Simulations of the X-ray imaging capabilities of the Silicon Drift Detectors (SDD) for the LOFT Wide Field Monitor

TL;DR

This paper presents detailed simulations of Silicon Drift Detectors' X-ray imaging capabilities for the LOFT Wide Field Monitor, optimizing detector design and demonstrating performance in the 2-50 keV range.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive simulation-based analysis of SDD imaging performance for LOFT's Wide Field Monitor, aiding in detector optimization.

Findings

Optimized detector parameters for improved imaging.

Demonstrated effective imaging performance in 2-50 keV range.

Validated detector design through extensive simulations.

Abstract

The Large Observatory For X-ray Timing (LOFT), selected by ESA as one of the four Cosmic Vision M3 candidate missions to undergo an assessment phase, will revolutionize the study of compact objects in our galaxy and of the brightest supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei. The Large Area Detector (LAD), carrying an unprecedented effective area of 10 m^2, is complemented by a coded-mask Wide Field Monitor, in charge of monitoring a large fraction of the sky potentially accessible to the LAD, to provide the history and context for the sources observed by LAD and to trigger its observations on their most interesting and extreme states. In this paper we present detailed simulations of the imaging capabilities of the Silicon Drift Detectors developed for the LOFT Wide Field Monitor detection plane. The simulations explore a large parameter space for both the detector design and the environmental conditions, allowing us to optimize the detector characteristics and demonstrating the X-ray imaging performance of the large-area SDDs in the 2-50 keV energy band.