Mo/Al multilayers have the potential to be used as reflective mirrors in telescopes for cosmic and solar observation in a large spectral range of extreme ultraviolet radiation. Two types of Mo/Al multilayers were deposited by a magnetron sputtering system for comparison: one used pure Al and one used Al doped with 1.5wt. % Si. The structural performance of these two multilayers were characterized by a X-ray diffractometer, atomic force microscope, and optical profilometer. The angular dependence of the reflectivity was measured using a laboratory-based reflectometer at 58.4 nm. Grazing incidence X-ray reflectivity analysis revealed that the Mo/Al (1.5wt. % Si) multilayers possess a significantly improved interfacial structure compared with Mo/Al (pure). Surface morphology observations of the samples indicated that the incorporation of Si smoothes the surface and reduces the surface roughness. X-ray diffraction results suggest that the Si slightly reduces the average grain size of Al and increases the average grain size of Mo, but their crystallinity is improved. Based on the improvement of structural performance, a peak reflectivity of 29.4% at 58.4 nm is achieved for Mo/Al (1.5%Si) multilayers, whereas it is only 17.4% for Mo/Al (pure).
The Solar Upper Transition Region Imager (SUTRI) was proposed to observe for the first time the Ne VII line at 46.5nm emitted from the upper solar transition region. As the key optical elements of the SUTRI, Sc/Si multilayer reflective mirrors are developed to offer high spectral selectivity and high reflectivity at 46.5nm with a normal-incidence angle. To avoid spectral contamination, the reflective bandwidth of the multilayer is required less than 4nm, which is achieved when the Sc layer thickness ratio is tuned to above 0.65. Meanwhile, the mechanical property, resistivity to thermal cycling, and temporal stability of the Sc/Si multilayer are characterized. The addition of an ultrathin Si layer (thickness of 0.6nm) in each Sc layer decreased the crystallization of Sc and flatted the interface, resulting in the enhancement of the mechanical property of the Sc/Si multilayer with new structure. After three times of thermal cycling, the temperature from 5°C to 40°C, the surface morphology of the new Sc/Si multilayer remained unchanged. The grazing incidence reflectometer test results showed that the periodic structure and thickness of the new multilayer were still similar after 2 years of storage. The optimized Sc/Si multilayer has a d-spacing of 24.55nm and a Sc thickness ratio of 0.72, achieving the extreme ultraviolet reflectivity of 28% at 46.1nm obtained from the laboratory-based reflectometer. The optimized Sc/Si multilayer mirrors have been applied in the SUTRI and received bright solar images at 46.5nm.
The Solar Upper Transition Region Imager (SUTRI) is an extreme ultraviolet solar imaging telescope that focuses on dynamically observing the solar transition region within a narrow band at 46.5nm. This paper describes the optical parameters, optomechanical structural design, finite element simulation, and on-ground environmental testing. To satisfy the narrow band requirement, the telescope employs multilayers coated on Ritchey-Chrétien optics and filters mounted at the front aperture and ahead of the focal plane. The primary and secondary mirrors are glued to invar frames that provide peripheral support. The telescope contains three mechanisms, which are a focus mechanism, a filter wheel, and a front door. In addition, this paper carried out finite element simulation of modal analysis, optical performance and structural strength. These simulations verified that the opto-mechanical system design is feasible. Finally, the telescope successfully underwent a series of on-ground environmental testing and was subsequently launched carried by SATech-01 satellite in July 2022.
Montel mirror coated by laterally graded multilayer is a key two-dimensional collimating optics for x-ray analysis instrument. To provide guidance for the fabrication, the collimation property of a W/Si multilayer Montel mirror with parabolic shape is simulated systematically by a ray-tracing program. The influence of different source sizes, multilayer reflection bandwidth, mirror-detector distance, figure errors, and the assembly errors on the collimation performance is simulated. The mechanism for the change of divergence angle, collimation efficiency, beam uniformity, and so on is analyzed. Based on the results, the optimum mirror structure and the tolerance for fabrication and assembly errors were estimated for a high-performance x-ray Montel mirror.
