Fabrication and performance of blazed transmission gratings for x-ray astronomy
Author(s)
Schattenburg, Mark Lee; Ahn, Minseung; Heilmann, Ralf K
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We have developed a new type of soft x-ray diffraction grating. This critical-angle transmission (CAT) grating combines the advantages of traditional transmission gratings (low mass, extremely relaxed alignment and flatness tolerances) with those of x-ray reflection gratings (high efficiency due to blazing in the direction of grazing-incidence reflection, increased resolution due to the use of higher diffraction orders). In addition, grating spectrometers based on CAT gratings are well-suited for co-existence with high-energy focal plane microcalorimeter detectors as planned for the Constellation-X mission, since most high-energy x rays are neither absorbed nor deflected, and arrive at the telescope focus. We describe the CAT grating principle and design, and fabrication and x-ray diffraction efficiency results for a CAT grating with 1742 lines/mm. We have observed up to 46% diffraction efficiency in a single order, and up to 55% at blaze at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths. We present our recent fabrication and soft x-ray diffraction results for 200 nm-period (5000 lines/mm) gratings.
Date issued
2008-07Department
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space ResearchJournal
Proceedings of SPIE
Publisher
The International Society for Optical Engineering
Citation
Heilmann, Ralf K., Minseung Ahn, and Mark L. Schattenburg. “Fabrication and performance of blazed transmission gratings for x-ray astronomy.” Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2008: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray. Ed. Martin J. L. Turner & Kathryn A. Flanagan. Marseille, France: SPIE, 2008. 701106-10. © 2008 SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering
Version: Final published version
ISSN
0277-786X