X-ray observation of celestial objects using the X-ray CCD

摘要

X-ray CCDs are now widely used in the X-ray astronomy satellite. They have good energy resolution as well as good spatial resolution. ASCA, the first X-ray astronomy satellite carrying a photon-count X-ray CCD, employed a CCD that had 420×422 pixels with 35 μm thick depletion layer. The following satellites employ advanced CCDs, with thick depletion layer and large imaging area. Chandra obtained a very high quality image in X-rays while Newton achieved a large effective area. Suzaku can observe a relatively low energy region with good energy resolution. One of the disadvantageous points of the CCD is that the read-out speed is relatively slow in order to achieve low noise level.