Hard X-ray Detector (HXD) on Board Suzaku

T. Takahashi, K. Abe, M. Endo, Y. Endo, Y. Ezoe, Y. Fukazawa, M. Hamaya, S. Hirakuri, S. Hong, M. Horii, H. Inoue, N. Isobe, T. Itoh, N. Iyomoto, T. Kamae, D. Kasama, J. Kataoka, H. Kato, M. Kawaharada, N. Kawano, K. Kawashima, S. Kawasoe, T. Kishishita, T. Kitaguchi, Y. Kobayashi, M. Kokubun, J. Kotoku, M. Kouda, A. Kubota, Y. Kuroda, G. Madejski, K. Makishima, K. Masukawa, Y. Matsumoto, T. Mitani, R. Miyawaki, T. Mizuno, K. Mori, M. Mori, M. Murashima, T. Murakami, K. Nakazawa, H. Niko, M. Nomachi, Y. Okada, M. Ohno, K. Oonuki, N. Ota, H. Ozawa, G. Sato, S. Shinoda, M. Sugiho, M. Suzuki, K. Taguchi, H. Takahashi, I. Takahashi, S. Takeda, K. Tamura, T. Tamura, T. Tanaka, C. Tanihata, M. Tashiro, Y. Terada, S. Tominaga, Y. Uchiyama, S. Watanabe, K. Yamaoka, T. Yanagida, D. Yonetoku

Published 2006-11-07Version 1

The Hard X-ray Detector (HXD) on board Suzaku covers a wide energy range from 10 keV to 600 keV by combination of silicon PIN diodes and GSO scintillators. The HXD is designed to achieve an extremely low in-orbit back ground based on a combination of new techniques, including the concept of well-type active shield counter. With an effective area of 142 cm^2 at 20 keV and 273 cm2 at 150 keV, the background level at the sea level reached ~1x10^{-5} cts s^{-1} cm^{-2} keV^{-1} at 30 keV for the PI N diodes, and ~2x10^{-5} cts s^{-1} cm^{-2} keV^{-1} at 100 keV, and ~7x10^{-6} cts s^{-1} cm^{-2} keV^{-1} at 200 keV for the phoswich counter. Tight active shielding of the HXD results in a large array of guard counters surrounding the main detector parts. These anti-coincidence counters, made of ~4 cm thick BGO crystals, have a large effective area for sub-MeV to MeV gamma-rays. They work as an excellent gamma-ray burst monitor with limited angular resolution (~5 degree). The on-board signal-processing system and the data transmitted to the ground are also described.