Cotroneo Tesi v2.1

Abstract
X-ray astronomy is a relatively young eld of research. Its evolution is strictly related to
instrumental capabilities. The last great observatories, launched at the end of the nineties,
have raised the sensitivity in the soft X-ray band (below 10 keV) of orders of magnitude in
a single step. New telescopes are now planned or proposed with the aim of further extend
the capabilities of the present day instruments. The history and the scientic motivations
of X-ray telescopes are described in chapter 1.
This thesis concerns the design and development of astronomical Wolter-like telescopes
made of many nested shells. This kind of telescopes is the de-facto standard for the
realization of high resolution focusing telescopes in the present and, probably, also in
the future. The design of a telescope consists in identifying the best choice in terms of
geometry and coatings, which together determine the on-axis and o-axis eective area
of the telescope, the main merit parameter considered in this work. The development
here considered is the application of new kind of coating to increase the reectivity of the
mirrors and, as a consequence, the eective area.
Chapter 4: A ray-tracing software for the simulation of the eective area of Wolter
telescopes was realized and applied to the design of three future missions. The eective
area was simulated for dierent geometrical parameters to evaluate the impact on the per-
formances, in relation with the aims of the mission. Apart from the traditional coatings
employed in X-ray telescopes, two kinds of innovative coatings are considered: metal lms
with carbon overcoating, and multilayer coatings. The former oer a cheap way to in-
crease the reectivity in the soft X-ray band, the latter allow to extend the operative band
of focusing instruments in the hard X-ray spectral region. Chapter 5: The performances
of these kind of coatings were studied also by an experimental point of view. Two cam-
paigns of experiments were devoted to the reectivity measurement of lms with carbon
overcoating in soft X-rays. A third experiment consisted in the design, deposition and
measurement of depth-graded multilayer samples designed for a broad angular response.
The reectivity of the samples was measured for several energies in the hard X-ray band
(40110 keV). Chapter 2, 3: During the work, several formulas and considerations about
the working principles, geometrical behavior and dimensioning of Wolter telescopes were
collected. Their formalization can be useful for preliminary estimations of the quantities
involved in a work of design, and also provide a starting point for further analysis.
i
ii
Acknowledgments
During the work of this thesis I had the opportunity to interact with many people, all of
them gave a contribute to this work, and in general led to a great improvement of my
professional abilities.
I am very grateful to my advisors G. Pareschi, for the freedom I had in this work, for
the suggestions and for the energy and enthusiasm that he is always able to transmit, to
M. Bersanelli, for the encouragement to look beyond the technical matters and to explore
the scientic reasons of my work. I always remember the encouragements that L. Pasinetti
gave during the rst phase of the work, but even more the lessons she gave me, besides the
scientic ones.
I thank G. Bellini and the invaluable A. Zanzani for the organization of this Ph.D.
School, the very fact that I was able to nish without forgetting any form is a proof of
their engagement.
A large part of the experimental work has been carried out during my permanence as
visiting scientist at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, I thank S. Romaine
for having supervised my work during that period, for the many careful advice and for the
patience of repeating each sentence twice (or more), R. Bruni for the many explanations
about the deposition process and instrumentation, for his always accurate work and for
the friendly collaboration and P. Gorenstein for the astronomy lessons, the coees and the
explanations about the practical aspects of the telescopes.
The largest part of the work was made at the Brera Astronomical Observatory (OAB),
I am very grateful to the people in my research group, D. Spiga for the enlightening
discussions, the equations and the solutions to many puzzles, G. Sironi, S. Basso for their
valuable collaboration, M. Civitani for her pragmatic and eective advice, that really kept
me on course during the writing of this thesis. This work would have not been possible
without the previous work made by P. Conconi, who realized the rst version of the ray-
tracing software and gave me a lot of useful hints.
I thank who helped me during the compilation of this thesis, S. Campana, G. Tagliaferri
for the careful reading and corrections, A. Moretti for the discussions, P. DAvanzo for the
many suggestions and the constant support during these years. Thanks to M. Ghigo for
his didactic on the ion beam machine and for his stimulating and never trivial ideas and
to R. Millul, that, with her eciency, saved me in several situations.
Many people have contributed to the experimental work in these thesis: thanks to the
technical sta at OAB, R. Valtolina and F. Mazzoleni, D. Garegnani, S. Cant for the
assistance and the always accurate work.
During these years, I had the opportunity to interact with many people, I thank G.
Cusumano for the useful checks and hints about the ray-tracing software, A. Mirone for
iii
having provided the PPM software and for his assistance about it, A. Marcelli and C.
Jensen for the suggestions during the measurements in synchrotrons, E. Costa for the valid
collaboration, E. DOnghia and G. Brizzi for the discussions about the organization of work
and the practical aspects of science.
I thank the people and the institutions who contributed to the experimental part of
this work, and particularly M. Barbera and S. Varisco at the XACT facility in Palermo,
Z.Y. Wu and the sta at BSRF, M. Freyberg, W. Burkert and G. Hartner at PANTER and
Z. Zhong at BNL. I am grateful to INAF/OAB, Media Lario Technologies and Ingenio-
Lombardia for the nancial support, to the Cfa institution for having hosted me.
iv
Contents
1 X Ray telescopes and astronomy 1
1.1 The sensitivity in X-ray telescopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Historical steps in X-ray instruments and astronomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.1 Rocket era (1962-1969) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.2 Collimated detector satellites (1970-1977) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.3 First generation focusing telescopes (1978-1999) . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2.4 The great observatories (1999-today) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3 A few signicant open cases in X-ray astronomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.3.1 The AGN and the Cosmic X-Ray Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.3.1.1 What an AGN is . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.3.1.2 The Cosmic X-Ray Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.3.2 Clusters of galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2 X-ray reection in focusing optics 21
2.1 Principles of X-ray reection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.1.1 Basic relations and equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.1.2 Relation between refractive indexes and energy . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.1.3 Implications on the possibilities of X-ray reection . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.2 Principles of reecting coatings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.2.1 Total reection coatings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.2.2 Interferential lms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.2.3 Multilayers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.2.3.1 General working principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.2.3.2 Recursive formula for multilayer calculation . . . . . . . . . 34
2.3 Broad band multilayer coatings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.3.1 Power-law multilayers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.3.1.1 Considerations about the parameter space . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.3.2 Multilayer coatings used in this work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3 Geometrical design of a nested shells Wolter-like X-ray telescope 43
3.1 Introduction to Wolter-like geometries for grazing incidence telescopes . . . 43
3.1.1 Angular resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.1.2 Mathematical description of the surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.1.3 Image quality of Wolter-like geometries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.1.4 Technologies for the realization of the optics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
v
3.1.4.1 Foil optics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.1.4.2 Replica techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.1.4.3 Superpolished glass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.2 Formulas about eective area and diameter distribution . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.2.1 Denition and preliminary considerations (single shell case) . . . . . 51
3.2.2 Geometrical parameters for a multi-shell telescope . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.2.2.1 Distribution of radii in a nested telescope . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.2.3 Oaxis behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.2.3.1 Vignetting for a single shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.2.3.2 Vignetting on a shell from the next inner one . . . . . . . . 59
3.2.3.3 Reectivity eects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.3 Numerical simulation of the performances by ray-tracing . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.3.1 Computational resources and possible improvements . . . . . . . . . 64
3.4 Chapter results and further work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4 Design and optimization for future X-ray telescopes 67
4.1 Simbol-X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.1.1 Technical overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.1.1.1 Scientic performances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.1.2 Design of the telescope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.1.2.1 Denition of the baseline [Cotroneo, 2006a] . . . . . . . . . 69
4.1.2.2 Fine tuning of the design [Cotroneo et al., 2008a] . . . . . . 76
4.1.2.3 Eects of satellite dithering [Cotroneo et al., 2009] . . . . . 82
4.2 WFI/EDGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
4.2.1 Target of the mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
4.2.2 Design of the WFI telescope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4.2.2.1 Parameters and constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4.2.2.2 Procedure followed for the design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
4.2.3 Results of the evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
4.2.3.1 On axis performances and determination of the equivalent
congurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
4.2.3.2 Selection of congurations and evaluation of the o-axis
performances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
4.2.3.3 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
4.3 XPOL/HXMT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
4.3.1 Description of the project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
4.3.2 First design and evaluation of the scientic performances . . . . . . . 101
4.3.3 Optimization of the telescope for the T2 design . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
4.3.4 Final design and scientic capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
4.4 Chapter conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
5 Experimental results on mirror samples 113
5.1 Aims of the studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
5.1.1 Carbon overcoatings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
5.1.2 Multilayer coatings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
5.2 Methods for deposition and measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5.2.1 Deposition of coatings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5.2.1.1 The deposition chamber at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics (CfA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
vi
5.2.1.2 The deposition process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
5.2.2 Measurement of X-ray reectivity at grazing angles . . . . . . . . . . 118
5.3 First measurements on carbon overcoating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.4 Second experiment on carbon ovecoating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
5.5 Deposition and measurement of multilayer samples for hard X-ray . . . . . . 142
5.5.1 Design of the models for the multilayer structures . . . . . . . . . . . 142
5.5.2 Realization and t of calibration samples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
5.5.3 Measurement of the samples at 8.04 keV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
5.5.4 Results of measurements at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) 148
5.5.4.1 Conclusions and future work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
5.6 Chapter conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
6 Conclusions 155
Chapter1
X Ray telescopes and astronomy
The observation of the X-ray (E0.1100 keV) sky is intrinsically dicult: X-rays cannot
be easily deected and focused to achieve sensitive observation. Furthermore, at the high
frequencies of X-rays, even a high emitting power translates in a relative small number
of photons (the weakest sources that can be revealed by present day instrumentation,
produce around one detectable photon every two day). Moreover the X-ray measurement
is complicated by the high instrumental noise (compared to the weak signal to detect),
that makes the X-ray sky looking almost as bright as the visible sky in daylight.
The rst X-ray instruments worked more or less as a dark box with a photometer,
measuring the amount of light entering from a hole, according to the pointing direction. In
almost 50 years of eorts, eective ways to focus the X-ray radiation and capture images
from it have been found, but not without obstacles: the most powerful instruments available
today, the Chandra and X-ray Multi Mirror (XMM) telescopes, oer, at 8 keV, a light
collecting power and an angular resolution (but not on the same instrument) equivalent to
an optical telescope of about 20 cm diameter. At lower energy (e.g. 1 keV) the situation
is someway better: the XMM telescope collecting power can be assimilated to a 40 cm
diameter optical telescope
1
, and the cosmic sources are much brighter. There is a last
diculty: such a telescope is about 10 meters long with a weight of several tonnes, and
we have to carry it above the atmosphere, that prevent the X-ray light to reach the Earth
surface (see g. 1.1).
However doing this, we will see a completely dierent sky than in visible light (g. 1.2), a
sky where the main output of energy is not due to the nuclear fusion, but to extreme gravity
conditions, able to heat the matter to millions degree temperatures. Powerful extragalactic
sources outshines ordinary stars, tracing the most energetic phenomena along the cosmic
history and revealing surprising new details about the evolution of the Universe and the
behavior of matter under extreme conditions. This is why further eorts are worth to be
done, with the aim of building better instruments, able to look more faraway from us and
to reveal new details about the forces at work in our Universe.
In this chapter I will give a short summary of the steps that led to the many orders
of magnitude improvement in the instrumentation sensitivity, trying to focus on the tech-
nological innovations that have permitted many fascinating discoveries and that can be
extrapolated in the next generation of telescopes. A few topics that can benet by the
future developments in the X-ray instruments are then illustrated.
1
That is not so bad, if we consider that the increasing in sensitivity with respect to the rst X-ray
instruments is the same than the one achieved in optical light during almost ve centuries, passing from
the performances of the Galileo telescope to the ones of the Hubble Space Telescope.
1
Figure 1.1: Transmission of electromagnetic radiation by the atmosphere. The solid line shows
the altitude by which half the radiation from space is absorbed. Just below this line virtually all
the radiation is absorbed. [Charles and Seward, 1995]
Figure 1.2: Find the dierences!: the region of the sky around Orion is imaged on the left in
optical light (with a low-power telescope) and on the right in X-ray (with the ROSAT telescope,
see 1.2.3). The celestial sources of radiation appear to be totally dierent in the two wavelengths.
A notable X-ray sources in the eld is the Crab nebula (bright blue source to the top), while the
brightest spot in the visible sky is the Moon (that, reecting the solar radiation, is also a detectable
source in X-ray). Interesting enough, Sirius (at bottom-left) appears to shine also in X-ray, but
in this case the main source of the emission is Sirius B, the white-dwarf companion of the optical
star (from http://www.star.le.ac.uk/~sav2/blackholes/xrays.html).
2
CHAPTER 1. X RAY TELESCOPES AND ASTRONOMY
1.1 The sensitivity in X-ray telescopes
To better understand the evolution of the astronomical instruments operating at X-ray
wavelengths it is useful to give some notes about the main parameter describing the per-
formances of a telescope in a given energy range and for a given eld of view, that is the
sensitivity. Every detector works on the same basic principle: translating a radiation, in
form of photons, to an electronic measurable signal. The X-ray instruments are not an
exception, even if the celestial x-ray emission presents some peculiarities. The X-ray ux
of most of the celestial sources decreases with the increase of the energy, while the energy
per photon increases according to E = h, resulting in a lower number of photons, the
higher is the energy. Furthermore, the presence of a random background noise component
is often relevant and, apart from the brightest objects, the detection of a source and the
measurement of observable quantities are essentially statistical processes: for weak sources
the background signal is often comparable and in many cases higher than the source one.
In this case, detecting a source means to identify an excess of signal over the random
background uctuations. Such a detection is by no means univocal, but it has instead a
statistical relevance. The probability of a signal excess to be due to a real source, rather
than to a random uctuation of the background signal, is related to the choice of a thresh-
old above the average value, for which we say to have a source, but the detection will never
be certain at 100%. Furthermore, for weak signals, close to the limit for the detection, the
same signal can or can not result in a detection, according to the level of the background
in correspondence of the signal (if it matchs a positive uctuation of the background, the
total signal can exceed the threshold, if the background uctuation is negative, the source
can escape the detection). Imaging pixelized detectors have added a spatial dimension to
the problem of source detection, permitting to correlate the spatial excesses of counts in
nearby pixel, allowing to reject a part of the background directly on-board.
Without any claims to be exhaustive, the basic statistical principles that determine the
gain achieved by using focusing instruments can be illustrated, neglecting the additional
positional information and considering a single source over the sensitive area. As a general
assumption, the signal is collected during a certain integration time T
int
, with the measured
signal given by the sum of a component due to the source ux F (photons s
1
cm
2
keV
1
),
and to a random noise component B (cts s
1
cm
2
). The identication of a source implies
the detection of a signal whose integrated number of counts exceeds a certain threshold
level above the average background level, e.g. xed in terms of multiples of the standard
deviations. Given the low rate of photons, the Poisson statistic is assumed to be valid, and
the source and background signal are considered to be uncorrelated.
Under these conditions (see e.g. Bradt [2004]), xing an integration time T
int
and an
energy interval E, we assume N
B
and N
S
to be, respectively, the number of counts due to
the background and to the source. There is no way to distinguish the origin of a detected
signal, so the best estimation of the counts due to the source is:
N
S
= N
T
N
B
= (N
S
+N
B
) N
B
, (1.1)
the number of counts is aected by statistical uctuations, with standard deviation:
N
S
=
_
2
N
S
+N
B
+
2
N
B
. (1.2)
We will consider mainly the case of a signal lower than the background (weak-source
approximation). In this case, the uctuations in the total number of counts is determined
by the background uctuation, and:
N
S

