5 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-