will increase by a factor of 3 in the 50-70 keV energy band.

Dietz, K. L.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Background in X-ray astronomy proportional counters

The authors report the results of an investigation into the nature of background events in proportional counters sensitive to X-ray photons having energy of less than 150 keV. Even with the use of thick shields composed of high-atomic-number material, a significant flux background in the detector's energy region can result from multiple Compton scattering in the mass surrounding the active region of the detector. The importance of the selection of detector components in the reduction of the background by more than an order of magnitude is emphasized. Experimental results are shown to agree qualitatively with Monte Carlo simulations. It is concluded that escape gating is a powerful means of determining the nature of background in flight detectors: the single/pair ratios reveal whether the detected events are charged particles or photons.

Bower, C. R.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Characteristics of a high pressure gas proportional counter filled with xenon

The characteristics of a conventional cylindrical geometry proportional counter filled with high pressure xenon gas up to 10 atm. were fundamentally investigated for use as a detector in hard X-ray astronomy. With a 2 percent methane gas mixture the energy resolutions at 10 atm. were 9.8 percent and 7.3 percent for 22 keV and 60 keV X-rays, respectively. From calculations of the Townsend ionization coefficient, it is shown that proportional counters at high pressure operate at weaker reduced electric field than low pressure counters. The characteristics of a parallel grid proportional counter at low pressure showed similar pressure dependence. It is suggested that this is the fundamental reason for the degradation of resolution observed with increasing pressure.

Sakurai, H.↗
NASA NTRS1990

The background in a balloon-borne fluorescence-gated proportional counter

The results of an analysis of the background in a fluorescence-gated proportional counter operating over the energy range 3-150 keV are presented. It is found that the dominant background component is that produced by high energy qamma-rays that penetrate the shields and undergo multiple scattering in the detector body, resulting in photoelectric absorption in the detector gas. A careful choice of materials and thickness can move the peak of this emission outside of the detector sensitive range, thereby dramatically reducing the residual background.

Ramsey, B. D.↗
NASA NTRS1990

EXOSS - A hard X-ray and soft gamma-ray astronomy mission

The Energetic X-ray Observatory on Space Station (EXOSS) is a mission concept for high-sensitivity coded-aperture sky surveys and studies of the spectral and temporal behavior of astrophysical sources from approximately 3 keV to 1 MeV. The scientific motivation for the mission and the instrument requirements, including the need for high angular resolution to resolve and identify numerous detectable sources, are summarized. Two baseline telescopes are described: one employing a 1.4-sq-m array of Xe gas imaging proportional counters to cover the 3 to 100 keV range with 1 arcmin resolution; the second using a 2.8-sq-m array of NaI/CsI imaging phoswich detectors to span the 20 keV to MeV range with 12 arcmin resolution.

Cook, W. R.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Penning gas mixtures for improving the energy resolution of proportional counters

An experimental investigation of the Penning effect in both argon and xenon has been carried out with a variety of quench gases of different ionization potentials. Acetylene with argon and trimethylamine with xenon show the strongest true Penning effect, returning very high gas gains for a given voltage and improved energy resolution over more conventional mixtures. Data for these mixtures, as well as others exhibiting weaker metastable effects, nonmetastable Penning effects, and charge transfer through photoionization, are presented.

Agrawal, P. C.↗
NASA NTRS1989

The MSFC large-area imaging multistep proportional counter

A large-area multistep imaging proportional counter that is being currently developed at the Marshall Space Flight Center is described. The device, known as a multistep fluorescence gated detector, consists of a multiwire proportional counter (MWPC) with a preamplification region. The MWCP features superior spatial resolution with a very high degree of background rejection. It is ideally suited for use in X-ray astronomy in 20-100 keV energy range. The paper includes the MWPC schematic and a list of instrument specifications.

Ramsey, B. D.↗
NASA NTRS1988

The effects of contamination on gaseous X-ray detectors

Results are presented which detail how the performance of a proportional counter degrades when oxygen is added as a contaminant. It is demonstrated that argon based gas fillings are much less sensitive to electronegative impurities than are xenon filled detectors which can show significant deterioration for contamination levels as low as 10 ppm. The data are particularly relevant to X-ray astronomy, where sealed systems must operate for long periods of time.

Ramsey, B. D.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Use of propane as a quench gas in argon-filled proportional counters and comparison with other quench gases

An experimental investigation of propane and six other quench gases was carried out in argon-filled proportional counters. The objective of the study was to find the best gas mixture for optimizing the gas gain and the energy resolution as well as to understand the role of the ionization potential of quench gases in determining these parameters. It was found that the best gas gains and energy resolutions are obtained with propane, ethane, and isobutane in that order. The ionization potentials of these three lie below the argon metastable potentials and have the lowest value of resonance defect compared to the other quench gases. The better results obtained with these mixtures can be explained by an increased ionization yield resulting from the Penning effect. Propylene and trans-2-butene give inferior performance compared to the above three gases. Methane and carbon dioxide, the most commonly used quench gases in the argon-filled detectors, provide the worst results.

Agrawal, P. C.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Quench gases for xenon- (and krypton-) filled proportional counters

Xenon-filled proportional counters are used extensively in astronomy, particularly in the hard X-ray region. The choice of quench gas can have a significant effect on the operating characteristics of the instrument although the data necessary to make the choice are not easily obtainable. Results which detail the performance obtained from both cylindrical and parallel field geometries for a wide variety of readily available, ultrahigh or research grade purity, quench gases are presented.

Ramsey, B. D.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Gas mixtures for X-ray proportional counters

Results are presented which detail the performance of proportional counters when filled with a wide variety of argon- and xenon-based gas mixtures. It is shown that alternative gas mixtures can offer considerable advantages in the counters. The mixtures of argon plus 10 percent propane and xenon plus 10 percent propylene look particularly attractive in terms of operating voltage and energy resolution. The quench gas CO2 returns the poorest results in all areas except aging.

Ramsey, B. D.↗