Strontium Iodide Radiation Instrument (SIRI) – Early On-Orbit Results

The Strontium Iodide Radiation Instrument (SIRI) is a single detector, gamma-ray spectrometer designed to space-qualify the new scintillation detector material europium-doped strontium iodide (SrI2:Eu) and new silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) technology. SIRI covers the energy range from .04 - 8 MeV and was launched into 600 km sun-synchronous orbit on Dec 3, 2018 onboard STPSat-5 with a one-year mission to investigate the detector’s response to on-orbit background radiation. The detector has an active volume of 11.6 cm3 and a photo fraction efficiency of 50% at 662 keV for gamma-rays parallel to the long axis of the crystal. Its spectroscopic resolution of 4.3% was measured by the full-width-half-maximum of the characteristic Cs-137 gamma-ray line at 662 keV. Measured background rates external to the trapped particle regions are 40-50 counts per second for energies greater than 40 keV and are largely the result of short- and long-term activation products generated by transits of the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) and the continual cosmic-ray bombardment. Rate maps determined from energy cuts of the collected spectral data show the expected contributions from the various trapped particle regions. Early spectra acquired by the instrument show the presence of at least 10 characteristic gamma-ray lines and a beta continuum generated by activation products within the detector and surrounding materials. As of April 2019, the instrument has acquired over 1000 hours of data and is expected to continue operations until the space vehicle is decommissioned in Dec. 2019. Results indicate SrI 2 :Eu provides a feasible alternative to traditional sodium iodide and cesium iodide scintillators, especially for missions where a factor-of-two improvement in energy resolution would represent a significant difference in scientific return. To the best of our knowledge, SIRI is the first on-orbit use of SrI 2 :Eu scintillator with SiPM readouts.