Silicon x-Ray mirror technology for astronomy: high resolution, light weight, and low cost

William W. Zhang

doi:10.1117/12.2677145

6 October 2023 Silicon x-Ray mirror technology for astronomy: high resolution, light weight, and low cost

William W. Zhang

Proceedings Volume 12679, Optics for EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Astronomy XI; 126790F (2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2677145
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2023, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

This paper is an overview of the Next Generation X-ray Optics effort at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The objective of the NGXO team is to develop and mature an X-ray mirror technology that is capable of building a mirror assembly for flagship missions like Lynx and Probe missions like AXIS, LEM, and HEX-P, as well as Explorer missions like STAR-X. These missions require X-ray mirror assemblies that have comparable or better angular resolution than Chandra’s 0.5 arc-seconds, but have ten to twenty times more effective area under similar mass constraints. The NGXO team combines the stress-free nature of single crystal silicon with advanced polishing techniques to make mirror segments that are of higher figure quality than the Chandra mirror shells, but are at least ten times thinner and therefore lighter. The NGXO work encompasses all elements that make a complete process to design, build, test, and deliver a complete mirror assembly, including optical design, mirror segment fabrication, coating, alignment and bonding to make mirror modules, integration of mirror modules into meta-shells, and integration of meta-shells into a mirror assembly. In addition, the NGXO team also adopts the latest mass-production techniques to ensure that building such a mirror assembly can also meet programmatic, such as schedule and cost, requirements of future missions.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

William W. Zhang "Silicon x-Ray mirror technology for astronomy: high resolution, light weight, and low cost", Proc. SPIE 12679, Optics for EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Astronomy XI, 126790F (6 October 2023); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2677145

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KEYWORDS

Mirrors

X-ray technology

X-ray astronomy

X-rays

Silicon

Lightweight mirrors

Optical fabrication equipment

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