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Observing cosmic sources in the medium-energy gamma-ray regime (∼0.4 - 10 MeV) will require a highly efficient instrument with good angular resolution and background rejection. Artificial single-crystal diamond detectors (SCDDs) have comparable energy ranges, energy resolution, and threshold levels as traditional silicon solidstate detectors (SSDs), but with faster rise times, improved radiation hardness, and insensitivity to light and temperature. CeBr3 scintillator is a high density, high Z material with fast rise times and good energy resolution make it a promising gamma-ray calorimeter. This work outlines ongoing work at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) to develop readout and data acquisition electronics to characterize SCDDs. Additionally, work is ongoing at Los Alamos National Laboratory to characterize CeBr3 scintillator detectors that are read out with silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) and recorded via an off the shelf ASIC system (TOFPET ASIC), developed for timeof-flight (ToF) positron emission tomography. The ultimate goal of the project is to individually characterize SCDDs and CeBr3 and bring them together to form a prototype Compton telescope, which will benchmark simulations of a functional diamond Compton telescope and predict the sensitivity of an optimized instrument for a satellite platform.
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