Precise X-ray Imaging diagnostics to acquire the plasma state and its evolution plays an important role in basic researches such as inertial confinement fusion (ICF), high energy density physics (HEDP), and another ultrafast phenomenon. The plasma signals with the characteristics of small scale, rapid evolution and complex spectrum requires the X-ray diagnostics optics to have high spatial resolution and collection efficiency, as well as certain spectral resolution. The multilayer Kirkpatrick–Baez (KB) microscope is a common X-ray optics to obtain high spatial, collecting efficiency or spectral resolution. Coupling multichannel KB microscope with the framing camera, the temporal evolution behavior of the ultrafast plasma can be recorded. The paper mainly presents our latest research on two-energy sixteen-channel multilayer KB microscope for double-cone ignition (DCI) experiments, including its optical and multilayer design. By high-resolution backlighting and self-emission imaging using two-energy multichannel KB microscope, plasma information related to density and temperature can be realized simultaneously.
Boron carbide coatings were prepared by reactive sputtering with nitrogen and investigated for their optical properties. Different ratios of N2/Ar (4%, 8%, and 15% nitrogen ratio) mixture gas was chosen as the sputtering gas. The atomic concentration distribution and elemental chemical states of coatings were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. The B/C ratio was 3.7:1 and the nitrogen content was 18 at.% in the coating, which was sputtered with 4% N2 mixture gas. And the nitrogen content was increased as the ratio of N2 increases in mixture gas. In the nitridated B4C coatings, the boron mainly existed as the formation of BN and B4C compounds. The theoretical reflectivity was performed, and the increase of nitrogen content would reduce the reflectivity in the soft X-ray, especially in the vicinity of 410 eV.
The Hot Universe Baryon Surveyor (HUBS) mission is proposed to study “missing” baryons in the universe. Unlike dark matter, baryonic matter is made of elements in the periodic table, and can be directly observed through the electromagnetic signals that it produces. Stars contain only a tiny fraction of the baryonic matter known to be present in the universe. Additional baryons are found to be in diffuse (gaseous) form, in or between galaxies, but a significant fraction has not yet been seen. The latter (“missing” baryons) are thought to be hiding in low-density warm-hot ionized medium (WHIM), based on results from theoretical studies and recent observations, and be distributed in the vicinity of galaxies (i.e., circumgalactic medium) and between galaxies (i.e., intergalactic medium). Such gas would radiate mainly in the soft X-ray band and the emission would be very weak, due to its very low density. HUBS is optimized to detect the X-ray emission from the hot baryons in the circumgalactic medium, and thus fill a void in observational astronomy. The goal is not only to detect the “missing” baryons, but to characterize their physical and chemical properties, as well as to measure their spatial distribution. The results would establish the boundary conditions for understanding galaxy evolution. Though highly challenging, detecting “missing” baryons in the intergalactic medium could be attempted, perhaps in the outskirts of galaxy clusters, and could shed significant light on the large-scale structures of the universe. The current design of HUBS will be presented, along with the status of technology development.
With the tremendous development of synchrotron radiation source in recent years, large-size X-ray mirrors are demanded. The linear magnetron sputtering target is suitable for preparation of these mirrors. Uniformity and roughness are important determinants of the mirror reflectivity. However, the uniformity of large mirror is difficult to control for the uniform sputtering area of the target is always limited. In addition, for the shape and large size of linear target, a lot of sputtering particles are deposited on the substrate with large incident angles which could lead to an increased roughness of the film. In order to solve these problems, it is necessary to have a comprehensive understanding of the sputtering and deposition rules of particles. By summarized many theories about particle sputtering and deposition and combined them with the equipment in our laboratory, a theoretical model was established to calculate the deposition distribution of particles.Two sets of experiments with target-to-substrate distances of 8cm and 10cm were carried out to verify that our model can simulate the deposition distribution of particles accurately through measuring all the silicon substrates pasted on the sample holder. Good results were obtained in both experiments which shows that our model can correctly calculate the distribution of particles.
