Angular response of ‘pin-hole’ imaging structure measured by collimated β source

The pitch-angle distribution of energetic particles is important for space physics studies on magnetic storm and particle acceleration.A‘pin-hole’imaging structure is built with the‘pin-hole’technique and a position sensitive detector,which can be used to measure the pitch angle distribution of energetic particles.To calibrate the angular response of the‘pin-hole’imaging structure,special experiment facilities are needed,such as the particle accelerator with special design.The features of this kind of particle accelerator are:1)The energy range of the outgoing particles should be mid-energy particles(tens keV to several hundred keV);2)the particle flux should be consistent in time-scale;3)the directions of the outgoing particles should be the same and 4)the particle number within the spot should be low enough.In this paper,a method to calibrate the angular response of the‘pin-hole’imaging structure by the90Sr/90Y β source with a collimator is introduced and simulated by Geant4 software.The result of the calibration with the collimated β source is in accord with the Geant4 simulations,which verifies the validity of this method.