MeVCube: a 6U CubeSat concept for MeV observations

Despite the great success achieved by X-ray and gamma-ray observatories in the last two decades, the energy range between few hundreds keV and few MeVs remains poorly explored. COMPTEL, on board CGRO (1991- 2000), was the last telescope to explore the MeV domain, with a modest sensitivity. Many missions, like AMEGO, HERMES and ETCC have been proposed, in order to fill this gap in observations. However, the time-scale for development and launch of such big missions is around 10 years. Looking at this scenario, a nano-satellite Compton telescope, with small cost and relatively short development time, may be profitable for the immediate future. MeVCube is a 6 U CubeSat concept currently under investigation at DESY. The scientific payload is based on two layers of pixelated Cadmium-Zinc-Telluride (CdZnTe) detectors, coupled with low-power read-out electronics (ASIC, VATA450.3). We demonstrate through simulations that even such a small telescope could cover the energy range between hundreds keV up to few MeVs with a sensitivity comparable to that of missions like COMPTEL and INTEGRAL. Preliminary experimental studies of CdZnTe detectors with a custom pixelated anode design and read-out electronics are presented as well.