X-ray transmission measurements of the gate valve for the x-ray astronomy satellite XRISM

Abstract

Resolve onboard the X-ray satellite XRISM is a cryogenic instrument with an X-ray microcalorimeter in a Dewar. A lid partially transparent to X-rays is installed at the top of the Dewar along the optical axis, which is called the gate valve (GV). Because observations will be made through the GV for the first few months, the X-ray transmission calibration of the GV is crucial for initial scientific outcomes. We present the results of our ground calibration campaign of the GV, which is composed of a Be window and a stainless steel mesh. For the stainless steel mesh, we measured its transmission using the X-ray beamline at ISAS for the first time. For the Be window, we used synchrotron facilities to measure the transmission and modeled the data with (i) photoelectric absorption and incoherent scattering of Be, (ii) photoelectric absorption of contaminants, and (iii) coherent scattering of Be. We discuss the physical interpretation of the transmission discontinuity caused by the Bragg diffraction in poly-crystal Be, which we incorporated into our phenomenological model. The measurements and the constructed model meet the calibration requirements of the GV. We also performed a spectral fitting of the Crab nebula data observed with Hitomi SXS and confirmed improvements of the model.