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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.
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 preparations are ongoing at PANTER, ESA, cosine and Media Lario to perform complex opto-thermo-mechanical tests of the two full scale 1/6th sectors of the final ATHENA mirror assembly structure produced by the potential ATHENA primes Airbus Defence and Space and Thales Alenia Space. For these tests a set of three SPO MMs have been produced following the flight configuration. The MMs will be incorporated into the full scale 1/6th sectors to measure the impact of thermal gradients on the thermoelastic deformation of the structure and therefore the HEW performance. A description of the tests is presented here.
PANTER is also involved in the development, testing, and fabrication of the mirror adapter structure (MAS) to support the 2.6-m diameter ATHENA mirror assembly module demonstrators (MAMD) during the planned x-ray tests at XRCF. A description of the PANTER tests and results will be presented in this paper together with a short overview of the MAS MGSE for XRCF.
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.
Cosine has developed the technology to bend and directly bond Si mirror plates in order to produce stiff, lightweight Xray optics which are used for large area space based X-ray telescopes. This technology, Silicon Pore Optics (SPO), also allows us to produce other types of high energy optics. Here we present the latest developments in the design and manufacture of a new generation of soft gamma-ray Laue lenses made using SPO technology named Silicon Laue lens Components: SiLC.
The bending and bonding of 300 μm thin Si single crystals allows us to fabricate a single crystal with radially curved crystal planes, which strongly improves the focusing properties of a Laue lens. The size of the focal spot is no longer determined by the size of the individual single crystals, but by the accuracy of the applied curvature, which is as low as a few seconds of arc. Furthermore, a wedge is incorporated in each individual Si crystal to ensure that all crystals are confocal in the radial direction. A secondary curvature in the axial direction can be used to improve the reflectivity of each crystal, and increase the reflected energy bandwidth.
We present the first SiLC crystals which will be manufactured in the fall of 2013. These are technology demonstrators designed for 125 keV radiation, 3.4m focal length and 600mm2 frontal area. The first measurements at synchrotron radiation facilities are planned for November 2013. With these first prototype lenses we want to demonstrate that the SPO stacking technology can be successfully applied to non-ribbed Si wafer plates and subsequently demonstrate the correct focusing in Laue geometry of both the wedges and radial curvature.
Developing a second generation Laue lens prototype: high-reflectivity crystals and accurate assembly
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