2
N
S
=
_
N
S
+ 2N
B
, (1.3)
3
1.1. The sensitivity in X-ray telescopes
with a signal to noise ratio S = N
S
/
2N
B
. The signal to noise ratio represents the
excess of signal over the statistical uctuations, the threshold value, chosen to discriminate
between a signal and a random count, determines together the minimum detectable ux
and the probability of a false detection. To give an example, choosing a threshold of 3
standard deviations (that corresponds to S 3), corresponds to avoid a false detection
with a 99.73% probability. Generally speaking, the minimum number of counts for a
detection with signal to noise ratio S is:
N
min
= S
_
2N
B
(1.4)
The above equations can be applied to the cases of direct view detectors, like the ones
employed aboard the rst X-ray astronomical instruments or even today in hard X-ray,
and of focusing ones, employed in the most recent soft X-ray telescopes. In direct view
detectors, independently on the collimation technique, a large area is exposed to the direct
ux incoming from a source.
Expressing the number of counts in terms of the telescope and observing parameters,
the signal counts are given, for a direct view detector, by:
N
S
= FA
det
T
int
E , (1.5)
where is the telescope eciency, that is the fraction of photons able to generate a signal
on the detector, E is the energy range and A
det
is the detector area. For a focusing
instrument the number of counts due to the signal is instead:
N
S
= FA
eff
T
int
E, (1.6)
with A
eff
eective area
1
of the telescope. For both the kind of telescopes the background
noise is proportional to the sensitive area, and is given by:
N
B
= BAT
int
E, (1.7)
where we are considering for the sensitive area A the whole detector area in the case of
the direct-view instruments (this makes very dicult for this kind of detectors to be in the
strong-source condition) and the focal spot area for the focusing instruments.
The minimum detectable ux for a given signal to noise ratios S (S sigma detection),
in the case of weak sources, will be:
F
min,dv
=
S
_
2B
T
int
E

