Abstract

Recent advances in imaging techniques and position-sensitive γ-ray detectors have made feasible hard x-ray and γ-ray telescopes with arc-second resolution [1]. Above an energy of 100 keV, past instrumentation has been limited to a typical angular resolution of a few degrees. A γ-ray imaging device with 1 arc-second resolution would be a dramatic improvement over conventional, non-imaging instrumentation and have substantial new capabilities for observation of astrophysical γ-ray sources. The arc-second γ-ray imager is based on the Fourier transform imaging technique [2]. We briefly describe Fourier transform imaging and its application to hard x-ray and γ-ray imaging. This description is followed by an analysis of Fourier transform imaging in the statistics limited regime. Computer simulations and laboratory demonstrations of practical γ-ray imaging systems are presented.

© 1986 Optical Society of America