Effective area is one of the most important parameters of x-ray telescopes. It can be increased by enlarging the entrance aperture or maximizing the reflectivity through the proper designing and optimization of the reflecting coating. A method to increase the reflectivity of grazing incidence x-ray mirrors in the 0.5- to 8-keV energy region is analyzed. The idea consists in the use of a trilayer reflecting coating instead of single-layer one (e.g., C/Ni/Pt mirror instead of Pt one). Deposition of low-absorbing medium-Z and low-Z layers onto the top of strongly absorbing high-Z material results in essential increase in the reflectivity while keeping the same width of the reflectivity plateau. In particular, C/Ni/Pt trilayer mirror demonstrates enhancement of the double reflection coefficient by a factor achieving 1.5 to 3.5 compared to that of Pt-coated mirror. The effective area of a telescope is also considerably increased. The experimental results are in a very good agreement with the theoretical predictions. In addition, the C/Ni/Pt trilayer mirror exhibits a reasonable thermal stability and a relatively low compressive stress of about −550 MPa.
Sc/Si multilayer has excellent reflectivity at the wavelength of 35-50 nm and is expected to be fabricated for application in the solar EUV telescope, reflecting Ne VII line (46.5 nm) at normal incidence angle. For obtaining the stable narrow bandwidth, Sc/Si multilayers with different Sc thickness ratios were designed. And the structure and temporal stability of fabricated multilayers were studied. Sc/Si multilayers with a period thickness of about 24 nm were deposited by DC magnetron sputtering. The GIXR measurements indicated that interface diffusion was existed between Sc and Si layers. As the thickness ratio of the Sc increased, the width on Sc-on-Si interfaces increased. The surface roughness of these samples were no obviously different under AFM tests. After two months, the periodic structure and thickness were found to be stable. With a Sc thickness ratio value of 0.67, Sc/Si multilayer not only have the narrow bandwidth, but also have a good temporal stability.
The low efficiency of conventional single layer gratings at the tender X-ray region (E=1~5 keV) significantly limits the photon flux of the beamline and the development of related imaging and spectroscopy experiments in this region. To overcome this issue, multilayer coated gratings have been proposed and developed. The diffraction behavior of a multilayer grating is more complex than a single layer grating. To understand the diffraction behavior and exert the maximum potential of this new optics, we have built an analytical theory based on coupled wave theory. A high efficiency single order diffraction regime was first identified which means only one diffraction order will be excited with a certain incidence angle and structure parameters. This is applicable to blazed multilayer gratings (BMGs). To achieve maximum efficiency, the optimum grating and multilayer structures were analyzed. The highest theoretical efficiency of a BMG can reach the same value of the coated multilayer reflectance. Moreover, blazed multilayer gratings exhibit the advantage of high harmonics suppression. For the BMG, the conventional condition of maximal diffraction efficiency, Dsinα = nd, where D and d is the grating period and multilayer period, respectively, α is blaze angle, n is diffraction order, has been proved invalid. This is due to the contribution of anti-blaze facets to diffraction and effect of strongly asymmetric diffraction. Based on these, a Cr/C BMG was fabricated in collaboration with the Department for Nanometer Optics and Technology in BESSY-II. Maximum efficiency of up to 60% was demonstrated at 3 keV which is close to the theoretical prediction.
High precision metrology and deterministic fabrication are two indispensable techniques for making advanced X-ray mirrors. Among the various metrology and fabrication methods, we are currently developing stitching interferometry and profile coating/differential deposition techniques as a first step for this. For the development of curved focusing mirror, stitching interferometry method was studied. It is based on a global stitching algorithm taking into account the information in the overlapped area of several neighboring subapertures to finish the measurement. The method was tested on a spherical mirror with a radius of 100 m. A smallest repeatability error of 0.24 nm RMS over the two-dimensional surface is demonstrated. The stitched result was compared with NOM in Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility to examine the absolute accuracy. Based on the stitching interferometry, a vertical focusing mirror of KB system was fabricated by using the profile coating technique. Through several iterations, an initial sphere mirror was modified into the desire elliptical mirror with a one-dimensional figure error (along the center line) of around 1.49 μrad RMS over 50 mm length compared with the designed ellipse.
