Development of differential deposition technique for figure corrections in grazing incidence x-ray optics

A differential deposition technique is being developed to correct the low- and mid-spatial-frequency deviations in the axial figure profile of Wolter-type grazing-incidence X-ray optics. These deviations arise due to various factors in the fabrication process and they degrade the performance of optics by limiting the achievable angular resolution. In the differential deposition technique, material is selectively deposited in varying thickness along the length of the optic to minimize these deviations, thereby improving the overall figure. The process is being tested on focusing X-ray optics being developed at MSFC for small-animal radionuclide imaging. The required spatial resolution for these optics is 100 μm (30 arc secs), which can be achieved with the electroformnickel- replication fabrication technique regularly employed at MSFC. However, by improving the figure quality of the optics through differential deposition, we aim to significantly improve the resolution beyond this value.