18 research outputs found
Performance Testing of a Novel Off-plane Reflection Grating and Silicon Pore Optic Spectrograph at PANTER
An X-ray spectrograph consisting of radially ruled off-plane reflection
gratings and silicon pore optics was tested at the Max Planck Institute for
extraterrestrial Physics PANTER X-ray test facility. The silicon pore optic
(SPO) stack used is a test module for the Arcus small explorer mission, which
will also feature aligned off-plane reflection gratings. This test is the first
time two off-plane gratings were actively aligned to each other and with a SPO
to produce an overlapped spectrum. The gratings were aligned using an active
alignment module which allows for the independent manipulation of subsequent
gratings to a reference grating in three degrees of freedom using picomotor
actuators which are controllable external to the test chamber. We report the
line spread functions of the spectrograph and the actively aligned gratings,
and plans for future development.Comment: Draft Version March 19, 201
Re-testing the JET-X Flight Module No. 2 at the PANTER facility
The Joint European X-ray Telescope (JET-X) was the core instrument of the
Russian Spectrum-X-gamma space observatory. It consisted of two identical soft
X-ray (0.3 - 10 keV) telescopes with focusing optical modules having a measured
angular resolution of nearly 15 arcsec. Soon after the payload completion, the
mission was cancelled and the two optical flight modules (FM) were brought to
the Brera Astronomical Observatory where they had been manufactured. After 16
years of storage, we have utilized the JET-X FM2 to test at the PANTER X-ray
facility a prototype of a novel X-ray polarimetric telescope, using a Gas Pixel
Detector (GPD) with polarimetric capabilities in the focal plane of the FM2.
The GPD was developed by a collaboration between INFN-Pisa and INAF-IAPS. In
the first phase of the test campaign, we have re-tested the FM2 at PANTER to
have an up-to-date characterization in terms of angular resolution and
effective area, while in the second part of the test the GPD has been placed in
the focal plane of the FM2. In this paper we report the results of the tests of
the sole FM2, using an unpolarized X-ray source, comparing the results with the
calibration done in 1996.Comment: Author's accepted manuscript posted to arXiv.org as permitted by
Springer's Self-Archiving Policy. The final publication is available at
http://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10686-013-9365-
Performance Testing of a Large-Format Reflection Grating Prototype for a Suborbital Rocket Payload
The soft X-ray grating spectrometer on board the Off-plane Grating Rocket
Experiment (OGRE) hopes to achieve the highest resolution soft X-ray spectrum
of an astrophysical object when it is launched via suborbital rocket. Paramount
to the success of the spectrometer are the performance of the reflection
gratings populating its reflection grating assembly. To test current grating
fabrication capabilities, a grating prototype for the payload was fabricated
via electron-beam lithography at The Pennsylvania State University's Materials
Research Institute and was subsequently tested for performance at Max Planck
Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics' PANTER X-ray Test Facility. Bayesian
modeling of the resulting data via Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling
indicated that the grating achieved the OGRE single-grating resolution
requirement of at the 94% confidence level.
The resulting posterior probability distribution suggests that this
confidence level is likely a conservative estimate though, since only a finite
parameter space was sampled and the model could not constrain the upper
bound of to less than infinity. Raytrace simulations of the system found
that the observed data can be reproduced with a grating performing at
. It is therefore postulated that the behavior of the obtained
posterior probability distribution can be explained by a finite
measurement limit of the system and not a finite limit on . Implications
of these results and improvements to the test setup are discussed.Comment: 25 pages, 16 figures, preprint of an article accepted for publication
in the Journal of Astronomical Instrumentation \copyright 2020 [copyright
World Scientific Publishing Company]
[https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscinet/jai
Calibration of X-ray telescope prototypes at PANTER
We report a ground X-ray calibration of two X-ray telescope prototypes at the
PANTER X-ray Test Facility, of the Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial
Physics, in Neuried, Germany. The X-ray telescope prototypes were developed by
the Institute of Precision Optical Engineering (IPOE) of Tongji University, in
a conical Wolter-I configuration, using thermal glass slumping technology.
