Hard X-Ray Detector (HXD) on Board Suzaku

Abstract The Hard X-ray Detector (HXD) on board Suzaku covers a wide energy range from 10 keV to 600 keV by the combination of silicon PIN diodes and GSO scintillators. The HXD is designed to achieve an extremely low in-orbit background based on a combination of new techniques, including the concept of a well-type active shield counter. With an effective area of $142 \,\mathrm{cm}^{2}$ at 20 keV and $273 \,\mathrm{cm}^{2}$ at 150 keV, the background level at sea level reached $\sim 1 \times 10^{-5} \,\mathrm{cts} \,\mathrm{s}^{-1} \,\mathrm{cm}^{-2} \,\mathrm{keV}^{-1}$ at 30 keV for the PIN diodes, and $\sim 2 \times 10^{-5} \,\mathrm{cts} \,\mathrm{s}^{-1} \,\mathrm{cm}^{-2} \,\mathrm{keV}^{-1}$ at 100 keV,…