Optical simulations for the laboratory-based expanded and collimated x-ray beam facility BEaTriX

Abstract

The construction of BEaTriX, the Beam Expander Testing X-ray facility, is underway at INAF-OAB (Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera). This laboratory-based X-ray source was designed to generate a broad (170 mm x 60 mm), uniform, and collimated X-ray beam, with a residual divergence of 1.5 arcsec HEW at either 1.49 keV and 4.51 keV. The main scientific driver for BEaTriX is represented by the opportunity to routinely calibrate the modular elements of the ATHENA (ESA) X-ray telescope, based on the silicon pore optics (SPO) technology. Nevertheless, the application domain of BEaTriX is potentially much wider (e.g., X-ray tomography). BEaTriX comprises a microfocus source of X-rays, followed by an optical chain including a collimating mirror, crystal monochromators, and an asymmetric beam expander. The final beam collimation and homogeneity relies on the optical quality of the optical components (X-ray source dimension, mirror polishing, crystal lattice regularity) and on their mutual alignment. In order to determine the most critical parameters, focus the development efforts, and establish specifications, a set of optical simulations has been built. Our paper describes the simulation tool we developed to this specific aim, and discusses the results achieved in terms of manufacturing and alignment tolerances.