Driven by the growing demand for large-size x-ray mirrors used in synchrotron radiation and free-electron laser facilities, a linear deposition system based on magnetron sputtering technique is built. The layer growth quality and thickness uniformity are optimized by adding masks in front of the cathode to reduce the oblique-incidence particles and tune the sputtering flux distribution. Based on this, a 0.5-m-length W/Si multilayer mirror is demonstrated. The multilayer has a d-spacing of 3 nm and a bilayer number of 60. The surface roughness of the multilayer is only 0.33 to 0.25 nm in the spatial frequency range of 3.0 × 10 − 3 to 1.0 μm − 1, and the average interface width is 0.32 nm. The hard x-ray reflectivity and uniformity of the large mirror were characterized at the Optics Beamline in Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility. A maximum reflectivity of 62.5% and 62.7% was measured at 8 and 18 keV, respectively, with an angular resolution of Δθ / θ = 2.7 % . The d-spacing uniformity over the 0.5-m-length and 60-mm-width area of the mirror is 1.0% and 1.2% (peak-to-valley), respectively. These results indicate a good and uniform quality of the nanoscale multilayer over the large mirror area. The measured second- and third-order reflectivities of the multilayer are more than 2 orders magnitude lower than the first order, implying a good suppression of high harmonics in the monochromator application.
The cold shaping of thin glass foils is a cost-effective method for x-ray optical units realization. This technique allows the manufacturing of cheap and lightweight optics with good angular resolution. The flat glass foils are shaped on curved integration molds and glued ribs freeze their shapes in the assembly. The simplest strategy for the coating deposition would be with the coating process operated on flats, before the bending and the integration steps. This approach can be considered only if the coating on the glass foils does not degrade with the integration process. Given that super-mirror coating is widely used in hard X-ray telescopes, this part of the process need to be carefully evaluated. INAF-OAB collaborates with Tongji University to verify the feasibility of this approach. In this paper, we present the experimental results achieved on glass samples, integrated with the Cold Slumping technique by means of integration mold with different radius of curvature and material. Two flat samples, coated with W/Si multilayer, are characterized before and after the integration. The measurement campaign includes micro-roughness on different spatial frequency and grazing incidence reflection measurements to return the microstructure of the multilayer.
Several imaging x-ray telescope (IXT) prototypes have been fabricated independently by the Institute of Precision Optical Engineering, which employed thermal slumping technology. To verify the performance of the IXT prototypes, a three-layer prototype with a focal length of 2052.5 mm was tested using a narrow beam at the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility. The performance testing posed a challenge due to the need to suppress the finite source distance effect on the IXT prototype (43-m long source-optic distance). In addition, limited use of motorized stages presents challenges. We present the experimental setups and detailed measurement approaches by utilizing limited measurement devices. The prototype is a segmented telescope comprising six sectors. For the best sector, the measured point spread function (PSF) yields a half power diameter (HPD) of 66″ and agrees well with modeling (62″) and the value measured at PANTER (65″). In addition, the integrated HPD of the whole prototype is 82″ obtained by coadding the PSFs of the six sectors.
Coating techniques are investigated for accurate shape correction of Kirkpatrick–Baez (KB) mirrors. Au and Pt have been used as coating materials to obtain elliptical KB mirrors from flat or cylindrical Si substrates. However, due to large differences in the thermal expansion coefficients between Au (or Pt) and Si, thermal stress can be induced not only when coating the substrate, but also during use when focusing synchrotron beams. Si is a promising alternative for profile coating because not only the same material as substrate can induce much smaller thermal stress, but also Si is generally smooth. The microstructure and roughness of 1000- and 2000-nm-thick Si coatings deposited at two different pressures (0.133 and 0.266 Pa) are explored. When the thickness increases from 50 to 2000 nm, the film microstructure and surface morphology change and root mean square roughness increases from 0.164 to 0.232 nm. The increase in Si coating thickness contributes the most to power spectral density curves when the frequency is between 1 and 20 μm − 1. No obvious changes resulting from intrinsic stress are observed among the samples when the Si coating thickness is increased from 50 to 2000 nm.