1
A
d
T
int
A
d
, for direct-view instruments; (1.8)
F
min,foc
=
S
_
2B
T
int
E

A
d
A
eff
T
int
A
d
A
eff
, for focusing instruments. (1.9)
With A
d
the detector area collecting the signal. The advantages of a focusing optic is
apparent, since they have a large eective area and a small detector area. On the opposite,
the detector area for a direct view instrument is of the same order of the aperture, then
very large.
1
That is the product of the collecting area of the telescope and the reection eciency, it corresponds
to the cross-section of the telescope. See chap. 3 for details.
4
1.2 Historical steps in X-ray instruments and astronomy
We can split the history of X-ray astronomical instruments in several periods, each one
characterized by a major technological step
1
and, by consequence, by an improvement in
the knowledge of astrophysical phenomena. Each discovery has opened new horizons, and,
obviously, new questions, many of which are still unanswered today.
1.2.1 Rocket era (1962-1969)
After the Second World War, scientists could benet of war surplus rockets able to reach
the higher atmospheric layers and to explore otherwise forbidden wavelengths, including
X-rays. The typical instrumentation employed in the rst observations was made of propor-
tional counters, that produces a signal proportional to the energy of the detected radiation,
and a honeycomb collimator, that simply limited the eld of view (typically to an area of
some square degree). A beryllium window in front of the detector kept the gas inside the
detector chamber, letting the radiation penetrate inside it. The rst extra-solar source and
the most intense in the sky, Scorpius X-1, was discovered in 1962, during the rst exper-
iment of this kind [Giacconi et al., 1962], revealing, at the same time the presence of a
apparently diuse and isotropic component of unknown origin, that constitute the Cosmic
X-Ray Background (CXRB) and is not totally understood even today (see sec. 1.3.1). In
the next few years, several groups made experiments with rocket ights which established
the existence of other sources, including the Crab Nebula, the rst source whose position
was accurately determinated by the technique of lunar occultations. Also balloon ights
could carry instruments to altitudes of up to 40 kilometers above sea level, where they are
above as more than 99.9% of the Earths atmosphere, and oered a much longer observa-
tion time. However, even at such altitudes, much of the X-ray spectrum is still absorbed.
X-rays with energies less than 2035 keV cannot reach balloons, while gas lled detectors
had not enough stopping power to eciently detect radiations above 20 keV. Scintillation
counters were succesfully employed, allowing the rst hard X-ray (20200 keV) observations
(e.g. [Bleeker et al., 1967, Lewin et al., 1969]).
The above technologies led, during this rst exploration phase, to the discovery about 50
X-ray sources, but only a few of them had been identied with an optical counterpart. As a
consequence, at the end of this epoch, their nature was still undetermined: no mechanism
able to power the emission at the energy of X-ray were known. The existence of the
apparently diuse X-ray background, with uniformity to 5-10 % had also been determined.
1.2.2 Collimated detector satellites (1970-1977)
The rst X-ray astronomy dedicated satellite, Uhuru, employed a simply collimated detec-
tor, made by a beryllium window in front of a proportional counter, the same technology
used before then on the sounding rocket experiments. However the use of a satellite allowed
much longer observation times (achieved by repeated scan of the sky), a better stability and
an evolved background rejection system, allowing to perform the rst all-sky survey in the
220 keV energy band. This led to the detection of 339 (mainly galactic) sources [Forman
et al., 1978] down to an equivalent ux, in the 210 keV band, of 2.410
11
erg s
1
cm
2
.
One of the biggest problems of the rst detections was the identication of the optical coun-
terparts of the X-ray sources, since, for a simply collimated detector, the uncertainly on
the arrival direction of a photon corresponds to the whole eld of view (g. 1.3). Since
1
A short summary is presented in tab. 1.1 at the end of the section.
5
1.2. Historical steps in X-ray instruments and astronomy
this kind of detector rotates, the signal from a source appears convolved with the win-
dow, but the deconvolution (and the determination of a source position) is possible with a
good accuracy only for the brightest sources. Uhuru allowed the determination of source
locations with the accuracy of a few square minutes of arc for strong sources and a few
tenths of a square degree at the sensitivity limit. This was enough to indicate optical coun-
terpart candidates for many of the sources, but many others remained unidentied. The
observations of Centaurus X-3 are an exemplary case: the presence of regular pulsations
in the emission was clearly detected. Further observations allowed to measure the period
(4.84 seconds) and detect a sinusoidal frequency modulation of 2.09 days [Schreier et al.,
1972], establishing the binary nature of the system and allowing to determine its physical
parameters. The mystery had been solved and the mechanism powering the X-ray emission
unveiled for the rst time: the source was the accretion of matter from a massive start
(tens of solar masses) onto a compact object. Despite the importance of the discovery, the
identication of an optical counterparts had to wait three years [Krzeminski, 1974], due to
the high density of sources near the Galactic plane.
Another milestone was the discovery that clusters of galaxies [Forman et al., 1972]
are associated with extended (typically 30 arcmin) emission, which was not coming from
the individual galaxies. Now we know that the emission comes from a diuse gas (the
intra-cluster medium, see 1.3.2) with temperatures of 10
6
10
7
K. It is believed that the
potential well, formed when a gas cloud collapses to form the cluster, is deep enough to
heat the intra-cluster gas to such high temperature, while the gas density is low enough
for the cooling time to be greater than the age of the Universe.
HEAO-1, launched in 1977, was the rst of the large satellites devoted to X-ray obser-
vations. It carried 4 major instruments, covering the energy band from 0.2 keV to 10 MeV.
In particular, the A1 experiment, based on a simply collimated detector with a collecting
area more than ten times larger than the Uhuru one, increased the number of known X-ray
sources to 842, in a all-sky survey with 4 times the sensitivity of Uhuru. Moreover the
employment of scanning modulation collimators
1
on the A3 experiment allowed to deter-
mine with an accuracy from arcsecs to arcmins the positions of several hundreds of sources,
permitting the identication of the optical counterparts. Another important result was the
measurement of X-ray background from 350 keV and the determination of its spectral
shape, by means of the A4 experiment [Marshall et al., 1980], that up today is still the
unique all-sky measurement of the CXRB available in this energy band.
After the HEAO-1 mission, the 99% of the CXRB was still unresolved, but the in-
creasing number of resolved sources begin to suggest the possibility of the CXRB being
formed by many discrete sources at cosmological distance as proposed by Setti and Wolt-
jer Setti and Woltjer [1989], as conrmed (at least below 5keV by the next generations
of observatories).
1.2.3 First generation focusing telescopes (1978-1999)
Even if the use of satellites had led to a great increase in sensitivity, the angular resolution
of collimated detector was still poor, and the HEAO-1 measurement were limited at fainter
uxes, by source confusion: as fainter sources became detectable the projected area density
of sources increases. When the distance between sources became lower than the detector
angular resolution, they cannot be detected individually any more. Also an increase of
1
In this kind of detector, the sensitive area is masked by a sequence of opaque and transparent bands.
The rotation of the satellite introduces a modulation on the signal. The deconvolution allows to reconstruct
the position of sources.
6
the integration time cannot lead to improvements. Furthermore, in X-ray detectors, the
background is almost always dominated by the intrinsic component that originates in the
detector itself for the eects of cosmic rays or diuse radiation. Under these conditions,
the background noise is proportional to the detector area, that in a collimated detector
is of the same order of the collecting area, while the signal to noise ratio is proportional
to the square root of such area (as seen in section 1.1). On the opposite, in a focusing
telescope, the radiation can be concentrated on a small detector area, with a much lower
background and an improved signal to noise ratio.
Figure 1.3: Comparison between error boxes
for the position of Sco X-1 in rocket observa-
tions from simply collimated detectors (upper
panel yellow, orange and cyan boxes) [Charles
and Seward, 1995] and modulation collima-
tor detector (small red rectangles, magnied
in the lower panel), overimposed on a optical
map (from [Charles and Seward, 1995]).
For these reasons, in 1978, the launch of
the rst focusing telescope with truly imag-
ing capabilities, HEAO-2 (Einstein) observa-
tory gave, in a single step, an increase of
three order of magnitude in sensitivity ( 5
10
14
erg s
1
cm
2
in the 0.83.5 keV band),
starting a new era in X-ray astronomy. Ein-
stein demonstrated the ubiquity of X-ray emis-
sion from all classes of objects, and revealed for
the rst time the structure of extended objects
such as nearby galaxies and supernova rem-
nants. This and later missions have observed X
rays from ordinary stars, compact objects, in-
terstellar shock waves produced by stellar ex-
plosions, galactic nuclei and hot gas in inter-
galactic space. The telescope was able to focus
the X-ray radiation by mean of grazing inci-
dence nested Wolter type-I optics (see chap. 3),
the same geometry that has been employed in
the most powerful soft X-rays telescopes up to-
day, and that will be the base also for the next
generation of telescopes.
The introduction of focusing optics allowed
the concentration of the photons over a small
detector area, with the consequent dramatic re-
duction in the background noise. At the same
time, it made possible to overcome the confu-
sion limit, thanks to the unprecedented angular
resolution of 40 and 2 arcsec respectively with
the Imaging Proportional Counter (IPC) and High Resolution Imager (HRI) instruments.
These two, of the four focal plane instrument, were provided, for the rst time, of true
imaging capabilities.
These facts determined a dramatic splitting that lasts even today, between the cong-
uration and performances of narroweld, highresolution and highsensitivity soft X-ray
telescopes against hard X-ray collimated with a larger eld of view and low resolutions and
sensitivity . The recent evolution of telescopes operating in hard X-rays, by the use of coded
mask collimated detectors, has given to these kind of telescopes real imaging capabilities,
but with a resolution and sensitivity much lower than in a focusing instrument. We will
see in chapter 4 how some of the next-generation telescopes plan to reduce this gap, by
broadening the spectral band for focused observations or allowing a broader eld of view.
7
1.2. Historical steps in X-ray instruments and astronomy
Indeed the next large telescope, ROSAT, launched in 1990 gave us the rst and last
1
X-ray and eXtreme Ultra Violet (XUV) all-sky survey using an imaging telescope with a
sensitivity comparable to that of the average Einstein pointing, leading, in the 0.5-2 keV
band, to the detection of more than 100 000 sources. After the rst six months of operations
the ROSAT observations were dedicated to deeper pointed observations resolving about
75% of the CXRB [Hasinger et al., 1998] in the Lockman Hole region
2
in the 0.5-2 keV
band.
1.2.4 The great observatories (1999-today)
The success of telescopes like Einstein and ROSAT, had opened a new view of the sky.
The time was mature for a further improvement, that could approach the performances of
optical telescopes.
The IPC and Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC) focal plane instruments
aboard Einstein and ROSAT produced a signal proportional to the energy of the incoming
photons, owning some basic spectroscopic capabilities. Nevertheless such information were
limited by the small number of electrons produced in the gas-photon interaction, resulting
in a poor energetic resolution. Higher quality spectroscopic information were provided on
Einstein by two further spectroscopic detectors, without imaging capabilities and acting as
an alternative to the imaging ones. The advent of X-ray sensitive Charge Coupled Device
(CCD) cameras allowed to perform at the same time accurate imaging observations and
high resolution spectroscopy on a broad energy band. The employment of CCD detectors,
jointly with the developments in space technologies, allowed the realization of longer (of
the order of ten meters, against about 3 m for the previous missions) focal length telescopes
with smaller reection angles and, consequently, a higher eciency at high energy.
The two largest observatories still operating today, Chandra and XMM, have an opera-
tive energy band extended respectively to a maximum of 10 keV and 15 keV for the stronger
sources (but with very reduced capabilities above 8 and 12 keV respectively). Since these
telescopes represent the state of the art in the eld of soft X-ray astronomy, it is useful to
review the main features and dierences between the two telescopes and the main results
achieved so far. The dierent technologies for the mirror realization of these two telescopes
is the expression of two separate approaches to the observations:
Chandra takes to the maximum levels the realization techniques used for the assembly
of the Einstein and ROSAT mirror modules. These are made of a few hard, thick
and accurately gured glass, that permit an exceptional imaging quality (below 1
arcsec Half Energy Width (HEW), compared to the 4 arcsec of Einstein and ROSAT),
comparable to the one of the best optical telescopes. Also the Chandra telescope
has four mirror shells, like its predecessors, but a factor three higher collecting area,
thanks to the larger mirror aperture and the iridium coating of mirrors. Chandra has
a single module with eective area of 400 cm
2
at 1 keV. Either one of two detectors
can be placed in the focal plane: the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS),
based on a CCD array with imaging ( 1 arcsec hew) and spectroscopy capabilities,
and the High Resolution Camera (HRC) instrument, based on micro-channel plates
detector with a wider eld-of-view and a still better angular resolution. Two dierent
1
Also due to the unlucky failure, after the launch in 1999, of the ABRIXAS mission, designed to perform
an updated all-sky survey
2
A region of the Galaxy, where the line of sight has an exceptionally low density ( 5.7 10
19
cm
2
against a typical value of 10
20
10
22
depending on galactic latitude.) of absorbing interstellar gas. For this
reason it is one of the most studied elds for the observation of extragalactic objects
8
grating can be inserted into focused X-ray beam providing spectral resolution of 60
1000 over energy range 0.410 keV High-Energy Transmission Grating (HETG) and
402000 (0.093 keV, Low-Energy Transmission Grating (LETG)). The exceptional
image quality of Chandra has a fundamental importance in crowded regions and
extended objects, allowing very accurate observations of complex regions like the
galactic center or supernova remnants.
On the opposite side, the XMM telescope [Lumb et al., 1996], nds its most powerful
feature in the very large eective area ( 1400 cm
2
at 1.5 keV, about 10 times the
Einstein one), achieved by the use of a high number (58) of thin-and-light reecting
shells, oering a moderate angular resolution (15 arcsec), but a much higher photon
collecting eciency, that permits the collection of high quality spectra even for weak
sources. This kind of mirrors have been realized by exploiting the Nickel electroform-
ing replica technique, already experienced during the realization of the very successful
Beppo-SAX satellite [Boella et al., 1997], operative from 1996 to 2002. Beppo-SAX
was the rst satellite able to focus X-ray up to 10 keV. Exploiting a combination of
focused and coded mask instruments over a broad operative band, it led to impor-
tant results, the most resounding of which are probably the rst observation of the
Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) afterglow [Costa et al., 1997] and the subsequent identi-
cation of the optical counterpart [van Paradijs et al., 1997], that solved the 25 year
old question of the GRB origin and conrmed the eectiveness of a broad band cover-
age. Aboard XMM, three coaligned optics modules are available, one of them focuses
X-rays directly on the European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC)-pn CCD imaging
camera, sensitive in the 0.215 keV band, while the other two feed two EPIC Metal
Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) CCD imaging cameras with a sensitivity in 0.2-10 keV
energy range. About half of the photons falling on the MOS detectors are diverted,
by Residual Gas Analyzer (RGA), to the Reection Grating Spectrometer (RGS)
camera, able to provide high resolution (E/E 100 800) X-ray spectroscopy in
the 0.332.5 keV range. These characteristics permitted to reach ux limits of the or-
der of 10
16
erg s
1
cm
2
. The latest XMM catalog (XMM2i [Watson et al., 2008]),
collected data with spectral information from more than 200 000 sources over a area
(at non-uniform exposure levels) of the order of 400 square degrees. Observations of
known sources improved the quality of the data collected in the previous missions
also extending results to higher energy.
9
1
.
2
.
H
i
s
t
o
r
i
c
a
l
s
t
e
p
s
i
n
X
-
r
a
y
i
n
s
t
r
u
m
e
n
t
s
a
n
d
a
s
t
r
o
n
o
m
y
Table 1.1: Performances and technological innovations for the soft X-ray telescopes cited in the text. For comparison, in hard X-ray, the minimum
detectable ux (converted to 0.52 keV) from IBIS/INTEGRAL is 5 10
14
erg s
1
cm
2
with a few percent (< 23%) of resolved sources [Krivonos
et al., 2007]. References: URHURU [Forman et al., 1978], HEAO-1 [Piccinotti et al., 1982], HEAO-2/Einstein [Primini et al., 1991], ROSAT [Hasinger
et al., 1998], Chandra [Worsley et al., 2005, Bauer et al., 2004], XMM/Newton [Brunner et al., 2008].
Mission Eective
area (cm
2
)
Resolution
(HEW,
arcsec)
Energy
bandwidth
(keV)
Innovations Sensitivity
a
(erg s
1
cm
2
)
% of
sources
resolved
URHURU
(1970)
840
b
/ 220 First X-ray satellite, simply
collimated
10
11
< 1
HEAO-1
(1975)
42
b
/ 0.22 First large satellite, scanning
techniques
7 10
12
1
Einstein
Observatory
(197881)
200 at 1 keV 2 0.24.5 First focusing telescope 5 10
14
2025
ROSAT
(19909)
400 at 1 keV 5 0.12.4 4 Au coated Zerodur shells
1.2 10
15
8090
BeppoSAX
(1996)
330 at 1 keV 60 0.110 Nickel-replicated conical optics, 4
modules 30 nested shells
Chandra
(1999)
800 at 1 keV 0.5 0.310 Highest resolution, 4 Ir coated
Zerodur shells, transmission gratings
10
17
90100
XMM (1999) 4650 at 1
keV, 1800 at
8 keV
14 0.212 Highest Area, 3 modules 58 Au
coated Nickel replica shells, reection
gratings
2 10
16
90
100%
a) Minimum detectable ux in deepest exposures, converted to (0.52 keV) for a Crab-like spectrum (photon index 2.1). b) Collecting area.
c) In the 0.52 keV band.
1
0
1.3 A few signicant open cases in X-ray astronomy
Thanks to the many developments in instrumentation and to more and more sensitive
observations, now we know very well the nature of the sources emitting in soft X-ray
(below 10 keV), they are mainly:
Galactic sources:
X-ray binaries;
Supernova remnants;
Galactic center;
Extragalactic sources:
Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN);
Galaxy clusters;
Examples of arguments of particular interest in X-ray astronomy are: accretion pro-
cesses in X-ray binaries and AGN; relativistic broadening of the Fe line at 6.46.9 keV
near black hole horizon; jets in AGN and microquasars; nuclear decay lines in supernova
remnants.
In the next section I will concentrate on the problems related to the extragalactic
sources, discussing the problem of the CXRB and its relation with adsorbed AGN. This is
probably the subject that would have the largest benet from an extension of the energy
band to harder X-rays. I will then present the topic of the galactic clusters, that will be
considered again in section 4.2.
1.3.1 The AGN and the Cosmic X-Ray Background
The presence of a diuse X-ray background is known from the rst observations conducted
by the pioneers of X-ray astronomy [Giacconi et al., 1962], but, due to the poor resolution
of the rst instruments, it has not been possible for many years to determine its nature
(diuse cosmological component or integration of radiation from many point sources).
Now the situation is much clearer, at least in the low energy region: the emission come
mainly from AGN (see 1.3.1.1), with a minor contribute from cluster of galaxies. This
interpretation is well conrmed below 10 keV, where high sensitivity focusing instruments
have been available, allowing to resolve into discrete sources almost the totality of the
emission, while above 10 keV, where the emission peaks, we are still in a pre-Einstein era
1
,
and almost the totality of the sources has never been observed.
There are many evidences that a population of heavily absorbed AGN, that emits the
most of their energy in hard X-ray, lies just beyond the detection capabilities of present day
instruments, limited on one side by the narrow broad-band response of focusing instruments
and, on the other, by the low-sensitivity of hard X-ray detectors. Understanding the
characteristics, in terms of redshift, absorbing column density and luminosity distributions
of this population is a fundamental matter for the comprehension of galaxy formation and
evolution.
In the next sections, we will review some known facts and issues about the AGN, in
the picture of the accepted standard model, the relation with the CXRB, examining the
possible improvements coming from future technological developments.
1
The rst focusing telescope, Einstein, has raised the fraction of resolved CXRB from the 1% of
HEAO-1 to 2025%, further improvements with ROSAT and Chandra and XMM have taken the values
to 7080% and close to 100%.
11
1.3. A few signicant open cases in X-ray astronomy
1.3.1.1 What an AGN is
The visible sky is dominated by the optical emissions of stars in our Galaxy, that exhibit
continuous thermal spectrum with absorption lines cut into it. The spectrum of a normal
galaxy is so the composite spectrum of the stars and gas that make up the galaxy, with
a contribute (for spiral galaxies) from the emission lines of the bright HII regions. The
result is a continuum spectrum, where sometimes is possible to discern the absorption of
the emission lines of the gas. The emission of normal galaxies extends to higher and lower
frequency than optical ones, but is very weak in these spectral region. In the second half
of the past century several types of galaxies with peculiar spectral features, like a strong
emission in the UV, X-ray and, in many case, optical and radio and the presence of broader
than normal emission line in the optical, have been discovered, and, during many years,
were classied according to the presence or the absence of the above features.
After several decades of exploration and classications, now we know that the peculiar
spectra of these kind of galaxies is to ascribe to a larger than normal activity happening
in a small volume, close to the galaxy center, and a great variety of object with dierent
names: QSO (or quasars), blazars, Seyfert galaxies, radio galaxies; are now all grouped
into the category of AGN. A solid unied model [Antonucci, 1993] for AGN, supported by
meaningful observations [Antonucci and Miller, 1985], has been developed and is commonly
accepted by the scientic community. The radiation from AGN is believed to be a result of
accretion onto the super-massive black hole at the center of the host galaxy [Rees, 1984],
being the dierences between them currently interpreted as dierences in brightness and
orientation along the line of sight (see g. 1.4(b)). The components of a AGN in this
standard model are [Urry, 2004]:
a supermassive black hole, with typical mass in the range 10
6
10
9
M
;
an accretion disk and corona, surrounding the black hole, with thermal emission;
dissipative processes in the accretion disc transport matter inwards and angular mo-
mentum outwards, while causing the accretion disc to heat up, emitting in X-ray;
a region populated with dense high velocity gas, that, illuminated by the radiation
coming from the disk, gives a broad line emission region (Broad Line Region (BLR))
in the optical;
a region known as Narrow Line Region (NLR), with lower density, that is believed
to be at a larger distance from the central source, the smaller broadening of emission
lines in optical with respect to BLR indicates a lower temperature;
an obscuring torus of gas and dust, hiding the broad line region from some viewing
directions. The particle of the torus are heated by UltraViolet (UV) and X-ray
radiation from the inner part of the AGN, and emit thermally in the InfraRed (IR);
relativistic jets, formed within a distance around 100 R
S
from the central BH and
extending outwards for tens of kpc, and, in some cases, as much as a Mpc. The
jet production mechanism and indeed the jet composition on very small scales are
not known at present. Jets are strong emitters in radio and X-ray, and a lot of
information about their structure has been provided by multi-wavelength studies in
these bands.
The spectral features of an AGN, and consequently the possibilities to detect and
observe it, depend on the absorbing gas column density along the line of sight, in the X-
ray spectral region the obscuration is due to photoelectric absorption (generally dominant
12
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 1.4: (a): A possible scheme for the dierent characteristics of the AGN types as orientation
eect. (b):The standard model for a AGN structure. The BLR and NLR are currently believed to
be due to gas clouds in dierent positions respect to the central core.(c): Example of the broad-band
SED of the AGN source 3C273 (credits: OpenLearn).
13
below 3 keV) and Compton scattering (generally dominant from 7 to 30 keV). This
lead to the division between dierent classes of absorption (g. 1.6 from [Risaliti and Elvis,
2004] shows observed spectra of AGN in the dierent classes):
Unabsorbed/Low-absorption (N
H
10
22
cm
2
): the emissions are only weakly shielded
and the AGN can be identied by their optical emission. Low absorption AGN can be
observed in the optical up to cosmological distances, and several selection techniques
are available to eectively collect quite complete samples.
Compton-thin (N
H
1.5 10
24
cm
2
): produce a photoelectric cut-o at energies
between 1 and 10 keV. This kind of sources can be eectively identied by their X-
ray emission, provided that their spectra is not too hard and that they are intense
enough. The low sensitivity of the present day telescope in the higher part of the
soft X-ray band indeed poses severe limitations [Brandt and Hasinger, 2005].
Mildly Compton Thick (N
H
10
24
cm
2
10
25
cm
2
): the X-ray primary emission
is absorbed up to several tens of keV, but the harder X-ray emission above 10 keV
can escape after one or more scatterings, resulting in a luminosity at least an order
of magnitude higher than that of the host galaxy. This kind of sources is expected to
be strong emitters of hard-X rays, that can pass through the absorbing material, and
in infrared, by eect of the reprocessing of high energy radiation by the absorbing
material.
Heavily Compton Thick (N
H
10
25
cm
2
): no direct emission can penetrate the ob-
scuring medium, also in hard X ray, because multiple Compton scatterings gradually
remove energy from the photons until they can be photoelectrically absorbed. Heav-
ily absorbed AGN can be detected in X-ray by their reected (scattered) emission,
whose intensity increases with the amount of absorbed radiation and whose main
spectral features [Ghisellini et al., 1994] are:
a continuum due to electron scattering. The reection eciency is typically a
few percent of the direct emission in the 2-10 keV range because of photoelectric
absorption, rising to 30% at the 30 keV peak for a Compton-thick reector
covering a signicant fraction of the solid angle;
a prominent iron line at 6.4keV , with typical EW of 100200 eV, usually
ascribed to emission due to uorescence in the inner part of the accretion disk.
1.3.1.2 The Cosmic X-Ray Background
Our knowledge of the overall spectral shape of the CXRB up to the highest energies relies
mainly on the data of the only broad-band all-sky measurement, performed by HEAO-1:
below 1 keV the background is dominated by the Galactic emissions (mainly by X-ray
binaries and SuperNova remnants) making dicult to disentangle the extragalactic compo-
nent, while, above this energy, the emission is dominated by the extragalactic component.
The overall shape of the spectrum in the 1 15 keV is well-tted [Marshall et al., 1980]
by a power-law 1.4, starting to atten o before peaking in I
at about 30 keV. Below

