This will count as one of your downloads.
You will have access to both the presentation and article (if available).
We present in this paper the status of the optics production and illustrate not only recent X-ray results but also the progress made on the environmental testing, manufacturing and assembly aspects of SPO based optics.
The Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) enables the NewAthena mission, delivering an unprecedented combination of good angular resolution, large effective area and low mass. The SPO technology builds significantly on spin-in from the semiconductor industry and is designed to allow a cost-effective flight optics implementation, compliant with the programmatic requirements of the mission.
The NewAthena X-ray optics is highly modular, consisting of hundreds of compact mirror modules arranged in concentric circles and mounted on a metallic optical bench. All aspects of the optics are being developed in parallel, from the industrial production of the mirror plates, over the highly efficient assembly into mirror modules, to the alignment of the mirror modules and their fixation on the optical bench. Dedicated facilities are being built to measure the performance of the NewAthena X-ray telescope optics, demonstrating their compatibility with the environmental and scientific requirements.
An overview is provided of the activities preparing the implementation of the NewATHENA optics.
The facility is compact (just 8 m x 14 m). Thanks to an innovative optical design based on an asymmetrical-cut crystal associated with a paraboloidal grazing incidence mirror, it can produce an expanded X-ray beam (170 mm x 60 mm) with low divergence (about 2 arcsec measured for the 4.51 keV beamline) at the two monochromatic energies of 4.51 keV and 1.49 keV. This allows us to calibrate each SPO MM's Effective Area and Point Spread Function precisely.
The first beamline, at 4.51 keV photon energy, is already operational, as the commissioning was completed in Q1-2023. The second beamline, at 1.49 keV energy, is being developed. It presents some more challenging aspects from both the design and implementation points of view. The monochromator stage is based on two Quartz (100); two ADP asymmetric-cut crystals (101) will provide the horizontal expansion of the beam. The X-ray source needs to be very brilliant (5 x 1011 - 1012 ph/s/sterad) due to the large fraction of photons rejected by the crystals.
This paper describes the ongoing activities. It will present the results of the 4.51 keV X-ray beamline optimization and the tests performed on a coated MM. It will also describe the progress in implementing the 1.49 keV components and discuss the comparison with other X-ray testing facilities.
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 these 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.
To overcome these limitations, we started in 2012 to design a facility aimed at generating a broad (170 x 60 mm2), uniform and low-divergent (1.5 arcsec HEW) X-ray beam within a small lab (∼ 9 x 18 m2), to characterize the ATHENA MM. BEaTriX (the Beam Expander Testing X-ray facility) makes use of an X-ray microfocus source, a paraboloidal mirror, a crystal monochromation system, and an asymmetrically-cut diffracting crystal for the beam expansion. These optical components, in addition to a modular low-vacuum level (10-3 mbar), enable to match the ATHENA SPO acceptance requirements.
The realization of this facility at INAF-OAB in Merate (Italy) is now on going. Once completed, BEaTriX can be used to test the Silicon Pore Optics modules of the ATHENA X-ray observatory, as well as other optics, like the ones of the Arcus mission. In this paper we report the advancement status of the facility.
Cold and Hot Slumped Glass Optics with interfacing ribs for high angular resolution x-ray telescopes
Laboratory demonstration of the piezoelectric figure correction of a cylindrical slumped glass optic
Future high energy astrophysics missions will require high performance novel X-ray optics to explore the Universe beyond the limits of the currently operating Chandra and Newton observatories. Innovative optics technologies are therefore being developed and matured by the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with research institutions and industry, enabling leading-edge future science missions.
Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) [1 to 21] and Slumped Glass Optics (SGO) [22 to 29] are lightweight high performance X-ray optics technologies being developed in Europe, driven by applications in observatory class high energy astrophysics missions, aiming at angular resolutions of 5” and providing effective areas of one or more square meters at a few keV.
This paper reports on the development activities led by ESA, and the status of the SPO and SGO technologies, including progress on high performance multilayer reflective coatings [30 to 35]. In addition, the progress with the X-ray test facilities and associated beam-lines is discussed [36].
View contact details
No SPIE Account? Create one
