Abstract
The imaging x-ray telescope (IXT) was first developed at the Institute of Precision Optical Engineering of Tongji University in 2007. Since then, we have made great progress on the development of mirror fabrication, coatings, and optic assembly. In this paper, we intend to provide an overview of the progress. Currently, we can routinely produce cylindrical mirror substrates with angular resolution of 30″ to 60″. To improve the effective area, coatings using C, Ni, and Pt layers were designed and achieved a high reflectivity at 0.5 to 10 keV. During the optic assembly, an in-situ measurement system and a three-dimensional ray-tracing program have been developed, thus guiding the assembly process in real time. Several prototypes have been fabricated, and one of them with 21 mirror layers was calibrated at the MPE PANTER x-ray test facility in Germany. The IXT prototype, with a focal length of 2052.5 mm, is characterized by a measured half-power diameter of 111″ and effective area of 39 cm2 at 1.49 keV.
Highlights
The x-ray universe teems with transients and variable objects providing people with lots of information to explore the limits of contemporary physics and to study matter under extreme conditions
Since the knowledge of the on-axis performance of the prototype at 1.49 keV is most important for us, the measured on-axis half-power diameter (HPD) and effective area at this energy are described
The imaging x-ray telescope (IXT) have been developed at the Institute of Precision Optical Engineering (IPOE) of Tongji University for over a decade
Summary
The x-ray universe teems with transients and variable objects providing people with lots of information to explore the limits of contemporary physics and to study matter under extreme conditions. STAR-X, Lynx[38,39] process has led to a steady improvement in the angular resolution, making thermal slumping a promising way of fabricating IXTs with both high effective area and decent angular resolution, and at the same time lightweight and low cost. It is the conical Wolter-I configuration that the IXT employs by utilizing thermal slumping technology.
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