Simulating the optical performances of the ATHENA x-ray telescope optics

Sironi, G.; Spiga, D.; Ferreira, Desiree Della Monica; Ferreira, Ivo; Bavdaz, Marcos; Knudsen, Erik Bergbäck; Bianucci, Giovanni; Christensen, Finn Erland; Collon, Maximilien J.; Marioni, Fabio; Pareschi, G.; Jagers, Arne 'S; Salmaso, B.; Shortt, Brian; Tagliaferri, G.; Vacanti, Giuseppe; Conconi, P.; Valsecchi, Giuseppe; Westergaard, N. J.; Wille, Eric; Massahi, Sonny

doi:10.1117/12.2315019

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 7 publications

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“…The NuSTAR telescope 6 is characterized by an essentially lower angular resolution of 58 arc sec; however, it has an extremely large effective area of 2400 cm 2 . The Athena telescope, 7 which is under development for launch in ∼2030, will have an unprecedented effective area of 14;000 cm 2 at 1 keV.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative study of single-layer, bilayer, and trilayer mirrors with enhanced x-ray reflectance in 0.5- to 8-keV energy region

Yang

Huang

Кожевников

et al. 2020

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst.

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Effective area is one of the most important parameters of x-ray telescopes. It can be increased by enlarging the entrance aperture or maximizing the reflectivity through the proper designing and optimization of the reflecting coating. A method to increase the reflectivity of grazing incidence x-ray mirrors in the 0.5-to 8-keV energy region is analyzed. The idea consists in the use of a trilayer reflecting coating instead of single-layer one (e.g., C/Ni/Pt mirror instead of Pt one). Deposition of low-absorbing medium-Z and low-Z layers onto the top of strongly absorbing high-Z material results in essential increase in the reflectivity while keeping the same width of the reflectivity plateau. In particular, C/Ni/Pt trilayer mirror demonstrates enhancement of the double reflection coefficient by a factor achieving 1.5 to 3.5 compared to that of Pt-coated mirror. The effective area of a telescope is also considerably increased. The experimental results are in a very good agreement with the theoretical predictions. In addition, the C/Ni/Pt trilayer mirror exhibits a reasonable thermal stability and a relatively low compressive stress of about −550 MPa. © 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.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative study of single-layer, bilayer, and trilayer mirrors with enhanced x-ray reflectance in 0.5- to 8-keV energy region

Yang

Huang

Кожевников

et al. 2020

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst.

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Silicon pore optics: a highly configurable modular x-ray mirror technology

Keek,

McNamara,

Barrière

et al. 2024

Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray

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Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) was developed for light-weight X-ray telescopes with a large collecting area. Using technology from the semiconductor industry, thin mirror plates are produced from silicon wafers, and combined into modules. A large number of co-aligned modules forms the aperture. SPO enables ESA's next-generation flagship observatory NewAthena. In addition, it offers a large degree of customization. We discuss how SPO can be optimized for a mission by altering the properties of the plates and the configuration of the modules. This includes the membrane thickness and the spacing of the support-ribs of the plates. Multi-layer coatings optimize the effective area as a function of photon energy. A challenge is presented by the fixed height of the ribs, which is set by the thickness of the wafers from which the plates are made. For telescopes with a relatively short focal length, the fixed height leads to short mirror plates. Nevertheless, with a large number of modules, the total effective area may still be substantial. An avenue for future development could be to double the rib height. In addition to the properties of the mirror plates, the placement of the modules is customizable as well. For NewAthena, the modules are arranged in concentric rings, as an approximation of nested shells. On the other hand, the proposed NASA mission Arcus places its SPO modules in two sections ("petals"), which yield a substantially reduced cross-PSF. Therefore, the configurability of SPO makes it an attractive Xray optics technology for a wide range of applications.

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Simulating the optical performances of the ATHENA x-ray telescope optics

Cited by 2 publications

References 7 publications

Comparative study of single-layer, bilayer, and trilayer mirrors with enhanced x-ray reflectance in 0.5- to 8-keV energy region

Comparative study of single-layer, bilayer, and trilayer mirrors with enhanced x-ray reflectance in 0.5- to 8-keV energy region

Silicon pore optics: a highly configurable modular x-ray mirror technology

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