Laboratory testbeds for broadband x-ray interferometry

Zaven Arzoumanian; Keith C. Gendreau; Webster C. Cash; Ann F. Shipley; Steven Z. Queen

doi:10.1117/12.551731

11 October 2004 Laboratory testbeds for broadband x-ray interferometry

Zaven Arzoumanian, Keith C. Gendreau, Webster C. Cash, Ann F. Shipley, Steven Z. Queen

Proceedings Volume 5488, UV and Gamma-Ray Space Telescope Systems; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.551731
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2004, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Abstract

NASA's Strategic Plan for Space Sciences currently envisions a mission capable of resolving the event horizons of supermassive black holes, with imaging-spectroscopy capabilities at angular resolutions better than 0.1 microarcsecond. To achieve this goal, the Micro-Arcsecond X-ray Imaging Mission (MAXIM), a broadband X-ray interferometer, is currently under study. Ground-based proof-of-concept efforts include experiments to demonstrate the feasibility of X-ray interferometry with simple optics. We describe here recent advances in laboratory testbeds, at the University of Colorado and at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, that essentially replicate Young's double-slit experiment at X-ray energies. A typical apparatus employs four flat mirrors arranged in periscope pairs, with each pair illuminated at grazing incidence by a slit. We discuss the salient features of these experiments, technical hurdles such as metrology and line-of-sight issues, the successful detection of fringes at wavelengths as short as the Al Kalpha line at 8.35 Angstroms, and future upgrades of our facilities.

Citation Download Citation

Zaven Arzoumanian, Keith C. Gendreau, Webster C. Cash, Ann F. Shipley, and Steven Z. Queen "Laboratory testbeds for broadband x-ray interferometry", Proc. SPIE 5488, UV and Gamma-Ray Space Telescope Systems, (11 October 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.551731

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