Generalized Wolter Type I design for wide-field x-ray imaging applications

James E. Harvey; Patrick L. Thompson

doi:10.1117/12.368229

Translator Disclaimer

5 October 1999 Generalized Wolter Type I design for wide-field x-ray imaging applications

James E. Harvey, Patrick L. Thompson

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 3779, Current Developments in Optical Design and Optical Engineering VIII; (1999) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.368229
Event: SPIE's International Symposium on Optical Science, Engineering, and Instrumentation, 1999, Denver, CO, United States

Abstract

Surface scatter effects are a dominant image degradation mechanism for very short X-ray wavelengths, even for state- of-the-art optical surfaces. And the severe off-axis aberrations of the classical Wolter Type I grazing incidence X-ray telescope consisting of a confocal paraboloid and hyperboloid severely limit the useful angular field that can be imaged onto a flat detector. A new family of alternative designs based on two hyperboloids has been developed that improves the wide-field imaging performance by aberration balancing and a compete optical systems engineering analysis. A particular member of this family, designed as H- T number 17, has been selected for use in the Solar X-ray Imager (SXI) instrument to be integrated into the NOA GOES satellite. The development of the SXI optical prescription and its defining parameters are first presented, then detailed image quality predictions, as degraded by diffraction effects, geometrical aberrations, surface scatter effects, and all other residual errors in the mirror manufacturers error budget tree are presented. This new optimized design yields an 80 percent increase in the number of spatial resolution elements over the full solar disc when compared to the classical Wolter Type I design that was the SXI baseline design.

Citation Download Citation

James E. Harvey and Patrick L. Thompson "Generalized Wolter Type I design for wide-field x-ray imaging applications", Proc. SPIE 3779, Current Developments in Optical Design and Optical Engineering VIII, (5 October 1999); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.368229

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE