Optimization of the Electron Spectrometer Telescope geometry for the PRESET satellite through Monte Carlo simulation

Abstract

The Electron Spectrometer Telescope (EST) aboard the PRESET satellite mission aims to measure the pitch angle distribution of 0.3–4 MeV electrons in the outer Van Allen belts. The PRESET satellite is planned to launch into a sun-synchronous low Earth orbit in Q2, 2026. We present comprehensive Monte Carlo simulations to optimize the design and response of the EST instrument. The EST consists of a stack of silicon strip detectors and a collimator to take pitch-angle dependent electron spectral measurements with a target angular resolution of 6° while rejecting the proton, heavy ion and gamma detection events. Various collimator designs and detector stacking configurations are investigated using the Geant4 code to deduce an optimal design and configuration. For validation of the Geant4 simulations, a benchmark test spectrometer was set up using a stack of four silicon detectors and a good agreement between the measured and simulated responses was found for a beta spectrum from a ⁹⁰Sr/⁹⁰Y source. The collimator design was optimized by adjusting total length, aperture size, number of view-ports and collimator materials. The optimum aperture size and the number of view-ports were determined by varying them and selecting the best cases that meet the angular resolution and the geometric factor requirements. Moreover, to address the under-utilization of the front position-sensitive detector encountered in a typical pin-hole collimator, two offset collimators with tilted axes were employed. Extensive simulations were carried out by varying the number of silicon detectors and the thickness of each detector to optimize the configuration of the silicon detector stack. An optimum thickness of the front detector was found to be 140 µm, which can minimize the perturbation counts caused by the proton detection events. For the other detectors, a stack of four 1.5 mm thick detectors was chosen to achieve a good sensitivity to low energy electrons at a tolerable complexity of the system. The angular response simulated for the optimum design of the EST showed a resolution of 5.5°, which is slightly better than the target resolution of 6°. The response matrices of the final design simulated for isotropic electron and proton fields showed a high geometric factor, which is expected to produce an average electron counting rate of 230 cps within the trapped region with a negligible contamination of the electron spectrum by protons except for a mild contamination by the 1.0–1.1 MeV protons.