Shaping of thin glass X-ray telescope mirrors using air bearing slumping and ion implantation

Abstract

Air bearing glass slumping followed by ion implantation for fine figure correction constitutes a promising process for fabricating thin glass segmented mirrors for future high-resolution x-ray telescopes. We have previously demonstrated the feasibility of both air bearing slumping and ion implantation figure correction to produce mirrors with good figure and without introducing mid spatial-frequency errors or roughness. In this work, we describe a mechanically-robust slumping tool design that can be adapted to Wolter I mirror shapes; and we describe progress on understanding ion implantation for use as a figure correction process, by using in-situ curvature measurements in a tandem ion accelerator.