10 keV, more recent estimations, from the ROSAT all-sky surveys and from recent narrow
eld deep exposures are also available (see g. 1.7). Most of them indicate a somewhat
higher (between 15% and 30%) normalization [Revnivtsev et al., 2005], but a very similar
spectral shape.
14
(a) (b)
Figure 1.5: Models for AGN X-ray spectra for AGN with dierent absorption levels (see also some
measured spectra in g. 1.6). (a): Models assumed in [Gilli et al., 2007]. The unabsorbed sources
are simulated by a power-law primary emission (with high energy cut-o) plus a harder disk-
reection component with iron line emission at 6.4 keV. In Compton thin sources (log N
H
< 24),
the photoelectric absorption introduces a low energy cuto. Heavily Compton thick (log N
H
> 25)
sources are modeled by a single component for the reection by the torus, while in mildly Compton
thick AGN (log N
H
24.5) a hard transmitted component (dashed line) is added. A soft excess
is also present for absorbed sources, in agreement with observations [Turner et al., 1997]. The
comparison of the total output (under certain assumptions over the population) with CXRB is
shown in g. 1.7. (b): Average total spectrum (thick black line) and main components for a
Compton thin absorbed AGN Risaliti and Elvis [2004]: the main primary continuum (purple), the
cold reection component (green), iron K- emission line (red) and soft excess (cyan).
15
Figure 1.6: X-ray spectra (1 - 100 keV) of four representative obscured AGN [Risaliti and Elvis,
2004]: MCG-5-23-16 (N
H
= 10
22
cm
2
, NGC 4388 (N
H
= 4 10
23
cm
2
, NGC 4945 (N
H
=
2 10
24
cm
2
, and NGC 1068 (N
H
> 10
25
cm
2
.
Figure 1.7: Results from several measurement of the CXRB spectrum performed by means of
focusing and non-focusing telescopes are compared to the expectations from the models [Gilli
et al., 2007]. In the left panel, solid lines refer to the contribution of dierent AGN absorption
classes. Unabsorbed, Compton thin and total AGN and galaxy cluster contributes, are shown with
a red, blue and magenta curve, respectively. In the right panel the contribution of Compton-thick
AGN (black line) is included.
16
Figure 1.8: Moretti et al. [2003] derived the resolved fraction of the CXRB using data from several
wide elds and deep pencil beam surveys in soft (12 keV) and hard (210 keV) X-ray (data from
Chandra and XMM have been used for the pencil beam observations in both bands, while ROSAT
and ASCA have provided the data for the wide eld surveys respectively for the soft and hard
energy band. The resolved sources from that data could account for the 94% (89%) of the CXRB
energy in the soft (hard) X-ray region.
Moretti et al. [2003] have analyzed data from several telescopes in a softer (1-2 keV) and
a harder (2-10 keV) band, deriving the resolved fraction of the CXRB. The resolved sources
from that data could account for the 94% (89%) of the CXRB energy in the softer
(harder) X-ray region, while the extrapolation of the X-ray Luminosity Function (XLF)
for the harder band leads to a maximum resolvable faction of 93%. Other estimation
based on deep pencil beam pointing by Chandra and XMM, based on a detailed analysis
of the possible sources of systematic errors [De Luca and Molendi, 2004], or by the use
of stacking techniques [Worsley et al., 2005], report values around 80% for the 2-10 keV.
The mismatch between the dierent measurements, can partly be due to the dierence
between the observation elds and the related inhomogeneities, but also cross-calibration
and systematic errors probably aect the measurements [Moretti et al., 2003, Barcons et al.,
2000].
Even if Chandra and XMM have resolved into sources the vast majority of the CXRB
in the soft X-ray, indicating that in this spectral band the contributes come mainly from
low-absorption AGN, the peak of the CXRB Spectral Energy Distribution is situated near
30 keV, where 99% of the background emission remains unresolved [Krivonos et al.,
2007]: we have not any direct observation and statistic of the sources that are believed
to provide the largest amount of the X-ray radiation in the Universe. Moreover, the
spectra of the sources observed in soft X-ray, peaking around 10 keV, are much softer than
the CXRB one, exhibiting a peak around 30 keV, so the shape of the CXRB cannot be
tted by the extrapolation of the known sources spectra to higher energy. The common
explanation [Setti and Woltjer, 1989] is the existence of a population of AGN that are
obscured by photoelectric absorption in the soft X-ray band and whose ux is just below
the current detection limit.
17
1.4. Conclusions
1.3.2 Clusters of galaxies
In the commonly accepted hierarchical model
1
, clusters of galaxies are the largest structure
to have decoupled from Hubble ow, in a epoch when Galaxies and the most of the stars
were already formed. By consequence, cluster are very meaningful tracers of the cosmic
evolution and of the underlying matter distribution [Voit, 2005]. Clusters identication at
high z is not a easy issue, recent Chandra and XMM observations have revealed for the
rst time the presence of massive clusters at z1 (e.g. [Lamer et al., 2008]), suggesting
a formation age that dates back to z > 1.5 [Rosati et al., 2002]. The exact limit is still
unknown, as well as the environmental conditions (e.g. metal enrichment, previous thermal
history).
The baryonic matter in a cluster is mainly distributed between:
Stars and galaxies, that constitute about 8% of the total baryonic matter;
A highly ionized, optically-thin intergalactic gas Intra Cluster Medium (ICM) in col-
lisional equilibrium, emitting in X-ray during a process of radiative cooling, trapped
in the potential wells of the clusters. This gas is believed to have been heated at
typical temperatures between 2 and 10 keV by shocks during the cluster formation.
Numerical simulations [Cen and Ostriker, 2006] predict that the largest part of the
total baryonic content of the recent Universe should reside in a warm-hot phase
with temperature 10
5
10
7
K and overdensities between 30 and 1000, the so-called
Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM), that is currently undergoing gravitational
collapse. The density of gas in WHIM is lower than that of the ICM, by consequence
they are quite dicult to detect, both in emission and absorption.
The dierent components of a cluster are beautifully captured in g. 1.9 (see caption).
Chandra and XMM-Newton have provided many details: e.g. the spectacular observa-
tion of a merger between clusters allows to study the relation between dark and ordinary
matter [Markevitch et al., 2004] and the trace of the WHIM, have been detected for the rst
time [Nicastro et al., 2005, Kaastra et al., 2003], even if only in a very local Universe, by
their absorption of exceptionally strong sources used as back-lights [Nicastro et al., 2005]
or by their O VII emission at 0.54 keV [Kaastra et al., 2003]. However, the latest results
has also shown the mechanism of the inward ow of gas, that was expected to compensate
the cooling of matter in cluster is more complex than expected [Markevitch and Vikhlinin,
2007, Peterson and Fabian, 2006].
1.4 Conclusions
We have shown how the acquisition of new knowledge about the X-ray sky has followed
closely the developments in X-ray instrumentation. In the about 50 years of history of the
X-ray astronomy the instruments has gain several orders of magnitude in sensitivity, at least
in soft X-ray, where focusing instruments are available. In hard X-ray, the introduction
of the coded masked technique has allowed improvements in the imaging quality, but the
sensitivity is still much lower than in soft X-ray: we can literally see the light of the sky
only through the shadows it project.
1
Due to the formation of the rst stars, protogalaxies, and massive black holes the Universe reionizes.
As cosmic structures take shape, gravitational collapse of Dark Matter halos creates the seed regions
where star formation occurs. Subsequently, galaxies form and merge into groups and clusters through a
hierarchical build-up process.
18
Figure 1.9: This spectacular multi-wavelength image of the Abell 1689 cluster at z 0.17 (Credits:
X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/E.-H Peng et al; Optical: NASA/STScI) summarizes the content of
matter in a cluster: the yellow colors show the visible emission captured by the Hubble Space
Telescope, composed by galaxies. The bluer image is the X-ray emission from the Intra Cluster
Medium, as seen by Chandra (shown alone in the right panel). The dark matter component
eects are visible in the many long arcs on the image sides, caused by the gravitational lensing of
background galaxies by matter in the galaxy cluster. The image is also a good example of how
dicult is the investigation in this eld: in spite of the accuracy of the measurements, the mass
balance from gravitational lensing and from ICM distribution does not match with the one inferred
by the gas temperature, measured in X-ray [Lemze et al., 2008].
At the dawn of X-ray astronomy no mechanism of emission in X-ray were known, since
no mechanism more ecient than nuclear fusion was known, and the discovery of strong
emitters was a surprise. Now we have more than a basic knowledge of the mechanisms
that can produce the emission and we know the energy to be powered by gravity, in
its most dramatic manifestations. Anyway many of the details of the energy production
mechanisms, and their implications on the Universe formation and evolution (AGN), on
the large scale structures (cluster of galaxies), on the elements synthesis (SN remnants) or
GR tests (Black holes near horizon) are worth of further studies, and can strongly benet
from further technological developments.
The most powerful instruments available today are the result of huge technological
eorts and, as we will see in the next chapters, the improvements of the overall performances
in future telescopes needs a further technological step, with an increasing of the eective
area, or with the extension of the energetic band. On the other side, smaller missions, based
on on-the-shelf technology and tuned to a restricted number of subtopics (polarimetry,
cluster of galaxies, GRB), can oer a powerful opportunity to clarify important points in
our understanding.
19
1.4. Conclusions
20
Chapter 2
X-ray reection in focusing optics
This chapter is about the physical principles that allow the realization of X-ray mirrors.
A rst section gives the basic relations that determine the reection of light at the inter-
face between two media. The second section discusses the working principles of reectors
based on single layer or multilayer coatings, illustrating the method used in this work for
the calculation of reectivity. The power-law model adopted in this thesis for multilayer
structures is reviewed in details, deriving some considerations about the parameter space.
The models used for the simulation (chapter 4) and the experimental (chapter 5) parts of
this thesis are then described.
2.1 Principles of X-ray reection
This section describes the physical bases of the theory of reection. The Snell and Fresnel
formulas are discussed in relation with their application to X-ray reection at grazing inci-
dence, by means of complex refraction indexes. The relations between the optical constants
and the physical properties of the matter are illustrated, discussing some approximations
that can be useful in the application to X-ray telescopes.
2.1.1 Basic relations and equations
The behavior of light at the interface between two materials is described by the Snell law,
n
1
cos
1
= n
2
cos
2
, (2.1)
dening the direction of propagation of the light inside the second material, and the Fresnel
laws:
r
12
=
n
1
sin
1
n
2
sin
2
n
1
sin
1
+n
2
sin
2
, (2.2a)
r
12
=
n
1
sin
2
n
2
sin
1
n
1
sin
2
+n
2
sin
1
, (2.2b)
t
12
=
2n
1
sin
1
n
1
sin
1
+n
2
sin
2
, (2.2c)
t
12
=
2n
1
sin
1
n
1
sin
2
+n
2
sin
1
, (2.2d)
21
2.1. Principles of X-ray reection
(a)
(b)
Figure 2.1: Direction for the electric and magnetic elds vectors for radiation incident onto a
surface, for the parallel (a) and perpendicular polarizations(b) respect to the incidence plane,
according to the conventions followed in the text (gure from Hecht [1987]).
determining the values of the transmission, t, and reection coecients, r, from the
wavelength-dependent refraction indexes of the two materials n
1
and n
2
and from the
angles between the direction of propagation and the interface
1
e
2
(g.2.1). The coef-
cients t and r are dened respectively as the ratios between the complex transmitted or
reected wave and the incident one. The above equations can be derived by the Maxwell
equations by imposing the continuity of the electromagnetic wave at the boundary between
the two materials (e.g. [Born and Wolf, 1980, sec. 1.5]).
Since we are mainly interested to grazing incidence reections, the above formula are
expressed, dierently from the commonly used form, in dependence of the angles between
the light direction and the surface. It is useful to remark that the largest incidence angles
employed in X-ray telescopes are usually not larger than a few degrees, making possible to
approximate the sine function with its argument without any relevant error.
-180
-150
-120
-90
-60
-30
0
30
60
90
120
150
180
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
P
h
a
s
e