X-ray Timing and Polarization (XTP) telescope is proposed in China, by using the nested Wolter-I type optical system with large effective area, for the study of high energy physics at the region of 1-30 keV. High reflectance and low stress W/Si multilayers are demanded in the telescope to fulfill the spectral response and ensure the figure quality of the mirrors at the same time. A dedicated cylindrical deposition facility based on direct current magnetron sputtering technique was developed. Using this facility, W/Si multilayers fabricated under different base pressure and working pressure were tested to optimize the sputtering process. The microstructure and stress of W/Si multilayers with different d-spacing (d=2.0 nm-7.0 nm) and thickness ratio of W (ϒw=0.3-0.7) were studied. In order to obtain low stress multilayer mirrors, post-deposition annealing was applied on the multilayers and both the effects of temperature and annealing time were studied. Based on these works, a depth-graded W/Si multilayer was deposited on thin cylindrical mirror and the X-ray reflectivity was measured at Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility (BSRF).
To develop an x-ray focusing telescope for the Chinese x-ray timing and polarization mission, W/Si multilayers were fabricated using a dedicated cylindrical deposition facility with direct current magnetron sputtering technique. To reduce the interface width of the multilayers, separator plates were mounted at both sides of the substrates to collimate the sputtering particles. The average interface width was reduced from 1.03 nm (without separator plates) to 0.29 nm (with separator plates) for a W/Si multilayer with a 3.8-nm d-spacing. To achieve a high reflectivity multilayer mirror with low stress, the effects of different background and working gas pressures on periodic multilayers during the deposition process were studied. The stress of the W/Si multilayer (d=3.8 nm) slightly increased from −294 to −358 MPa as the background pressure increased from 4×10−5 Pa to 8×10−4 Pa and the first-order Bragg peak reflectivity at 8.04 keV (λ=0.154 nm) decreased from 68% to 54%. As the working pressure increased from 0.4 to 0.8 Pa, the stress of the W/Si multilayer significantly changed from −306 to 100 MPa. However, the first-order reflectivity also decreased dramatically from 67% to 8%, and the average interface width increased from 0.29 to 1.2 nm.
We present the coating of depth-graded W/Si multilayers on the thin glass substrates for telescopes in X-ray timing and polarization mission. The multilayer consists of several hundred bilayers in an optimized graded power law design with stringent requirements on uniformity and interface width. We introduce the details of the planar magnetron sputtering facility including the optimization of the deposition process. Results are presented on the uniformity, interface width, reflectivity and the fabrication of a 200-bilayers depth graded multilayer working at hard X-ray energies.
X-ray Timing and Polarization (XTP) satellite, by using focusing optics and advanced detector technology, is dedicated to the study of Black Hole, Neutron Star, Quark Star and the physics under extreme gravity, density and magnetism. With a detection area of ~1 square meter and a combination of various types of X-ray telescopes, XTP is expected to make the most sensitive temporal and polarization observations with good energy resolution in 1-30 keV. We present a recent overview on segmented glass optics for XTP Telescope. This work is looking for improvement of the figure of the free-standing glass substrates, enhancement of quality of grazing incident depth-graded multilayers and a mounting technology for the substrates. We discuss metrology on glass figure, X-ray reflectivity and scatter of grazing incident depth-graded multilayers, and mounted structured optics. We also present plans for several prototype optics to be constructed in the upcoming year. Begin the abstract two lines below author names and addresses. The abstract summarizes key findings in the paper.
X-ray Timing and Polarization (XTP) mission will use focusing optics and advanced detector technology to be dedicated to the study of Black Hole, Neutron Star, Quark Star and the physics under extreme gravity, density and magnetism. XTP is expected to make the most sensitive temporal and polarization observations with good energy resolution in 1-30 keV with a detection area of ~1 square meter and a combination of various types of X-ray telescopes. We present a recent overview on the depth-graded multilayers coated on segmented glass optics used in XTP Telescope. This presentation will focus on improving the design, fabrication and characterization of grazing incident depth-graded multilayers based on the requirements of XTP. We discuss metrology on X-ray reflectivity and scatter of grazing incident depth-graded multilayers. We also present the future plan of making more depth-graded multilayers on thermally-slumped glass uesd in several prototype optics.
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