Nome
GLOSS: Gamma-ray Laue Optics and Solid State detectors (PRODEX Experiment Arrangement No. 4000136945)

Código
4000136945 GLOSS

Entidade Beneficiária

LIP - Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas

Sumário do Projecto

Knowing LEO (Low Earth Orbit) environment effects on future gamma-ray telescopes components, mainly on detectors and focusing systems, is essential to design instruments with adequate radiation hardness during the mission’s lifetime and with optimized signal-to-noise ratio by minimizing orbital background noise. The investigation of the radiation damage, i.e., displacement and ionizing damage, and the ageing effects of different instrument’s materials on the operational performance in real in-orbit conditions allow estimating the effective lifetime of instrument components developed for high-energy astrophysics’ space missions: e.g., the Advanced Surveyor of Transient Events and Nuclear Astrophysics (ASTENA) and the All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory (AMEGO), respectively a Voyage 2050 ESA Programme mission concept, and a Probe-class mission proposal joining Europe and NASA. The materials to be studied are Ge and Si Laue lens crystals and CdZnTe (CZT) detector elements, materials already proposed for the Laue lens and focal plane, respectively, of the Narrow Field Telescope (NFT) onboard ASTENA and the CZT AMEGO calorimeter. Several samples of these materials will be part of an experiment in the Euro Material Ageing (EMA) Facility on the Bartolomeo module onboard the ISS, approved by ESA/CNES at the end of 2020 (proposal nº AO-2020-EMA-138). The project’s objectives are: - Uncover new data on material’s ageing for the Si/Ge based Laue lens systems in LEOs; - Improve the quality and the accuracy of the data on material’s ageing for the CZT based detectors in LEOs. GLOSS project is coordinated by LIP with the participation of Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF, Italy), the Istituto dei Materiali per l'Elettronica e il Magnetismo (IMEM, Italy), the University of Coimbra (UC, Portugal), the University of Beira Interior (UBI, Portugal) and the University of Ferrara (UF, Italy). LIP is responsible for the project management and coordination of the tasks in different sites and countries: in Portugal at LIP/UC and UBI laboratories and Active Space facilities; in Italy at INAF, IMEM, and UF, at ESA ESTEC sites facilities. LIP will coordinate the experiment, being responsible for the tests with the CZT samples based detectors, and the scientific conclusions and their dissemination. The main project tasks organized as work-packages (WP) are summarized below. Crystals’ sample manufacturing WP1 task will be performed and funded in Italy and coordinated by our Italian partners, with a consulting role of LIP in the samples’ configuration design, while WP2 up to WP5 tasks will be coordinated by LIP. Concerning Ge/Si Laue lens crystals’ tests the WP3 and WP5 tasks will be coordinated and funded by our partners from UF and IMEM in Italy, with LIP participation when the lens crystals will be tested together with a LIP CZT prototype.   WP1: Crystals Manufacturing - Manufacture Ge/Si Laue lens crystals and CZT detector crystals in suitable supports that address EMA requirements for backup and flight samples. WP2: Orbital Radiation and Thermal Simulations - Perform radiation and thermal simulations to estimate the orbital protons displacement damage and ionizing damage doses in samples, and the temperature gradient within the samples. WP3: Pre-flight and Characterization Tests - Analyze the properties of CZT detector samples similar to the CZT flight samples to estimate the pre-flight conditions and compare them with the samples’ properties after the flight. WP4: ISS Data Monitoring - Monitor temperature, radiation dose, and the atomic oxygen concentration during ISS samples flight. WP5: Post-flight Tests - Analyze the properties of the CZT flight samples after being exposed to the ISS LEO and compare them with pre-flight samples’ properties. WP6: Communication and Dissemination. The exposition of the materials to the LEO-ISS environment, in particular the combined effects of the proton radiation field and the in-orbit thermal cycles, will be fundamental to engage new strategies to design: - The Ge/Si based Laue lens systems, encompassing the additional support and fixing materials and, for instance, the necessary Laue lens temperature control system; - The CZT based detection systems, including electrical contacts and surface passivation materials.   Furthermore, we expect to unveil the following questions:  - Which is the actual effect of the extreme thermal cycling in combination with proton-induced damage on Ge/Si based Laue lens systems? - Which is the actual effect of the natural annealing cycles in combination with proton-induced damage on 3D CZT based detection systems?

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