s
h
i
f
t

f
o
r

r
e
f
l
e
c
t
e
d

w
a
v
e

(
d
e
g
)
Incidence angle (deg)
Phase shift for electric field in reflection of 4 keV radiation from Ir
p-polarization
s-polarization
Figure 2.2: Phase shift as a function of the graz-
ing incidence angle for the two polarizations for
4 keV X-rays reected from an iridium surface.
The reectivity and transmittivity R and
T are dened as the ratio of the intensities of
the waves after the reection or transmission
and are given by the square of the absolute
values of the transmission and reection co-
ecients. With small values for the angles
the reectivity and transmittivity also as-
sumes undistinguishable values for the two
polarizationa. The and symbols refer to
the parallel and perpendicular polarizations,
with respect of the reection plane (the
plane that contains the incident, reected
and transmitted wave vectors). Alternative
common denitions for the parallel and per-
pendicular polarization are respectively: p-
polarization and s-polarization; tangential
and transverse; Transverse Magnetic (TM) and Transverse Electric (TE).
Equations 2.1 and 2.2 are usually considered in optics (e.g. for visible light) to be
expressions of real quantities, the angles and the refraction indexes, while the absorption
is usually neglected or independently accounted for. It is remarkable that these relations
are still valid using complex values for reection indexes, and indeed the use of complex
22
CHAPTER 2. X-RAY REFLECTION IN FOCUSING OPTICS
Figure 2.3: Real (left) and complex (right) parts of the refraction indexes for heavy (W, Mo) and
light (Si) materials used for X-ray multilayers (from [Ivan, 2002]).
quantities is very useful to completely treat the phenomenon of X-rays refraction, including
the eects of absorption, since all material are subject to photoelectric absorption. This
gives as result complex values for the Fresnel coecient, with the result of introducing
a phase shift in the reected/transmitted wave. As an example, the phase shifts of the
reected waves, in the case of the two polarizations, as a function of the incidence angle,
are illustrated in g. 2.2 for the case of a reecting layer made of iridium for a energy of 4
keV.
Equations 2.2 show that the transmission coecients are always positive, while the
reection ones can assume also negative values. Expressing an electromagnetic plane wave
with wave vector |K| = 2/ propagating in a medium of refraction index n as:
E(x, t) = E
0
e
i(nKxt+)
, (2.3)
and recalling the denition of the reection coecients (r
E
0r
E
0i
)), a change in the sign of
r can be seen as a phase shift = introduced by the reection at the surface.
2.1.2 Relation between refractive indexes and energy
As we will see the refraction index in X-ray is, for all the material, very close to one. For
this reason is useful to express it as n = 1 +i, being and very small quantities.
1
Typically, for all materials, 10
5
10
2
, 10
6
10
2
in the keV range, and still
smaller ( 10
7
10
4
, 10
11
10
5
) in hard X-rays (see gure 2.3). By considering
the expression 2.3 of the electromagnetic wave in a medium, the complex part of n accounts
for the absorption and is related to the linear absorption coecient by =
4
, being
I
I
0
= exp (x) the ratio between the intensities of the wave after and before going
through a thickness x in the medium.
The real and the complex parts of the refraction index are strictly connected, being the
refraction index an analytic function of the same physical quantities, they are related by
the well-known Kramer-Kroenig relation (see e.g. Bass et al. [1995]):
=
1
PV
_

