Abstract

Poster - Splinter NewAthena

Thursday, 14 September 2023, 15:40   (H 3025)

Athena, the next-generation X-ray observatory: synchrotron facilities for the assembly and characterization of Silicon Pore Optics

Luis Abalo, Nicolas M. Barriere, Giuseppe Vacanti, Sjoerd Verhoeckx, Enrico Hauser , Maximilien J. Collon , Marco Beijersbergen , Michael Krumrey, Dieter Skroblin, Levent Cibik, Dominique Heinis, Antonio Carballedo, Marcos Bavdaz, Erik Wille, Ivo Ferreira
cosine, Leiden University, PTB@BESSY II, ALBA, ESA/ESTEC

NewAthena is the next-generation X-ray observatory from the European Space Agency to be launched in the mid-2030s. It uses a unique modular technology to realize its 2.5 m diameter optics made of several hundreds of co-aligned mirror modules. The telescope has a Wolter-Schwarzschild design with a 12-m focal length, aiming to give 1.4 m2 of the effective area with a point spread function of 5” half-energy width at 1 keV and an energy range of 0.2 to 12 keV. For this new technological challenge, Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) has been developed using the highest-grade double-side polished 300 mm wafers commercially available. The mirror modules are assembled and characterized using beamlines at synchrotron radiation facilities. In this work, we present an overview of the work carried out at the X-ray Pencil Beam Facilities (XPBF1 & XPBF2) of the PTB at BESSY II (Berlin, Germany) and, in the near future, MINERVA at ALBA (Barcelona, Spain). The new beamline had its first lights a few weeks ago and is planned to be operational during 2023.