SIMBAD references

The polarization measurements in X-rays offer a unique opportunity for the study of physical processes under the extreme conditions prevalent at compact X-ray sources, including gravitation, magnetic field, and temperature. Unfortunately, there has been no real progress in observational X-ray polarimetry thus far. Although photoelectron tracking-based X-ray polarimeters provide realistic prospects of polarimetric observations, they are effective in the soft X-rays only. With the advent of hard X-ray optics, it has become possible to design sensitive X-ray polarimeters in hard X-rays based on Compton scattering. An important point that should be carefully considered for the Compton polarimeters is the lower energy threshold of the active scatterer, which typically consists of a plastic scintillator due to its lowest effective atomic number. Therefore, an accurate understanding of the plastic scintillators energy threshold is essential to make a realistic estimate of the energy range and sensitivity of any Compton polarimeter. In this context, we set up an experiment to investigate the plastic scintillators behavior for very low energy deposition events. The experiment involves the detection of Compton scattered photons from a long, thin, plastic scintillator (a similar configuration as the eventual Compton polarimeter) by a high resolution CdTe detector at different scattering angles. We find that it is possible to detect energy deposition well below 1 keV, though with decreasing efficiency. We present detailed semianalytical modeling of our experimental setup and discuss the results in the context of the energy range and sensitivity of the Compton polarimeter involving plastic scintillators.