0
2
d
, (2.4)
1
The convention on the sign of is not unique in literature, the present choice corresponds to put > 0.
23
2.1. Principles of X-ray reection
where is the frequency of the radiation, and the integral is calculated as the Cauchy
principal value (PV) over the whole frequency spectrum.
The typical trend of the real part of the refraction index near to an atomic absorption
edge can be inferred from equation 2.4, presenting a maximum, followed by an abrupt drop.
Figure 2.4 shows the typical trend of the real and complex parts of the refraction index as
a function of radiation frequency: far from the absorption edges, the real refraction index
slowly increases with the frequency (delta decreases).
Figure 2.4: Typical behavior of the refraction
index as a function of the frequency (real and
imaginary parts in top and bottom panels re-
spectively). Absorption edges occurs in corre-
spondence of the atomic levels frequencies, with
peaks in the complex part of the index. The
real and the imaginary parts are related by the
Kramer-Kroenig relation (eq. 2.4).
In the regions close to absorption edges
(that appears in correspondence of the en-
ergy needed for the excitation/deexcitation
from a given atomic level), there is a peak in
the absorption (linearly related to the com-
plex part of the refraction index) that gives
an abrupt change in the real part of n.
The refraction index can be related to the
atomic properties of the matter by expressing
it as:
n = 1+i = 1
N
at
r
e
2
2
(f
1
if
2
) , (2.5)
where r
e
is the classical electron radius (r
e
=
e
2
mec
2
= 2.8179 10
13
cm) and and N
at
the
atomic density, f
1
and f
2
are called anoma-
lous scattering factors and are connected to
the interaction between the matter and the
radiation impinging on it.
A quantum mechanical approach is
needed for the full description of the refrac-
tion index energy dependence, however, an
insight of the relations between the equa-
tion 2.5 and the physics of the radiation-
matter interaction can be achieved also by
simpler classical treatments. A very simple
approximation is to consider the electrons as
a free-electrons gas (see e.g. Spiller [1994,
chap. 2]). The electrons are free to oscillate under the eects of the radiation electro-
magnetic eld, reemitting it in dipole approximation. In this context the eects of ab-
sorption are totally neglected and the imaginary scattering factor f
2
must be introduced
independently by the real scattering factor f
1
, that plays the role of the eective number
of electrons per atom involved in the interaction. For energies largely above the electron
binding energies, the number of electron involved in the interaction approaches the num-
ber of electrons per atom Z. It follows that heavy materials have a higher value for the
parameter and, as a consequence, a smaller refraction index than the low-density ones.
Formula 2.5 also shows that in the region where the scattering factors are nearly constant
and are approximately proportional to
2
.
A more accurate treatment, also based on classical arguments, is to consider the
electrons as oscillators under small damping conditions (Lorentz model, e.g. Bass et al.
[1995, sec. 9.4], Willingale [1999] Born and Wolf [1980, sec. 2.3]), with a natural frequency
0
=
_
k
me
and a damping constant . The meaning of the scattering factor is the same and
24
the ratio between the amplitude of a scattered electromagnetic wave for a bound electron
and the one for a free electron denes the complex scattering factor as: f =

2
2
0
2
i
.
In this case, the imaginary part of the refraction index is derived by the presence of the
damping term, even if this term can not be quantitatively calculated from classical theo-
ries; the case of
0
= 0, k = 0 corresponds to the free electron gas approximation. For a
complete treatment of the matter, also the interactions between the surrounding atoms and
the averaging over the possible natural frequencies should be considered. The former can
usually be neglected in X-rays, since the energies of atomic interactions are much lower,
while the second ones change the picture essentially by a quantitative point of view (see
references above for further details).
2.1.3 Implications on the possibilities of X-ray reection
The behavior of the refraction index in dependence of the radiation energy is the main
reason that makes dicult to reect X-rays, and does not allow the focusing with con-
ventional means like lenses or mirrors in normal incidence. Equations 2.1 and 2.2 do not
directly contain the dependence from the wavelength, but they depend on it through the
energy-dependence of the refractive index and of the angle of transmission inside the sec-
ond medium. From the Fresnel laws the reectivity at near-normal incidence from vacuum
can be approximated, with , 1 by:
R =
I
I
0

2
+
2
4
1 (2.6)
and the small values of and imply that:
refractive eects are very small and, consequently, the use of lenses to focus the
radiation is not eective;
reection eciency at large grazing angles is also very low, preventing the use of
normal incidence mirrors;
however, as the refraction index in X-ray is less than one, for all the materials, the
radiation hitting a surface at small grazing angles undergoes total reection, allowing
the use of grazing incidence mirrors to build focusing instruments.
2.2 Principles of reecting coatings
In this section the working principles of the reecting coatings applicable to X-ray tele-
scopes are described. Monolayer coatings work on the basis of the total reection phe-
nomenon below the critical angle and are of wide spread use in the telescopes built up
today. For the usual telescope sizes, the dependence of the critical angle from the radiation
energy limits their use to the soft X-ray spectral region.
Multilayer lms, made of multiple layers of materials with dierent refraction indexes,
allow to overcome this limitation, by exploiting the constructive interference between the
partially reected waves at each interface between layers. The use of bilayers and multilayer
lms as reecting coatings is foreseen for the next generation of X-ray telescopes, like the
ones considered in the next chapters.
25
2.2. Principles of reecting coatings
2.2.1 Total reection coatings
Present day X-ray telescopes are based on the total reection phenomenon, that occurs for
small grazing angles.
Total reection coatings are usually realized by means of the deposition of a reecting
coating onto a substrate with structural functions. The lm thickness is usually large
enough that a negligible part of the radiation can reach the substrate, for the energies
inside the operative range of the telescope. Then they can be considered to all eects, a
single layer with innite thickness.
The conditions that determine the total reection can be derived from the Snell law
considering the case of a real refraction index, they will be then extended to the more
general case: if the radiation hits the separation surface between two media with refraction
indexes n
1
and n
2
, (n
1
> n
2
), the Snell law can be written as cos
2
=
n
1
n
2
cos
1
follows
1
>
2
. The transmission angle approaches the separation surface as long as the grazing
incidence angle become smaller. When
1
=
c
= arccos
n
2
n
1
(2.7)
the transmission angle in the second medium is exactly zero, while for smaller values of
1
no real value for
2
can satisfy the Snell law. The experimental proof shows that in this
cases the radiation is entirely reected. Equation 2.7 denes the critical angle
c
.
It can be surprising to see that Fresnel and Snell laws do not lose validity even below
the critical angle, when the physical meaning of the transmission angle breaks down, and
they can easily extended by the use of complex quantities, giving a slightly dierent, but
more physical result, that also accounts for the absorption in the media. In particular, the
Snell law can be used to express the Fresnel equations as functions of the incidence angles
and refraction indexes (eliminating the angle of transmission).
Figure 2.5: Theoretical reectivity curves for
dierent values of the / ratio: the step from
the total reection regime is steeper for lower
values of the ratio, with the limit case of an
absorption-free material [Parratt, 1954].
In the Snell law the incidence angle
1
is
assumed to be real, while the refraction index
can be complex (n
1
= 1 if the rst medium
is vacuum). The resulting transmission angle
2
takes complex values that can be used in
the Fresnel equation, converging to the val-
ues achieved from a real refraction index for
values of the incidence angle above the crit-
ical one. From the denition in eq. 2.7 and
the condition 1, n
1
= 1 (vacuum),
the value of the critical angle is
c

2,
with very good approximation.
The assumption of complex refraction in-
dexes (absorbing material) changes the value
of the reectivity in the region around the
critical angle: for a non absorbing media
( = 0), the reectivity is one for angles
below the critical angle, and zero above it.
Using the small angle and small scattering
factor assumptions, Parratt [1954] shown that, for complex refraction indexes and small
incidence angles, the reectivity as a function of the ratio /
c
can be parametrized by
the ratio between /, being the transition between the total reection region and the
26
non reecting one smoother, the higher is / (see g. 2.5). The formula expressing the
reectivity of a single layer is:
_
_
R =
I
R
I
0
=
h
h 1

c
h +
h 1

c
h
def
c
_
2
+
_
_
_
c
_
2
1
_
2
+
_
_
2
(2.8)
Energy dependence An equivalent view is obtained considering the reectivity at a
xed angle as a function of the radiation energy. The critical angle depends on the energy
through the relation of the refraction index. If the rst medium is the vacuum (n
1
= 1),
putting the values of the physical constants into equation 2.5, the critical angle can be
expressed as:
2 =
_
N
A
r
e
h
2
c
2
E
_
f
1
A
= 28.81
1
2
E
_
f
1
A

f
1
ZA/2
20.38
E
, (2.9)
where
c
is expressed in mrad, N
AV
, is the Avogadro number, h is the Plank constant, and
is the material density in g/cm
3
. The approximations of f
1
to Z and to 2A introduces
an error that is typically around the 10% in the soft X-ray region. For example, in the case
of iridium at 4 keV f
1
72.2, Z =77 and A = 192.2, resulting in f
1
/A = 0.37, Z/A = 0.4,
with a 11.6% total error on the critical angle as derived by eq. 2.7 (however the physical
signicance of this value is somewhat relaxed by the smoother transition).
Figure 2.6: Theoretical reectivity of a plat-
inum layer as a function of energy for dierent
incidence angles. Each angle denes a critical
energy for the total reection. In the same way,
each energy can be totally reected only below
a critical angle of incidence. Since the refrac-
tion index is a function of the energy, abrupt
changes in the reectivity are expected in corre-
spondence of the reecting material absorption
edges (the K, L and M edges are highlighted).
Equation 2.9 determines the dependence
of the critical angle on the energy, putting a
limit to the construction of instruments based
on the total reection of X-rays. In other
words, for a xed reection angle
i
there is a
maximum energy for which
i
<
c
(E). The
condition
i
=
c
(E) denes a critical energy
above which the reectivity is negligible (see
g. 2.6). For the smallest typical angles of
present day telescopes, the maximum energy
that can be reected is around 10 keV.
This limit could be overcome by using
smaller incidence angles, that can be done
making the focal length longer, but this
would imply a smaller mirror projected area
for a given mirror weight, with the conse-
quent reduction of the telescope collecting
power.
Conditions on layer thickness The con-
dition for total reection given above does
not consider the thickness of the reecting
material. A more accurate mathematical
treatment shows that (see e.g. Rossi [1965]), even when the conditions for total reec-
tion are met, there is a penetration of the electromagnetic radiation into the matter. In
27
total reection regime, the propagation vector is parallel to the surface, implying no en-
ergy transfer and an exponential decay of the electric eld (evanescent wave). The 1/e
penetration length can be expressed, for an incidence angle <
c
as:
d
p
=

2
1
_
cos
2
n
2
2
1

2
1
_
2
c

2
. (2.10)
If the layer is not thick enough to extinguish the radiation and a material with higher
refraction index is placed after the rst layer, a part of the wave can tunnel through
the layer, giving rise to the phenomenon of frustrated total reection. Equation 2.9 can
be joined with the last equation resulting in d
p

1/2
_
k
2
E
_
1/2
(with k numerical
constant) and highlighting the dependence on incidence angle, energy and material density.
The penetration depth is in general from tens to hundreds of . To give some examples,
for a 3 keV radiation impinging at on a carbon layer at 0.5
, the penetration depth is about

