The BEaTriX (Beam Expander Testing X-ray) facility, being completed at INAF-Brera Astronomical Observatory, will represent an important step in the acceptance roadmap of Silicon Pore Optics mirror modules, and so ensure the final angular resolution of the ATHENA X-ray telescope. Aiming at establishing the final angular resolution that can be reached and the respective fabrication/positioning tolerances, we have been dealing with a set of comprehensive optical simulations. Simulations based on wa...
A possible improvement on a new method of single acquisition hyperspectral (spectroscopic) ptychographic imaging, making use of a hyperspectral X-ray camera, is presented. Undulator tapering is used at the synchrotron to broaden the energy distribution of the X-ray beam to a suitable level for edge subtraction. The combination of a coherent imaging method such as ptychography with spectroscopy poses difficulties in experimental setup design regarding probe size. The final goal of the experiment,...
The Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) technology has been established as a new type of X-ray optics and will enable future X-ray observatories such as Athena and Arcus. SPO is being developed at cosine Research B.V. together with the European Space Agency (ESA) and academic as well as industrial partners. For Athena, about 150,000 mirror plates are required. With the technology spin-in from the semiconductor industry, mass production processes can be employed to manufacture rectangular SPO mirror plates...
Athena, the largest space-based x-ray telescope to be flown by the European Space Agency, uses a new modular technology to assemble its 2.5 m diameter lens. The lens will consist of several hundreds of smaller x-ray lenslets, called mirror modules, which each consist of up to 76 stacked mirror pairs. Those mirror modules are arranged in circles in a large optics structure and will focus x-ray photons with an energy of 0.5 to 10 keV at a distance of 12 m onto the detectors of Athena. The point-sp...
ESA’s upcoming X-ray telescope Athena uses Silicon Pore Optics, and relies on over 90.000 precisely shaped mirror plates, which must work in tandem to produce a clear image. Mirror sections must therefore both work by themselves and be correctly integrated into a larger assembly. Assessing the impact of imperfections in this mirror geometry is an important part of mission development. This paper presents an analysis of the effect of geometric imperfections on the performance of high-energy refle...
AstroX is an add-on toolbox package to the open source X-ray simulation software package McXtrace, which introduces astronomical telescope optics and features to the package. Thus, enabling users to draw from the experience and developments of two communities. It may also shed further light into calibration results when measuring optics in ground based test-facilities. AstroX now includes a range of optical elements for Wolter class optics, null lobster eye optics, and gratings etc. Furthermore ...
Orbiting Astronomical Satellite for Investigating Stellar Systems (OASIS) is a space-based, MIDEX-class mission concept that employs a 17-meter diameter inflatable aperture with cryogenic heterodyne receivers, enabling high sensitivity and high spectral resolution (resolving power ≥106) observations at terahertz frequencies. OASIS science is targeting submillimeter and far-infrared transitions of H2O and its isotopologues, as well as deuterated molecular hydrogen (HD) and other molecular species...
The development of high-quality thin film coatings for the Athena X-ray optics is progressing, following the commissioning of an industrial scale coating facility. The assembly of silicon pore optics into mirror modules for the Athena telescope requires wet-chemical exposure of coated mirror plates to prepare bonding areas for stacking, as well as an annealing step to improve bond strength. It is therefore critical to evaluate how these post-coating processes could affect the mirror coating perf...
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