Improved release coatings for electroformed x-ray optics

Abstract

X-ray astronomy grazing incidence telescopes use the principle of nested shells to maximize the collecting area. Some of the more recent missions, such as XMM-Newton [1], have used an electroformed nickel replication (ENR) process [2] to fabricate the mirror shells. Upcoming missions, such as Spectrum-Röntgen-Gamma [3] and Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager [4] , also use the electroforming process to fabricate nested shell grazing incidence X-ray telescopes.We present recent results on fabrication of replicas with multilayer coatings from Wolter-1 mandrels using a new hardcoat release material to simplify and improve this electroforming process.

Extreme-ultraviolet Stellar Characterization for Atmospheric Physics and Evolution mission: motivation and overview

“…This is known as electro-formed nickel replication, the same mirror technology used for IXPE, XMM-Newton, FOXSI, MaGIXS, and other NASA flight programs. Both telescope optics are coated with 20 nm of zirconium in the coating facilities at SAO (Romaine et al, 2011). 96 Zirconium has excellent performance at critical ESCAPE wavelengths and is widely used for thin film applications.…”

“…Both telescope optics are coated with 20 nm of zirconium in the coating facilities at SAO (Romaine et al, 2011). 96 Zirconium has excellent performance at critical ESCAPE wavelengths and is widely used for thin film applications.…”

Fabrication and testing of high-performance all-metal neutron guides and axisymmetric mirrors by electrochemical replication

“…In order to coat the inner surface, we have actually coated the mandrel with multilayers. After electroforming the mandrel the multilayers then separate with the replicated mirror [17], [18]. The multilayer-coated mirror was then separated from the mandrel and tested as described below.…”

“…Axisymmetric focusing mirrors have been demonstrated to potentially increase the performance of neutron imaging [10]- [14] and SANS instruments [15], [16]. Coating small radii axisymmetric mirrors with Ni/Ti multilayers requires a special process that we have developed and applied here [17], [18]. We achieved a high-quality m-1.9 neutron supermirror on the inner surface of a 30-mm-diameter conical frustum (45 mm height).…”

Thermal stability and separation characteristics of anti-sticking layers of Pt/Cr films for the hot slumping technique

“…In Section 3, sample 3 film was found to be the most suitable anti-sticking layer to successfully separate the mould and the glass. In the process of hot slumping, a proper temperature curve needs to be selected for the hot slumping thermal cycle [25]. The maximum temperature is one of the crucial parameters that has to be optimized to obtain a figured glass with low mid-spatial-frequency (MSF) error and high stability.…”