116 , while is about 28 for a denser material like platinum.
2.2.2 Interferential lms
Above the critical angle, the X-ray reectivity assumes very low values. However, if a stack
is made, by assembling several layer with the proper thickness, the constructive interference
between partially reected waves at each interface can lead to a relevant total reectivity.
The principle nds its application in multilayer coatings, whose simplest example is a
bilayer coating, made of a single thin layer over a innitely-thick substrate, originating a
double-interface structure (g. 2.7).
The application of bilayer coatings is limited to conditions for which the reectivity
at the interfaces is not too low, namely in the angular/spectral region close to the crit-
ical angle/energy. However the case is also useful to illustrate the working principle of
interferential lms, that applies also in the case of multilayer coatings.
Conditions for interference The conditions for interference can be derived in a sim-
plied way by assuming to deal with real refraction indexes. The omission corresponds to
neglect the phase change introduced at the interfaces (considering only the phase shift of
due to the possible change of sign), while, inside the material, the presence of absorption
does not aect the interference conditions, since it does not change the phase of the wave.
Nevertheless so, the rules that will be derived are valid in general, and can be equally
derived by more accurate treatment [Ivan, 2002].
The model is depicted in gure 2.7, with a material 1 with refraction index n
1
and a
material 2, with index n
2
that acts like substrate and that can be assumed as a perfect
absorber for the radiation penetrating into it. The total reected wave is given by the
result of the interference between the reection at the two interfaces (g. 2.7).
The phase shift between the two partially reected waves (from point C to point D in
gure) for a given incidence angle
1
can be calculated as:
=
2
=
4
n
1
d sin
1
. (2.11)
Indeed, the dierence in the optical paths is, assuming n
2
< n
1
< n
0
:
= 2n
1
ABC n
0
AD =
2n
1
d
sin
1
n
0
d cos
0
tan
1
= 2n
1
d sin
1
. (2.12)
28
The conditions for having constructive interference ( = m) is then:
n
1
d sin
1
= d
_
n
2
1
n
2
0
cos
2
0
= m m = 1, 2, . . . (2.13)
while for destructive interference ( = (m+
1
2
)):
n
1
d sin
1
= (m+
1
2
) m = 1, 2, . . . (2.14)
The results are the same for n
2
> n
1
> n
0
, in both cases no additional phase shift
between the waves reected at the two interfaces is introduced by reections. In the other
cases, the conditions for constructive or destructive interference are exchanged.
Equation 2.13 and 2.14 are the analogue of the Bragg conditions for X-ray diraction by
crystals. However, for thin lms, the refraction index changes crossing the interfaces, where
the partial reection happens, with a corresponding change in the transmission angle in the
media (refractive eects). On the opposite in a crystal there is no dierence in transmission
angles between the atomic planes that are responsible for the reection.
The presence of multiple reections (at each interface part of the wave is reected
back, e.g. along the path CBC in gure), as well as the presence of absorption inside the
material, do not aect the interference conditions, since the dierence in the optical paths
are multiple of the one above, but they have to be considered for an accurate calculation
of the reectivity.
The above equations determine the existence, of multiple reectivity peaks for a given
incidence angle, corresponding to integer values of m (dierent orders of the Bragg peak).
Looking at the dependence on energy, the refraction index dispersion introduces a small
deviation in the peak position, with respect to the non-dispersive case (e.g. refraction from
crystals), where reectivity (absorption) peaks sit on energetic positions that are integer
(semi-integer) multiple of the rst order Bragg energy.
The multiple Bragg peaks are also observed in experimental measurement of coatings
made for total reection, if the samples are observed above the critical angle. Indeed this
kind of lms are usually deposited on a substrate, keeping the thickness of the lm not
much larger than needed for total reection (that in many cases also helps to obtain a
better surface quality and to facilitate the deposition). A practical consequence is that
from the measurement of the reectivity for several angles and/or energies is possible to
derive information about the properties of a real reecting layer, like the thickness, or the
density (from the refraction index).
The comparison between the Bragg equations 2.13, 2.14 and the relation between the
critical angle and the energy (2.9) show how interferential thin lms make possible to reect
at angles above the critical ones. To give an example for a radiation of 10 keV impinging
on a platinum layer (Pt density=21.45 g/cm
3
) the critical angle is 0.5
, while the Bragg

angle for a layer thickness of 24.8 is around 2.8
.
The conditions for the interference can be extended in a straightforward way to a
stack of bilayers with constant bilayer thicknesses. In constant d-spacing multilayers, the
constructive interference between the waves reected by a large number of layers allows to
reect X-rays at angles larger than the critical one.
Calculation of reectivity Looking again at gure 2.7, it is seen as part of the light
exiting from material 1 in point C, is reected back. This holds for each light crossing of
the interfaces in points B,C,. . . ... originating multiple reections.
29
Figure 2.7: Reection and interference
for a single layer. The dierence in phase
between the waves partially reected at
the two interfaces can be calculated by
the dierence of optical path along the
AD and ABC paths.
The eect of multiple reections is often non
important, if the Fresnel coecients for reection
are small (neglecting them is one of the basic as-
sumptions of kinematic approximation for multi-
layer reection), but can be relevant if the reec-
tivity is not negligible (e.g. for energy and angles
close to the critical ones).
The exact calculation of the reectivity, keep-
ing into account the multiple reections, as well
as the interlayer absorption, shows how the over-
all reection coecient of a thin layer, dened as
the ratio between the reected wave eld and the
incident one, can dier from the Fresnel coecient
of reection, because of the interference between
multiple reections.
At rst it can be noticed that, by the Fresnel
equations (2.2) at the interface between two mate-
rials i and j, r
ij
= r
ji
and t
ij
= t
ji
Assuming no
absorption in crossing the interfaces, the light is
reected or transmitted, resulting in t
2
ij
= 1 r
2
ij
.
The total radiation reected by the bilayer is
the result of the sum of the rst reection and
the waves exiting from the material 1, after one or
more reections at the interface 12. The electric
eld change for each crossing of the layer 1 (e.g. between the points D and C) is given by
E
C
= E
D
e
i
, where
1
is the phase dierence for crossing twice layer 1, expressed by
formula 2.11 on page 28. The total wave exiting from material 1 to material 0 determines
the overall reection coecient of the bilayer
01
(using r
01
= r
10
):
01
=
E
r
E
0
= r
01
+
_
1 r
2
01
_
n=0
(1)
j
r
n+1
12
r
n
01
e
in
1
= r
01
+
r
12
_
1 r
2
01
_
e
i
1
1 +r
01
r
12
e
i
1
=
r
01
+r
12
e
i
1
1 +r
01
r
12
e
i
1
,
(2.15)
where the denominator expresses the eects of multiple reections, while the exponential
term in the numerator represents the contribute of the interference. Despite the approxi-
mation of neglecting the absorption at the rst interface, a more accurate treatment leads
to the same result (see e.g. Born and Wolf [1980, sec. 1.6] or Ivan [2002, sec. 2.4]). The
reectivity is given by the squared modulus of the above function.
Well above the critical angle, the reectivity is very low (typically R 10
2
), being the
reection coecients approximately, for the radiation passing from the i
th
to the (i+1)
th
material, for small incidence angles and :
r
i+1
i
2 sin
2
0
. (2.16)
In this case equation 2.15 leads back to the single-reection case:
01
r
01
+r
12
e
i
1
.
30
Figure 2.8: Interferential eects for
a Pt/C coating with carbon as top
layer (explanation in the text). A
thin layer of carbon (brown line) can
enhance the reectivity with respect
to a platinum monolayer coating (red
line).
Bilayer coatings with carbon as top layer A practical application of the concept is
the use of bilayer coatings made of a metal thick layer with a thin (of the order of 100 )
carbon overcoating on it. The conditions for the eectiveness of these kind of coating are
analyzed in depth by an experimental point of view in chapter 5. An illustrative example
is shown in gure 2.8, where the reectivity of a bilayer made of platinum and carbon is
plotted for a 0.5
incidence angle and several thickness values for platinum and carbon:
The red and green curves show respectively the reectivity of Pt and C single lay-
ers: the reectivity in total reection regime is higher for carbon, due to the lower
absorption. Platinum, because of the higher density, has a larger critical energy and
a higher photoelectric absorption. In agreement with the considerations expressed in
the preceding section, the low absorption of carbon makes also the drop in reectiv-
ity particularly sharp. The platinum layer is supposed to be innitely thick, while
for the carbon layer a nite thickness and no substrate are assumed (with vacuum
on both side). This causes the appearance of the fringes in the green curve, due to
interference between the radiation reected from the interfaces on the opposite side
of the layer, when the Bragg condition is met. For an innite thickness of carbon, the
reectivity curve above the critical energy lies between the peaks and the valleys of
the green curve. The carbon reectivity is low for energies above the critical one and
the largest part of the radiation passes through the layer. If the carbon layer thick-
ness is reduced, both the distance between interference peaks and the peaks width,
increase, while the dierence in reectivity between peaks and valleys reduces.
Adding the platinum layer on bottom (blue curve) allows to reect the radiation
at the interface between platinum and carbon, since the energy is lower than the
platinum critical energy. The interference peaks due to the carbon interfaces are still
present.
Considering a single layer of carbon, for a low thickness (of the order of 100 for
the angle considered), with vacuum on both sides, the transition between the total
reection and the low-reectivity region is softer (cyan curve). This is caused both
by the layer being thinner than the penetration depth in total reection and by the
interference, that is constructive for small thickness (compared in projection to the
wavelength d < / (2 sin )). Indeed, since for both interfaces the refraction index
31
of the rst material is higher, there is not phase inversion between the reected waves,
and the rst peak is the one associated to constructive interference.
Between 2 and 5 keV, the platinum reectivity is depressed by the strong absorption,
if the thin carbon layer is placed on top of the platinum layer (brown curve), the
total eect is an enhancement of the reectivity with respect to the platinum alone.
In this case it is possible to show that, for the reasons exposed in the previous
point, the factor multiplying r
12
, accounting for the interference in the numerator of
expression 2.15, gives a positive contribute.
2.2.3 Multilayers
The principles of interferential lms, described in the previous section for the case of a
single bilayer, can be extended to a stack of bilayers. Multilayer lms, consisting in a stack
of alternated layers of a high density material (also called absorbed) and a low density one
(spacer), are usually employed for X-ray reection at grazing incidence.
2.2.3.1 General working principles
Figure 2.9 shows the scheme of a multilayer coating. The structure of a coating, made of N
bilayers, can be characterized by giving, for each bilayer, the thicknesses d
i
(d-spacing) and
the ratio
i
= d
h,i
/d
i
, where d
h,i
is the thickness of the heavy material, and i = 1, 2, . . . , N
is the bilayer index from top.
Figure 2.9: Reections at the interfaces
inside a multilayer (from Protopopov
and Kalnov [1998]). It is useful to de-
ne two systems of waves, whose Fres-
nel coecients has opposite signs (cor-
responding to the introduction of a
phase shift): the former corresponding
to the reected waves 1, 2,. . . and the
second to 3, 4,. . . .
It is worth noticing that the Fresnel coecients
have constant absolute values at each interface,
diering only in sign, according to the direction
(from spacer to absorber or vice versa). As already
pointed out, this corresponds to a phase shift of ,
making meaningful to separate the reected waves
into two systems, the former associated to reected
waves 1,2,. . . in gure 2.9, the second one with waves
3,4,. . .
Since the absorption (and the practical aspects
connected with the realization) limits the number
of layers, it is desirable to have a high reectivity
at each interface. According to formula 2.16, this
can be achieved by using materials with a high con-
trast in density. Furthermore the materials must be
compatible, in the sense of avoiding diusion and
chemical reaction between layers, in order to realize
lms with sharp inter-layer interfaces. Couples of
material that are reckoned to be suitable and that
are considered in this thesis are tungsten and sili-
con, carbon and platinum, nickel and carbon [Ivan
et al., 2001]. The use of alternative materials (es-
pecially compounds), has also been investigated by
several authors. The use of compound materials
made by one of the traditional elements, like B
4
C
or SiC, does not give in general large improvements with respect to traditional ones,
32
whilst an interesting possibility is the replacement of the absorber, in order to over-
come the limitation (see 4.1.2.2) posed by the high energy absorption edge present in
Pt or W [Jensen et al., 2006, 2007]. However, the deposition process for these ma-
terials is not well established as for the traditional materials, so we have not consid-
ered them in this thesis. A database of realized X-ray multilayers is maintained at
http://www-cxro.lbl.gov/multilayer/survey.html.
The theory of X-ray multilayer reectivity calculation and deposition is well covered in
review papers (e.g. Stoev and Sakurai [1997]), books [Spiller, 1994] and phD thesis [Spiga,
2005, Ivan et al., 2001, Mikulk, 1997]. Essentially two equivalent approaches are possible
for the reectivity calculation: the recursive calculation of the reectivity by an iteration
over the stack of layers (followed in this work and described in details in section 2.2.3.2),
and the multiplication of characteristic matrices each one the reection by a layer [Born
and Wolf, 1980, sec. 1.6]. The matrix method is described in depth in its application to
X-ray coatings by Ivan [2002] and Mikulk [1997].
It is notable the possibility of an approximate treatment, that work well for conditions
where the reectivity of the single layer is low, consisting in:
neglecting the multiple reections inside the single layer;
neglecting the refractive eects, i. e. the change in angle in crossing an interface.
These constitute the framework of the kinematic approximation (further assumptions are
made by dierent authors), that in many case can provide a much simpler and yet accurate
theory, especially useful in analytical treatments [Kozhevnikov et al., 1998, Protopopov and
Kalnov, 1998].
Periodic multilayers The simplest multilayer structure is a stack made by a sequence
of bilayers with constant d-spacing and constant (also called periodic multilayer). In
periodic multilayers the distance between successive interfaces of the same kind (light-
heavy or heavy-light) is constant, and the Bragg condition is satised for a given energy
and angle, resulting in sharp peaks with high reectivity. In this case, it is possible to
derive several formulas and considerations, that also provide useful tools for approximate
treatments of variable d-spacing multilayers.
In an absorption-free case, the optimal value of for the maximum reectivity is the
one that makes interfere in phase, the two system of waves, dened at the beginning
of this section. In the case of absorbing materials, a lower thickness for the absorber
material is favored, since the lower absorption balances the loss in reectivity due to
the phase shift. Vinogradov and Zeldovich [1977] derived a formula for the optimal
value of , =
3
_
3

