X-ray facility for the characterization of the Athena mirror modules at the ALBA synchrotron

Heinis, Dominique; Carballedo, Antonio; Colldelram, Carles; Cuní, Guifre; Vidal, Núria; Matilla, Oscar; Marcos, Jordi; Sánchez, Alejandro; Casas, Joan R.; Nicolás, Josep; Barrière, Nicolas M.; Collon, Maximilien J.; Vacanti, Giuseppe; Handick, Evelyn; Müller, P.; Krumrey, Michael; Ferreira, Ivo; Bavdaz, Marcos

doi:10.1117/12.2599350

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 3 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In view of the criticality of the mirror module assembly during the implementation phase, and considering the complexity of a synchrotron facility, an additional beamline is being built at the ALBA facility near Barcelona in Spain [36].…”

Section: Status Of Developmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

ATHENA optics technology development

Bavdaz¹,

Wille²,

Ayre³

et al. 2022

Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The next generation X-ray observatory ATHENA (Advanced Telescope for High ENergy Astrophysics) requires an optics with unprecedented performance. It is the combination of low mass, large effective area and good angular resolution that is the challenge of the X-ray optics of such a mission. ATHENA is the second Large Class mission in the Science Programme of ESA, and is currently in a reformulation process, following a design-to-cost approach to meet the cost limit of an ESA L-class mission.The Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) is the mission enabler being specifically developed for ATHENA, in a joint effort by industry, research institutions and ESA. All aspects of the optics are being addressed, from the mirror plates and their coatings, over the mirror modules and their assembly into the ATHENA telescope, to the facilities required to build and test the flight optics, demonstrating performance, robustness, and programmatic compliance.The SPO technology is currently being matured to the level required for the adoption of the ATHENA mission, i.e., the start of the mission implementation phase. The monocrystalline Silicon material and pore structure of the SPO provide this optics with excellent thermal and mechanical properties. Benefiting from technology spin-in from the semiconductor industry, the equipment, processes, and materials used to produce the SPO are highly sophisticated and optimised.

show abstract

Section: Status Of Developmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

ATHENA optics technology development

Bavdaz¹,

Wille²,

Ayre³

et al. 2022

Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…One additional limit so far was the availability of the BESSY II synchrotron radiation facility, which is not continuously available due to machine shifts, shutdown times and special operation weeks. To de-risk having only one facility and to increase the available beam time, ESA has invested into the development of a new x-ray beamline, called MINERVA [24], at the ALBA synchrotron near Barcelona in Spain. The beamline is currently being assembled and we expect first light early 2023.…”

Section: Completing the Spo Production Chainmentioning

confidence: 99%

The development of the mirror for the Athena X-ray mission

Collon¹,

Abalo

Barrière

et al. 2022

Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Athena is the European Space Agency's next flagship X-ray telescope, scheduled for launch in the 2030s. Its 2.5-m diameter mirror will be segmented and comprise more than 600 individual Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) grazing-incidenceangle imagers, called mirror modules. Arranged in concentric annuli and following a Wolter-Schwartzschild design, the mirror modules are made of several tens of primary-secondary mirror pairs, each mirror made of mono-crystalline silicon, coated to increase the collective area of the system, and shaped to bring the incoming photons to a common focus 12 m away. Aiming to deliver a half-energy width of 5", and an effective area of about 1.4 m 2 at 1 keV, the Athena mirror requires several hundred m 2 of super-polished surfaces with a roughness of about 0.3 nm and a thickness of just 110 µm. SPO, using the highest-grade double-side polished 300 mm wafers commercially available, were invented for this purpose and have been consistently developed over the last several years to enable next-generation X-ray telescopes like Athena. SPO makes it possible to manufacture cost-effective, high-resolution, large-area X-ray optics by using all the advantages that mono-crystalline silicon and the mass production processes of the semiconductor industry provide. Ahead of important programmatic milestones for Athena, we present the status of the technology, and illustrate not only recent X-ray results but also the progress made on the environmental testing, manufacturing and assembly aspects of the technology.

show abstract

“…Currently this is done at the X-ray Parallel Beam Facility 2 (XPBF 2) synchrotron beamline, which is installed in the laboratory of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) at the synchrotron radiation facility BESSY II in Berlin [29]. An additional beamline is planned to become operational in 2022 at the ALBA synchrotron facility in Barcelona [31]. The XPBF 2, tailored for the development of Athena's MMs, provides a 1-keV beam monochromatized and collimated by a toroidal mirror with multilayer coating, allowing beam dimensions between 0.05×0.05 mm 2 and 7×7 mm 2 .…”

Section: Mirror Modulesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[59]. At the time of writing, two dedicated beamlines are available in the PTB laboratory at the BESSY II synchrotron [37,38], and an additional beamline is being assembled at ALBA [31] (Section 4.5).…”

Section: Spo Stack Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Silicon Pore Optics

Barrière¹,

Bavdaz²,

Collon³

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) uses commercially available monocrystalline double-sided superpolished silicon wafers as a basis to produce mirrors that form lightweight high-resolution X-ray optics. The technology has been invented by cosine Measurement Systems and the European Space Agency (ESA) and developed together with scientific and industrial partners to mass production levels. It leverages techniques and processes developed over decades by the semiconductor industry to handle, process, and clean silicon wafers and plates. SPO is an enabling technology for large space-borne X-ray telescopes such as Athena and ARCUS, operating in the 0.2 to 12 keV band, with angular resolution aiming for 5 arc seconds. SPO has also shown to be a versatile technology that can be further developed for gamma-ray optics, medical applications and for material research.

show abstract

X-ray facility for the characterization of the Athena mirror modules at the ALBA synchrotron

Cited by 11 publications

References 3 publications

ATHENA optics technology development

ATHENA optics technology development

The development of the mirror for the Athena X-ray mission

Silicon Pore Optics

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About