X-ray study of a SODART flight telescope using the expanded beam x-ray optics beamline at the Daresbury synchrotron

Abstract

The on- and off-axis imaging properties of the first of two SODART flight telescopes have been studied using the expanded beam x-ray facility at the Daresbury synchrotron. From on- axis measurements the encircled power distribution and the point spread function at three energies 6.627 keV, 8.837 keV, and 11.046 keV have been measured using a one dimensional position sensitive detector. The data have been used to calculate the half power diameter (HPD) for three different SODART focal plane detectors, the high energy proportional counter (HEPC), the low energy proportional counter (LEPC) and the 19 element solid state array detector (SIXA). We found that the HPD decreases with increasing energy due to poorer figure error of the outermost mirrors. The HPD falls in the range from 2.3 to 3 arcmin for all detectors. Residual misalignment of the individual quadrants of the telescope was found to contribute to the HPD by approximately 10%. If 33% of the geometric telescope area near the edges of the quadrants are covered a reduction of 10% of the HPD can be obtained. On- and off-axis images generated from the one dimensional intensity distribution are presented. Finally the data have been used to calculate the variation of the effective area versus the off- axis angle.