A study of focusing telescopes for soft gamma rays

A study is presented on the feasibility of using Bragg diffraction from crystals to focus soft gamma-rays in the energy range up to 2 MeV. For astrophysics this band contains several very interesting gamma-ray lines from novae, supernovae and X- and gamma-ray transients.The study concludes that, in the energy range between 300 and 1300 keV, a Bragg-telescope with a focal length of about 50 meters could achieve a sensitivity for point sources which is between 5 and 10 times better than that currently expected for the ESA/NASA INTEGRAL-mission/1/. In addition, the angular resolution of the Bragg telescope would also be an order of magnitude better. Despite the large physical dimensions of the telescope, its feasibility does not seem out of reach. The requirements do not go appreciably beyond those of other scientific projects which have been studied and found technically feasible by ESA and NASA /2, 3/. The Bragg-telescope therefore may become the logical next step in soft gamma-ray astronomy following a sensitive survey project like INTEGRAL.