Prototype #1 with 3 layers and Prototype #2 with 21 layers were tested to
assess the prototypes' on-axis imaging performance. The measurement of
Prototype #1 indicates a Half Power Diameter (HPD) of 82" at 1.49 keV. As for
Prototype #2, we performed more comprehensive measurements of on-axis angular
resolution and effective area at several energies ranging from 0.5-10 keV. The
HPD and effective area are 111" and 39 cm^2 at 1.49 keV, respectively, at which
energy the on-axis performance of the prototypes is our greatest concern.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure
Improving XMM-Newton EPIC pn data at low energies: method and application to the Vela SNR
High quantum efficiency over a broad spectral range is one of the main
properties of the EPIC pn camera on-board XMM-Newton. The quantum efficiency
rises from ~75% at 0.2 keV to ~100% at 1 keV, stays close to 100% until 8 keV,
and is still ~90% at 10 keV. The EPIC pn camera is attached to an X-ray
telescope which has the highest collecting area currently available, in
particular at low energies (more than 1400 cm2 between 0.1 and 2.0 keV). Thus,
this instrument is very sensitive to the low-energy X-ray emission. However,
X-ray data at energies below ~0.2 keV are considerably affected by detector
effects, which become more and more important towards the lowest transmitted
energies. In addition to that, pixels which have received incorrect offsets
during the calculation of the offset map at the beginning of each observation,
show up as bright patches in low-energy images. Here we describe a method which
is not only capable of suppressing the contaminations found at low energies,
but which also improves the data quality throughout the whole EPIC pn spectral
range. This method is then applied to data from the Vela supernova remnant.Comment: Proc. SPIE Vol. 5488: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, UV
- Gamma-Ray Space Telescope Systems, Eds. Guenther Hasinger and Martin J.
Turner, 22-24 June 2004, Glasgow, Scotland United Kingdo
Toward volume manufacturing of high-performance soft x-ray critical-angle transmission gratings
High-resolution () x-ray absorption and
emission line spectroscopy in the soft x-ray band is a crucial diagnostic for
the exploration of the properties of ubiquitous warm and hot plasmas and their
dynamics in the cosmic web, galaxy clusters, galaxy halos, intragalactic space,
and star atmospheres. Soft x-ray grating spectroscopy with has
been demonstrated with critical-angle transmission (CAT) gratings. CAT gratings
combine the relaxed alignment and temperature tolerances and low mass of
transmission gratings with high diffraction efficiency blazed in high orders.
They are an enabling technology for the proposed Arcus grating explorer and
were selected for the Lynx design reference mission grating spectrometer
instrument. Both Arcus and Lynx require the manufacture of hundreds to perhaps
large-area CAT gratings. We are developing new patterning and
fabrication process sequences that are conducive to large-format volume
processing on state-of-the-art 200 mm wafer tools. Recent x-ray tests on 200
nm-period gratings patterned using e-beam-written masks and 4x projection
lithography in conjunction with silicon pore focusing optics demonstrated at 1.49 keV. Extending the grating depth from 4 m to 6
m is predicted to lead to significant improvements in diffraction
efficiency and is part of our current efforts using a combination of deep
reactive-ion etching and wet etching in KOH solution. We describe our recent
progress in grating fabrication and report our latest diffraction efficiency
and modeling results.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Proc. SPIE 1144
Test results of the BEaTriX paraboloidal mirror at PANTER
Scope of this technical note is to report on the X-ray tests of the BEaTriX collimating mirror that have been carried out at the PANTER X-ray facility, before (May 4th-17th 2021) and after the coating with a Cr+Pt reflective layer at DTU, in the framework of the joint activities on optics for the ATHENA X-ray telescope. The tests planned before the deposition of the coating were aimed at confirming the mirror’s imaging quality expectations from the metrology tests, performed along with the polishing and finishing processes. Post-coating tests are oriented to the final qualification of the mirror and to ascertain that the mirror has maintained the focusing properties. Prior to coating, only tests at 1.49 keV are possible on the mirror. At this energy, PANTER can test the mirror in either diverging beam setup or making the beam parallel by means of a dedicated zone plate, canceling in this way the focus aberrations due to the finite distance of the source. After coating, in addition to the same tests at 1.49 keV, a test in diverging beam will be performed at 4.51 keV. The ZP cannot be used to collimate the 4.51 keV beam, but a comparison of the best focus at 1.49 keV and 4.51 keV will allow us to estimate the X-ray scattering that can be expected in the operation of the BEaTriX parabolic mirror. Simulations carried out from metrology on the uncoated mirror currently demonstrate a very low impact of the roughness on the mirror focusing performance