X‐ray mirrors are usually built in the Wolter I (paraboloid–hyperboloid) configuration. This design exhibits no spherical aberration on‐axis but suffers from field curvature, coma and astigmatism, therefore, the angular resolution degrades rapidly with increasing off‐axis angles. Different mirror designs exist in which the primary and secondary mirror profiles are expanded as a power series in order to increase the angular resolution at large off‐axis positions, at the expanses of the on‐axis performances. Here we present the design and global trade off study of an X‐ray mirror systems based on polynomial optics in view of the Wide Field X‐ray Telescope (WFXT) mission. WFXT aims at performing an extended cosmological survey in the soft X‐ray band with unprecedented flux sensitivity. To achieve these goals the angular resolution required for the mission is very demanding, 5 arcsec mean resolution across a 1 field of view. In addition an effective area of 5–9000 cm2 at 1 keV is needed.

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X-ray telescopes with very large collecting area, like the proposed International X-ray Observatory (IXO, with around 3 m 2 at 1 keV), need to be composed of a large number high quality mirror segments, aiming at achieving an angular resolution better than 5 arcsec HEW (Half-Energy-Width). A possible technology to manufacture the modular elements that will compose the entire optical module, named X-ray Optical Units (XOUs), consists of stacking in Wolter-I configuration several layers of thin foils of borosilicate glass, previously formed by hot slumping. The XOUs are subsequently assembled to form complete multi-shell optics with Wolter-I geometry. The achievable global angular resolution of the optic relies on the required surface shape accuracy of slumped foils, on the smoothness of the mirror surfaces and on the correct integration and co-alignment of the mirror segments. The Brera Astronomical Observatory (INAF-OAB) is leading a study, supported by ESA, concerning the implementation of the IXO telescopes based on thin slumped glass foils. In addition to the opto-mechanical design, the study foresees the development of a direct hot slumping thin glass foils production technology. Moreover, an innovative assembly concept making use of Wolter-I counter-form moulds and glass reinforcing ribs is under development. The ribs connect pairs of consecutive foils in an XOU stack, playing a structural and a functional role. In fact, as the ribs constrain the foil profile to the correct shape during the bonding, they damp the low-frequency profile errors still present on the foil after slumping. A dedicated semirobotic Integration MAchine (IMA) has been realized to this scope and used to build a few integrated prototypes made of several layers of slumped plates. In this paper we provide an overview of the project, we report the results achieved so far, including full illumination intra-focus X-ray tests of the last integrated prototype that are compliant with a HEW of around 17''.

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The optics of a number of future X-ray telescopes will have very long focal lengths (10 -20 m), and will consist of a number of nested/stacked thin, grazing-incidence mirrors. The optical quality characterization of a real mirror can be obtained via profile metrology, and the Point Spread Function of the mirror can be derived via one of the standard computation methods. However, in practical cases it can be difficult to access the optical surfaces of densely stacked mirror shells, after they have been assembled, using the widespread metrological tools. For this reason, the assessment of the imaging resolution of a system of mirrors is better obtained via a direct, full-illumination test in X-rays. If the focus cannot be reached, an intra-focus test can be performed, and the image can be compared with the simulation results based on the metrology, if available. However, until today no quantitative information was extracted from a full-illumination, intra-focal exposure. In this work we show that, if the detector is located at an optimal distance from the mirror, the intensity variations of the intra-focal, full-illumination image in single reflection can be used to reconstruct the profile of the mirror surface, without the need of a wavefront sensor. The Point Spread Function can be subsequently computed from the reconstructed mirror shape. We show the application of this method to an intra-focal (8 m distance from mirror) test performed at PANTER on an optical module prototype made of hot-slumped glass foils with a 20 m focal length, from which we could derive an expected imaging quality near 16 arcsec HEW.

In this paper we present the "Characterization Universal Profilometer" (CUP), a new metrological instrument developed at the Brera Observatory for the 3D surface figure mapping of X-ray segmented mirrors. The CUP working principle is based on the measure of the the distance between the surface under test from a rigid reference dish. This approach is made possible by the coupled use of two sensors, the CHRocodile® optical device and the SIOS triple beam interferometer, mounted onto a proper system of x-y-z stage of translators. In this paper we describe the working principle of the new instrument. We will also present the results of the commissioning performed for a CUP breadboard developed at the Brera Observatory. The CUP offers the possibility to perform an high accuracy metrology of thin glass segments produced via hot slumping, to be used in future segmented X-ray mirrors like those foreseen aboard IXO or other projects that will make use of active X-ray mirrors.

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The mirrors of the International X-ray Observatory (IXO) were based on of a large number of high quality segments, aiming at achieving a global spatial resolution better than 5 arcsec (HEW). A study concerning the slumping of thin glass foils for the IXO mirrors is under development in Europe, funded by ESA and led by the Brera Observatory and is continuing even after that the programhas been descoped, in the perspective of using the technology under development for other future missions. After a preliminary trade-off study, we have focused our the effort on the "Direct" slumping approach, based on the use of convex moulds. In this case during the thermal cycle the optical surface of the glass is in direct contact with the mould surface. The thin plates are made of thin glass sheets (0.4 mm thick), with a reflecting area of 200 mm x 200 mm. The adopted integration process foresees the use of reinforcing ribs for bonding together the plates and forming in that way a rigid and stiff stack of segmented mirror shells; the stack is supported by a thick backplane. During the bonding process the plates are constrained to stay in close contact with the surface of the master (i.e. the same mould used for the hot slumping process) by the application of vacuum pump suction. In this way the spring-back deformations and low frequency errors still present on the foil profile after slumping can be corrected. In this paper we will give an overview and a status report of the project.