Abstract
Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) is a new X-ray optics technology under development in Europe, forming the ESA baseline technology for the International X-ray Observatory candidate mission studied jointly by ESA, NASA, and JAXA. With its matrix-like structure, made of monocrystalline-bonded Silicon mirrors, it can achieve the required angular resolution and low mass density required for future large X-ray observatories. Glass-based Micro Pore Optics (MPO) achieve modest angular resolution compared to SPO, but are even lighter and have achieved sufficient maturity level to be accepted as the X-ray optic technology for instruments on board the Bepi-Colombo mission, due to visit the planet Mercury. Opportunities for technology transfer to ground-based applications include material science, security and scanning equipment, and medical diagnostics. Pore X-ray optics combine high performance with modularity and economic industrial production processes, ensuring cost effective implementation.
Highlights
With two powerful observatories already in space, X-ray astrophysics is enjoying a time of discoveries and exciting new science
The scientific importance of such a new space telescope is evident from the priorities expressed by the scientific communities in Europe, the USA, and Japan
Pore Optics technology allows the production of high performance X-ray optics
Summary
With two powerful observatories already in space, X-ray astrophysics is enjoying a time of discoveries and exciting new science. The span over which mirror elements must be self-supporting is drastically reduced in the pore optic due to the rib structure between shells, as opposed to the use of a few fixed mounting points in the traditional approach. This allows the mirror substrate thickness to be drastically reduced, allowing a much denser packing of mirror shells, thereby increasing the effective aperture without compromising the optics stiffness and figure accuracy. The ribs on adjacent mirror elements are coaligned, jointly generating very strong structural walls These radial walls, each of their extensions containing the optical axis, provide strength in the direction normal to the optical surface. The mirror element and the ribs are manufactured from a single
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