Low Energy Response of a Prototype Detector Array for the PoGO Astronomical Hard X-ray Polarimeter

The Polarized Gamma-ray Observer (PoGO) is a new balloon-borne instrument designed to measure polarization from astrophysical objects in the 30−200 keV range. It is under development for the first flight anticipated in 2008. PoGO is designed to minimize the background by an improved phoswich configuration, which enables a detection of 10 % polarization in a 100 mCrab source in a 6−8 hour observation. To achieve such high sensitivity, low energy response of the detector is important because the source count rate is generally dominated by the lowest energy photons. We have developed new PMT assemblies specifically designed for PoGO to read-out weak scintillation light of one photoelectron (1 p.e.) level. A beam test of a prototype detector array was conducted at the KEK Photon Factory, Tsukuba in Japan. The experimental data confirm that PoGO can detect polarization of 80−85 % polarized beam down to 30 keV with a modulation factor 0.25 ± 0.05