Detection of gamma ray polarization using a 3D position sensitive CdZnTe detector

When a polarized gamma ray photon undergoes a Compton scattering, the probability to scatter at a fixed scattering angle θ depends on the azimuthal angle φ. The polarization of incident gamma rays can be measured using this effect by observing the angular distribution of scatterings. Room temperature 3-dimensional position sensitive CdZnTe detector can provide good energy resolution as well as positions of interactions, allowing to perform Compton imaging and polarization detection simultaneously. In this paper, we demonstrate that a 11×11 pixilated 15×15×10 mm³ CdZnTe detector with 3D position sensing capability can be an effective instrument to detect the polarization of incident gamma rays.