We present x-ray characteristics of the Hard X-ray Telescopes (HXTs) on board the Hitomi (ASTRO-H) satellite. Measurements were conducted at the SPring-8 BL20B2 beamline and the ISAS/JAXA 27-m beamline. The angular resolution defined by a half-power diameter was 1.9′ (HXT-1) and 2.1′ (HXT-2) at 8 keV, 1.9′ at 30 keV, and 1.8′ at 50 keV. The effective area was found to be 620 cm2 at 8 keV, 178 cm2 at 30 keV, and 82 cm2 at 50 keV per mirror module. Although the angular resolutions were slightly worse than the requirement (1.7′), the effective areas sufficiently exceeded the requirements of 150 cm2 at 30 keV and 55 cm2 at 50 keV. The off-axis measurements of the effective areas resulted in the field of view being 6.1′ at 50 keV, 7.7′ at 30 keV, and 9.7′ at 8 keV in diameter. We confirmed that the main component of the stray x-ray light was significantly reduced by mounting the precollimator as designed. Detailed analysis of the data revealed that the angular resolution was degraded mainly by figure errors of mirror foils, and the angular resolution is completely explained by the figure errors, positioning errors of the foils, and conical approximation of the foil shape. We found that the effective areas were ∼80 % of the designed values below 40 keV, whereas they steeply decline above 40 keV and become only ∼50 % . We investigated this abrupt decline and found that neither the error of the multilayer design nor the errors of the incident angles induced by the positioning errors of the foils can be the cause. The reflection profile of each foil pair from the defocused image strongly suggests that the figure errors of the foils probably bring about the reduction in the effective areas at higher energies.
DIOS (Diffuse Intergalactic Oxygen Surveyor) is a small satellite aiming for a launch around 2022 with JAXA’s Epsilon rocket. Its main aim is a search for warm-hot intergalactic medium with high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy of redshifted emission lines from OVII and OVIII ions. The superior energy resolution of TES microcalorimeters combined with a wide field of view (30' diameter) will enable us to look into gas dynamics of cosmic plasmas in a wide range of spatial scales from Earth’s magnetosphere to unvirialized regions of clusters of galaxies. Mechanical and thermal design of the spacecraft and development of the TES calorimeter system are described. Employing an enlarged X-ray telescope with a focal length of 1.2 m and fast repointing capability, DIOS can observe absorption features from X-ray afterglows of distant gamma-ray bursts.
The first application of four-times reflection X-ray optics is planned for the DIOS mission, in which very soft X-ray observation is expected. On the other hand, effective area of the telescope for higher X-ray energy (E < 10 keV) including iron K emission lines has been so far limited to about 1000 cm2 for assumed several meter focal length. However, if we introduce four-reflection optics to this energy range, we can get several times large effective area for single telescope with same several meter focal length. To prove this possibility, we performed ray tracing simulation for four-reflection telescope with 6 m focal length and found that effective area of 3100 cm2 at 6 keV can be obtained for single telescope. In this paper, we will discuss about other telescope performances, mechanical properties and application to fine spectroscopic mission using X-ray micro-calorimeter.
A Four-stage X-ray Telescope (FXT) has been developed as the best-fit optics for the Diffuse Intergalactic Oxygen Surveyor (DIOS) mission, a small satellite mission for mapping observations of the warm-hot intergalactic medium. The FXT mirrors are based on a conical approximation of the Wolter-I design, fabrication technique used in the Suzaku satellite. We made the second FXT demonstration model, in which we installed 4 sets of 4 stage mirrors with diameter of about 500 mm using alignment plate. Both optical and X-ray measurement were done to estimate FXT performance. Although angular resolution is two to three times worse than that of the requirement and the goal, the field of view and the effective area are consistent with expected performance derived by the ray tracing simulation.
The 6th Japanese X-ray satellite, ASTRO-H, equips two Hard X-ray Telescopes (HXTs) to perform imaging spectroscopy up to 70 keV. The 2nd flight module (HXT-2) had been completed in July, 2013. After some environmental tests were passed, the X-ray performance of the HXT-2 was measured at the SPring-8 BL20B2, 3rd generation synchrotron facility. The angular resolution defined with a Half Power Diameter (HPD) was 1:′9 at 30 keV and 1:′8 at 50 keV. This small energy dependence is considered to be caused by the difference in image quality of each foil; the inner mirror shells have better quality than outer ones. The effective area was found to be 178 cm2 at 30 keV and 82 cm2 at 50 keV, both of which exceed the requirement. Furthermore, the detailed energy dependence of the effective area was examined for a limited aperture in the 30{70 keV band with a pitch of 1 keV. We also measured the off-axis dependence of the effective area at 50 keV, and then determined the optical axis. The field of view of the HXT-2 was found to be 5:′6 (FWHM of the vignetting function), consistent with the simulation. In this paper, we also report the detailed analysis of the ground calibration data, which will be used for image reconstruction by a ray-tracing simulator.
A Four-stage X-ray Telescope (FXT) has been developed as the best-fit optics for the Diffuse Intergalactic Oxygen Surveyor (DIOS) mission, a small satellite mission for mapping observations of the warm-hot intergalactic medium. The FXT mirrors are based on a conical approximation of the Wolter-I design, fabrication technique used in the Suzaku satellite. We developed processes for fabricating a large-diameter (≥ 50 cm) foil mirror and made a new full size quadrant housing 60 cm in diameter with four-stage integrated alignment plates. We made optical measurement using one set of four-stage mirrors over than diameter of more than 50 cm.
We report a first result from a ground-based X-ray calibration of the ASTRO-H Hard X-ray Telescope (HXT) at a synchrotron radiation facility SPring-8. ASTRO-H, to be launched in 2015, is Japan’s sixth X-ray satellite mission following to Suzaku satellite. One of the features of ASTRO-H is a simultaneous observation between 0.3 keV to 600 keV with several instruments. ASTRO-H will carry two HXTs to cover hard x-rays up to 80 keV. HXT, which is one of the key instruments in ASTRO-H, is the conically approximated Wolter-I grazing incidence optics similar to the Suzaku X-ray telescope. Reflector surfaces are coated with depth-graded Platinum and Carbon multilayer to reflect hard X-rays efficiently. The integrations of the flight optics of HXT-1 and HXT- 2 were completed, and we performed a ground calibration of HXT-1 at a synchrotron facility, SPring-8 beamline BL20B2 to build a response function of HXT. We use a raster scan method with a pencil beam at the baseline length of 215m. A point spread function and effective area were measured at 30, 40, 50, 60, 70keV. From a preliminary analysis of the data, an angular resolution of 1.5 - 1.9 arcmin. was obtained at five energy band in the full telescope. The effective area is 170 cm2 at 30 keV and 82 cm2 at 50 keV, respectively. The effective area at 30 and 50 keV are about 13 % and 50 % larger than expected, respectively. We also measured the stray light from outside of field of view at 12’ and 20’ of-axis angle. We confirmed the effectiveness of pre-collimator to reduce the stray lights.
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