Silicon pore optics development for ATHENA

The ATHENA mission, a European large (L) class X-ray observatory to be launched in 2028, will essentially consist of an X-ray lens and two focal plane instruments. The lens, based on a Wolter-I type double reflection grazing incidence angle design, will be very large (~ 3 m in diameter) to meet the science requirements of large effective area (1-2 m2 at a few keV) at a focal length of 12 m. To meet the high angular resolution (5 arc seconds) requirement the X-ray lens will also need to be very accurate. Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) technology has been invented to enable building such a lens and thus enabling the ATHENA mission. We will report in this paper on the latest status of the development, including details of X-ray test campaigns.

[1]  Marcos Bavdaz,et al.  X-ray imaging glass micro-pore optics , 2007, SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications.

[2]  Jeroen Haneveld,et al.  Silicon pore optics for astrophysical missions , 2011, Optical Engineering + Applications.

[3]  C. H. Whitford,et al.  The mercury imaging X-ray spectrometer (MIXS) on BepiColombo , 2010 .

[4]  Marcos Bavdaz,et al.  Mass production of silicon pore optics for IXO and ATHENA , 2011, Optical Engineering + Applications.

[5]  G. Wallis,et al.  Field Assisted Glass‐Metal Sealing , 1969 .

[6]  Marcos Bavdaz,et al.  Production of silicon mirror plates , 2009, Optical Engineering + Applications.

[7]  Marcos Bavdaz,et al.  Stacking of silicon pore optics for IXO , 2009, Optical Engineering + Applications.

[8]  Keith A. Nugent,et al.  On the concentration, focusing, and collimation of x‐rays and neutrons using microchannel plates and configurations of holes , 1989 .

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

[10]  Ralf Jedamzik,et al.  The manufacturing of the XEUS x-ray glass segmented mirrors: status of the investigation and last results , 2004, SPIE Optics + Photonics.

[11]  Monika Vongehr,et al.  Manufacturing of Wolter-I mirror segments with slumped glass , 2006, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[12]  P. Gondoin,et al.  XMM-Newton observatory. I. The spacecraft and operations , 2001 .

[13]  Marcos Bavdaz,et al.  Silicon pore optics development , 2009, Optical Engineering + Applications.

[14]  M. Bavdaz,et al.  Performance characterization of silicon pore optics , 2006, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[15]  Marcos Bavdaz,et al.  ESA optics technology preparation for IXO , 2010, Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[16]  Yoshitaka Ishisaki,et al.  Micropore x-ray optics using anisotropic wet etching of (110) silicon wafers. , 2006, Applied optics.

[17]  Marcos Bavdaz,et al.  Breadboard micro-pore optic development for x-ray imaging , 2007, SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications.

[18]  William W. Zhang,et al.  Development of lightweight x-ray mirrors for the Constellation-X mission , 2004, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[19]  M. Bavdaz,et al.  Development of modular high-performance pore optics for the XEUS x-ray telescope , 2005, SPIE Optics + Photonics.

[20]  Hideyuki Mori,et al.  Improvement of the angular resolution of a thin-foil-nested x-ray telescope , 2009, Optical Engineering + Applications.

[21]  Marcos Bavdaz,et al.  X-ray pencil beam facility for optics characterization , 2010, Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[22]  Carsten P. Jensen,et al.  Coating of silicon pore optics , 2009, Optical Engineering + Applications.

[23]  F. E. Christensen,et al.  Influence of a carbon over-coat on the X-ray reflectance of XEUS mirrors , 2007, 0707.2490.

[24]  Stefan Kraft,et al.  Potential of the PANTER x-ray test facility for calibration of instrumentation for XEUS , 2006, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[25]  F. Christensen,et al.  The Hot and Energetic Universe: The Optical Design of the Athena+ Mirror , 2013, 1307.1709.

[26]  Marco Beijersbergen,et al.  Silicon pore optics: novel lightweight high-resolution x-ray optics developed for XEUS , 2004, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[27]  Kirpal Nandra,et al.  Athena: Exploring the Hot and Energetic Universe , 2014 .

[28]  M. Bavdaz,et al.  Production of silicon pore optics , 2006, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[29]  Marcos Bavdaz,et al.  Microchannel-plate-based x-ray optics , 1999, Optics & Photonics.

[30]  Marcos Bavdaz,et al.  Progress at ESA on high-energy optics technologies , 2004, SPIE Optics + Photonics.

[31]  Martin C. Weisskopf,et al.  Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF): calibration overview , 1998, Optics & Photonics.

[32]  Marcos Bavdaz,et al.  Optical bench elements (petals) for IXO , 2009, Optical Engineering + Applications.