We have developed a pixellated high energy X-ray detector instrument to be used in a variety of imaging applications. The instrument consists of either a Cadmium Zinc Telluride or Cadmium Telluride (Cd(Zn)Te) detector bump-bonded to a large area ASIC and packaged with a high performance data acquisition system. The 80 by 80 pixels each of 250 μm by 250 μm give better than 1 keV FWHM energy resolution at 59.5 keV and 1.5 keV FWHM at 141 keV, at the same time providing a high speed imaging performance. This system uses a relatively simple wire-bonded interconnection scheme but this is being upgraded to allow multiple modules to be used with very small dead space. The readout system and the novel interconnect technology is described and how the system is performing in several target applications.

Lynx, one of the four strategic mission concepts under study for the 2020 Astrophysics Decadal Survey, provides leaps in capability over previous and planned x-ray missions and provides synergistic observations in the 2030s to a multitude of space-and ground-based observatories across all wavelengths. Lynx provides orders of magnitude improvement in sensitivity, on-axis subarcsecond imaging with arcsecond angular resolution over a large field of view, and high-resolution spectroscopy for point-like and extended sources in the 0.2-to 10-keV range. The Lynx architecture enables a broad range of unique and compelling science to be carried out mainly through a General Observer Program. This program is envisioned to include detecting the very first seed black holes, revealing the high-energy drivers of galaxy formation and evolution, and characterizing the mechanisms that govern stellar evolution and stellar ecosystems. The Lynx optics and science instruments are carefully designed to optimize the science capability and, when combined, form an exciting architecture that utilizes relatively mature technologies for a cost that is compatible with the projected NASA Astrophysics budget. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

We present new Chandra X-ray observations of the luminous and cosmologicallysignificant X-ray cluster of galaxies, MS0451.6-0305, at z = 0.5386. Spectral imaging data for the cluster are consistent with an isothermal cluster of (10.0 − 10.6) ± 1.6 keV, with an intracluster Fe abundance of (0.32−0.40)±0.13 solar. The systematic uncertainties, arising from calibration and model uncertainties, of the temperature determination are nearly the same size as the statistical uncertainties, since the time-dependent correction for absorption on the detector is uncertain for these data. We discuss the effects of this correction on the spectral fitting. The effects of statistics and fitting assumptions of 2-D models for the X-ray surface brightness are thoroughly explored. This cluster appears to be elongated and so we quantify the effects of assuming an ellipsoidal gas distribution on the gas mass and the total gravitating mass estimates. These data are also jointly fit with previous Sunyaev-Zel'dovich observations to obtain an estimate of the cluster's distance (D A = 1219 +340 −288 ± 387 Mpc, statistical followed by systematic uncertainties) assuming spherical symmetry. If we, instead, assume a Hubble constant, All of the processing, calibration, and much of the analysis and extraction of the X-ray data were done with Chandra Interactive Analysis of Observations (CIAO) v2.2.1 and v2.2.3 packages 2 along with the calibration database (CALDB) available from the Chandra X-ray Center (CXC); spectra were analyzed with the XSPEC 3 v11.1 (Arnaud 1996). For this paper, the names of the CIAO packages will be italicized. Since the interpretation of X-ray data depends on the maturity of the calibration, we report version numbers when available and release dates otherwise.The name of the original processing implemented by the CXC was R4CU5UPD11, so we reprocessed the Level 1 event files with the gain files from CALDB v2.10 using acis process events with the appropriate bad pixel files. The level 1 events were filtered with the standard good time intervals supplied by the pipeline, and then filtered to admit only ASCA grades 0, 2, 3, 4, and 6, and "clean" status (= 0) events. The plate scale for the unbinned data is 0. ′′ 4920 per detector pixel. The aspect for this observation required a very small correction of ∆RA = −0.63 ′′ and ∆Dec = −0.58 ′′ . A typical absolute astrometric uncertainty in a Chandra ACIS-S observation is about 1.0 ′′ but it can be as large as 3.0 ′′ relative to astrometric standards in the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRS) and Hipparcos (the Tycho2 catalog). 4Spectral analysis was performed in Pulse Invariant (PI) space (i.e., after the instrument gains 2

Future NASA X-ray spectroscopy missions will require high throughput, high resolution grating spectrometers. Off-plane reflection gratings are capable of meeting the performance requirements needed to realize the scientific goals of these missions. We have identified a novel grating fabrication method that utilizes common lithographic and microfabrication techniques to produce the high fidelity groove profile necessary to achieve this performance. Application of this process has produced an initial pre-master that exhibits a radial (variable line spacing along the groove dimension), high density (>6000 grooves/mm), laminar profile. This pre-master has been tested for diffraction efficiency at the BESSY II synchrotron light facility and diffracts up to 55% of incident light into usable spectral orders. Furthermore, tests of spectral resolving power show that these gratings are capable of obtaining resolutions well above 1300 ($\lambda/\Delta\lambda$) with limitations due to the test apparatus, not the gratings. Obtaining these results has provided confidence that this fabrication process is capable of producing off-plane reflection gratings for the next generation of X-ray observatories.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, Submitted to Experimetal Astronom

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