Lightweight thin plastic foil x-ray telescopes

Schnopper, H. W.; Barbera, Marco; Ingram, Russell H.; Christensen, Finn Erland; Romaine, Suzanne; Cohen, Lester M.; Collura, A.; Murray, Stephen S.

doi:10.1117/12.454371

Cited by 2 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Of course, the approximation of the cylinder to the ellipse has to be taken into account in the analysis of the image produced by the optic. Figure 6 shows an example of an image taken with a single shell plastic film optic in cylindrical geometry obtained at the XACT facility 21 . Given the extreme utility of performing tests on cylindrical optics during the development program of a new technology, in the upgrade of the facility we have designed and built a test chamber located at half the length of the full 35 meters long beam-line.…”

Section: X-ray Grazing Incidence Opticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 1997, a collaboration between SAO, Cambridge, MA (H. Schnopper PI of the project), the XACT facility research group, and the Danish National Space Center, Copenhagen, started an investigation for a new thin shell technology to build X-ray telescopes 19,20,21,22,23 . Cost and mass requirements have led us to seek ways of exploiting thin plastic foils that are manufactured in a wide variety of industrial applications with a combination of stretching and passing the foil over a series of highly polished rollers.…”

Section: X-ray Grazing Incidence Opticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Palermo XACT facility: a new 35 m long soft x-ray beam-line for the development and calibration of next-generation x-ray observatories

et al. 2006

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The X-ray Astronomy Calibration and Testing (XACT) facility of the Instituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) at\ud Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo has recently undergone a major upgrade with the design and construction of a 35\ud meter long vacuum beam-line operating in the soft X-rays (0.1-20 keV) and the addition of new hardware to meet the\ud requirements for testing and calibration of next generation X-ray missions. We report on the present configuration of\ud the facility and briefly survey the range of its applications

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Section: X-ray Grazing Incidence Opticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: X-ray Grazing Incidence Opticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Palermo XACT facility: a new 35 m long soft x-ray beam-line for the development and calibration of next-generation x-ray observatories

et al. 2006

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“…It has also proven to well withstand the deposition of a metallic coating and also of a multilayer. Finally, plastics with a good smoothness [10] and good thermo-mechanical properties can be selected [8], [9] . Possible geometries explored so far are the cylindrical, the conical and the spiral one.…”

Section: Thin Plastic Foil Opticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3: (left) A thin plastic foil optic with tungsten coating mounted on the spokes of a spider structure. The mandrel used for integration is also visible in the background [8] . (right) A second integration concept, in which pins constrain the surface without using epoxy resin [9] .…”

Section: Thin Plastic Foil Opticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A research that has been carried out in parallel for the development of lightweight focusing mirrors is based on the technology of plastic foils [7], [8], [9] , carried out by a collaboration between SAO, Palermo University, INAF/OAPA, DSRI. Also in this case the plastic material is flexible and lightweight, so it can be easily formed to build a focusing shape.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Active shape correction of a thin glass/plastic x-ray mirror

et al. 2014

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Optics for future X-ray telescopes will be characterized by very large aperture and focal length, and will be made of lightweight materials like glass or plastic in order to keep the total mass within acceptable limits. Optics based on thin slumped glass foils are currently in use in the NuSTAR telescope and are being developed at various institutes like INAF/OAB, aiming at improving the angular resolution to a few arcsec HEW. Another possibility would be the use of thin plastic foils, being developed at SAO and the Palermo University. Even if relevant progresses in the achieved angular resolution were recently made, a viable possibility to further improve the mirror figure would be the application of piezoelectric actuators onto the non-optical side of the mirrors. In fact, thin mirrors are prone to deform, so they require a careful integration to avoid deformations and even correct forming errors. This however offers the possibility to actively correct the residual deformation. Even if other groups are already at work on this idea, we are pursuing the concept of active integration of thin glass or plastic foils with piezoelectric patches, fed by voltages driven by the feedback provided by X-rays, in intra-focal setup at the XACT facility at INAF/OAPA. In this work, we show the preliminary simulations and the first steps taken in this project

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Lightweight thin plastic foil x-ray telescopes

Cited by 2 publications

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The Palermo XACT facility: a new 35 m long soft x-ray beam-line for the development and calibration of next-generation x-ray observatories

The Palermo XACT facility: a new 35 m long soft x-ray beam-line for the development and calibration of next-generation x-ray observatories

Active shape correction of a thin glass/plastic x-ray mirror

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