arXiv subjects

Vivek R. Subramanian

Publications and source records attributed to Vivek R. Subramanian.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

HEL1OS -- A Hard X-ray Spectrometer on Board Aditya-L1

HEL1OS (High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer) is one of the remote sensing payloads on board Aditya-L1 mission designed to continuously monitor and measure the time-resolved spectra of solar flares between 8 keV and 150 keV. This broad energy range has been covered by using compound semiconductor detectors: cadmium telluride (CdTe: 8 - 70 keV) and cadmium zinc telluride (CZT: 20 - 150 keV) with geometric areas of 0.5 cm$^2$ and 32 cm$^2$, respectively. A stainless steel collimator provides a field-of-view of 6$^\circ$ $\times$ 6$^\circ$ optimized to limit the off-axis response while keeping the design within the instrument mass constraints. The in-house designed low-noise digital pulse processing-based front-end electronics has achieved a spectral resolution of $\approx$ 1 keV at 14 keV (CdTe) and $\approx$ 7 keV at 60 keV (CZT). The instrument is also equipped with processing and power electronics to process the signal, drive the electronics, bias the detectors with required low and high voltages for optimal performance of the overall system. In this article, we present design aspects of the instrument, results from the pre-launch ground-based tests, and the in-orbit operations, which have indicated optimal performance in line with that expected.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2019

Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) On-board Chandrayaan-2 Rover -- Pragyan

Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) is one of the two scientific experiments on Chandrayaan-2 rover named as Pragyan. The primary scientific objective of APXS is to determine the elemental composition of the lunar surface in the surrounding regions of the landing site. This will be achieved by employing the technique of X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy using in-situ excitation source Cm-244 emitting both X-rays and alpha particles. These radiations excite characteristic X-rays of the elements by the processes of particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF). The characteristic X-rays are detected by the state-of-the-art X-ray detector known as Silicon Drift Detector (SDD), which provides high energy resolution as well as high efficiency in the energy range of 1 to 25 keV. This enables APXS to detect all major rock forming elements such as, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti and Fe. The Flight Model (FM) of the APXS payload has been completed and tested for various instrument parameters. The APXS provides energy resolution of 135 eV at 5.9 keV for the detector operating temperature of about -35 deg C. The design details and the performance measurement of APXS are presented in this paper.

astro-ph.IM↗