Comprehensive line-spread function error budget for the Off-plane Grating Rocket Experiment

Abstract. The Off-plane Grating Rocket Experiment (OGRE) is a soft x-ray grating spectrometer to be flown on a suborbital rocket. The payload is designed to obtain the highest-resolution soft x-ray spectrum of Capella to date with a resolution goal of R  (  λ  /  Δλ  )    >  2000 at select wavelengths in its 10 to 55 Å bandpass of interest. The optical design of the spectrometer realizes a theoretical maximum resolution of R  ≈  5000, but this performance does not consider the finite performance of the individual spectrometer components, misalignments between components, and in-flight pointing errors. These errors all degrade the performance of the spectrometer from its theoretical maximum. A comprehensive line-spread function (LSF) error budget has been constructed for the OGRE spectrometer to identify contributions to the LSF, to determine how each of these affects the LSF, and to inform performance requirements and alignment tolerances for the spectrometer. In this document, the comprehensive LSF error budget for the OGRE spectrometer is presented, the resulting errors are validated via raytrace simulations, the implications of these results are discussed, and future work is identified.

[1]  Marcos Bavdaz,et al.  Silicon pore optics mirror module production and testing , 2018, Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[2]  Randall L. McEntaffer,et al.  Large-format X-Ray Reflection Grating Operated in an Echelle-like Mounting , 2020, The Astrophysical Journal.

[3]  W. Cash,et al.  X-ray spectrographs using radial groove gratings. , 1983, Applied optics.

[4]  William W. Zhang,et al.  Next generation x-ray optics for astronomy: high resolution, lightweight, and low cost , 2019 .

[5]  M. R. Soman,et al.  Development of the x-ray camera for the OGRE sub-orbital rocket , 2016, Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[6]  Randall L. McEntaffer,et al.  Fabrication and Diffraction Efficiency of a Large-format, Replicated X-Ray Reflection Grating , 2018, The Astrophysical Journal.

[7]  W C Cash X-ray optics. 2: A technique for high resolution spectroscopy. , 1991, Applied optics.

[8]  Benjamin D. Donovan,et al.  Performance Testing of a Large-Format X-ray Reflection Grating Prototype for a Suborbital Rocket Payload , 2020, 2011.01100.

[9]  James Tutt,et al.  First results from a next-generation off-plane X-ray diffraction grating , 2013, 1301.5531.

[10]  D. L. Voronov,et al.  Large area nanoimprint enables ultra-precise x-ray diffraction gratings. , 2017, Optics express.

[12]  H. Wolter Spiegelsysteme streifenden Einfalls als abbildende Optiken für Röntgenstrahlen , 1952 .

[13]  Timo T. Saha,et al.  Comprehensive line-spread function error budget for the off-plane grating rocket experiment (Erratum) , 2021 .

[14]  Kai-Wing Chan,et al.  High-resolution, lightweight, and low-cost x-ray optics for the Lynx observatory , 2019, Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems.

[15]  M. Megens,et al.  Large area nanoimprint by substrate conformal imprint lithography (SCIL) , 2017 .

[16]  Benjamin D. Donovan,et al.  An updated optical design of the off-plane grating rocket experiment , 2019, Optics for EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Astronomy IX.