l
h
.
The Bragg condition can be expressed in dependence of the average refraction index
e
=
h
+ (1 )
l
, obtaining [Spiller, 1994], for the peak of order m and bilayer
thickness d, and for << 1, << :
m = 2d sin
0
1 2

e
sin
2
0
, (2.17)
where the deviation of the square root term expresses from one expresses the correc-
tion for the refraction index to the Bragg law for crystals. The correction becomes
33
important for small angles. The above equation can also be solved for the angle
leading to:
sin
0
=
_
2
e
+
m
2
2
4d
2
. (2.18)
Spiga [2005] has considered the relation between the reectivity and the number of
bilayers needed for reection, deriving for the reectivity at the Bragg peaks, under
the assumptions of N >> 1 and r << 1:
R tanh
2
[2Nr sin (m)] , (2.19)
where m is the Bragg peak order, N is the number of bilayers and r is the single layer
Fresnel reection coecient. This implies that for an eective reection a minimum
number of bilayers is needed, that is higher for higher energies. A balance between
absorption and reectivity gives for the minimum number of bilayer for an eective
reection:
N
min

1
2r sin(m)
, (2.20)
with a number of bilayers between N
min
and 2N
min
being needed for a reectivity
higher than 70%.
2.2.3.2 Recursive formula for multilayer calculation
In this section I will describe the method used in this work for the calculation of the
reectivity of monolayer and multilayer lms. The algorithm used in all this work to exactly
calculate the reectivity of reecting coatings is the one proposed by Parratt [1954], with
the trivial generalizations (inclusion of both the polarizations and non approximation of
the refraction index value) described by Underwood and Barbee [1981]. The method is a
classical one, used in the most of the software codes dealing with the subject, e.g. the IMD
software [Windt, 1998], who has also provided the database of refraction indexes used in
this work.
The procedure is an iteration that, starting from the substrate, calculates the complex
sum of the partial reected waves at each interface. Its mathematical formalization is
essentially a matter of rewriting the expressions considered in the previous sections.
The Fresnel equations 2.2 are calculated as a function of the refraction indexes and
incidence angle only, by introducing, for the j
th
layer, the term:
g
j
= n
j
sin
j
=
_
n
2
j
n
0
cos
2
0
. (2.21)
The expressions for the Fresnel reection coecients become:
r
j,j+1
=
_
E
0r
E
0i
_
=
g
j
g
j+1
g
j
+g
j+1
(2.22a)
r
j,j+1
=
_
E
0r
E
0i
_
=
g
j
n
2
j
g
j+1
n
2
j+1
g
j
n
2
j
+
g
j+1
n
2
j+1
(2.22b)
with a contribute to the phase dierence by the j
th
layer:
j
= e
i4
g
j
d
j
. (2.23)
34
Doing so, the refraction angle inside the material is totally eliminated, being the formu-
las 2.22 dependent only on the incident angle on the multilayer and on the optical constants.
Following the approach of the previous section, the total reectivity of the coating can
be calculated by iterating equation 2.15 over the N layers, once expressed the formula for
the generic layer of index j and replaced the reection coecient of the lower interface
with the overall reection coecient of the underlying stack (indicating only the former
subscript of r and , being the second equal to the rst plus one):
j
=
r
j
+
j+1
e
i
j+1
1 +r
j
j+1
e
i
j+1
, (2.24)
starting from substrate (j = N) with
N+1
= 0 and ending with j = 0, the reection coef-
cient for the whole multilayer is
0
. The calculation is repeated for the two polarizations,
and the reectivity is achieved as the square modulus of the reection coecients.
The above formula 2.24 can be put, by simple algebraic manipulations, in a dierent
form, that is the one implemented in the software, and originally derived by Parratt [1954]
on the base of continuity arguments for the eld at the interfaces, that is:
j
= e
i
j

j+1
+r
j
j+1
r
j
+ 1
, (2.25)
the calculation is performed in exactly the same way, considering that, since n
0
= 1 and
the phase is arbitrary, the rst phase term can be set as e
i
0
= 1.
Inclusion of surface roughness The equations used in the preceding sections allow
to describe in an exact quantitative way the behavior of the radiation if the considered
surfaces are ideally smooth. However, especially for higher energies, the eect of the
surface imperfections (contamination and particulate on the surface, or deviations of the
microscopic shape of the surface from a at prole) is not negligible and must be accounted
for. In this work the eects of punctual defects or surface contaminations has been neglected
assuming to deal with clean surfaces that presents only a random distribution of errors at
the level of micro-roughness.
The theory of scattering by rough surfaces has a pivotal role in the eld of X-ray
optics and is treated in many text: the theory of optical scattering and surface defects is
handled in details by Stover [1995] and, for the particular case of X-ray scattering at grazing
incidence by Spiga [2005], who also developed a theory relating the surface roughness to
the HEW of an X-ray telescope [Spiga, 2007]. A review of the mathematical derivation
of scattering theories (rst Born approximation, Distorted Wave Born approximation) and
their application to X-rays, can be found in Ivan [2002].
In a few words, the eect of surface roughness is to deviate part of the reected radiation
from the specular direction, with a consequent redistribution of the energy in directions
around the specular one. For an accurate treatment of the surface roughness and a study
of the scattered distribution, the surface deviation from the ideal at surface should be
characterized over the whole range of spatial wavelengths, by providing the surface Power
Spectral Density (PSD). However, since we are mainly interested in the reduction of
specular reectivity, and consequently eective area, a simpler approach is sucient. This
is provided by the Nevot-Croce theory, that assumes a single indicator of the surface
roughness, described by the value of the rms deviation from the ideally at surface,
under the assumption of a Gaussian distribution of heights.
The resulting reduction of the specular reectivity can be described by replacing the
Fresnel reection coecient r
j
in eq.2.25 by a corrected term r
j
, given by [Nvot, L. and
35
2.3. Broad band multilayer coatings
Croce, P. , 1980]:
r
j
= r
j
exp
_
8
2
2
(n
1
sin
1
)(n
1
sin
1
)
2
_
. (2.26)
2.3 Broad band multilayer coatings
Several structure models have been proposed for the realization of broad-band reecting
multilayer coatings, in which the d-spacing is varied along the stack, satisfying the Bragg
condition for dierent energies at dierent depth. The search for the ideal model and the
determination of the optimal structure for a given application is not a trivial task.
The use of depth graded multilayers, in order to obtain reection over a broad energy
band, has been initially proposed for the use in neutron applications [Mezei, 1976, Mezei
and Dagleish, 1977]. In the case of neutron reection the absorption is small, making
possible to employ a large number of layers. This also allows to derive analytic solutions
for the description of the optimal layer thicknesses.
The original solution proposed by Mezei is based on a power-law dependence on the
layer index for the thickness along stack. A possible extension of the power-law solution
to the X-ray case has been proposed by Joensen et al. [1993] and this is also the model
followed for the multilayer in the simulation (chapter 4) and experimental (chapter 5) part
of this work.
It is worth citing also other notable solutions, proposed by several authors and based on
a number of dierent blocks with constant d-spacing [Okajima et al., 2003, Yamashita et al.,
1998] or derived by approximated analytical treatments of the problem [Kozhevnikov et al.,
1998, Protopopov and Kalnov, 1998]. In these last solutions, the thickness function varies,
depending on the details of the desired response (e.g. Protopopov and Kalnov [1998] show
how a at angular response can be achieved by the superposition of a linear distribution
of thickness, with respect to depth, with oscillations superimposed on it).
In this section I consider the characteristics of the power-law model, that is used in this
thesis, deriving some considerations that have been developed during the work, describing,
at the end, the multilayers used in this thesis (chap 3 and 4).
2.3.1 Power-law multilayers
In the usual power law relation, the thickness of the i
th
layer is described by the rule:
d
i
=
a
(b +i)
c
, i = 1, 2, . . . , N ,
_
_
a > 0 ,
b > 1 ,
c 0 ,
(2.27)
where a,b and c are the are the few parameters, i is the index of the bilayer from top, and
N the number of bilayers in the stack.
A deeper view about the role of the parameters a, b and c in the determination of
thicknesses can be obtained by comparing the above formula with the expression of the
prototype power-law f(x) = 1/x
c
(see g. 2.10): in this view, a assumes the roles of a
scaling constant acting as a unit of measure for thickness; its value does not aect the
ratio between dierent layers in the stack. b determines the starting point of the region of
interest on the x axis, having width N, the layer indexes correspond to points separated
by a unitary length inside this region. The exponent c determines the shape of the curve,
with the limit cases of c = 0 leading to a constant value for thickness. For non trivial
36
values of c, being the thickness evaluation related also to the vertical scaling and to the
region on the x-axis, the slope of the thickness sequence is dependent on the values of a, b
and N.
Figure 2.10: Thickness curves for illustra-
tive values of the parameters of the power-law
d
i
= a/ (b +i)
c
for coating with 200 bilayers.
The rst (i=1) and the last (i=200) layers are
indicated on the curves, being the intermedi-
ate layers equally spaced between them, in cor-
respondence of integer values of i. The rst
two curves have the same value for the thickest
(rst) layer. The parameter a is a scaling factor
for the whole curve, b represents the oset value
for the rst layer, c determines the slope of the
curve.
The power law has often been used as a
model for X-ray multilayers and optimized by
means of numerical methods [Joensen et al.,
1995, Mao et al., 1999]. In previous works
(e.g. [Cotroneo and Pareschi, 2004]), I and
collaborators have applied an iterated simplex
procedure for the numerical optimization of
multilayer coatings, for the application to X-
ray telescopes. The work results in the collec-
tion of several recipes for the multilayer coat-
ings that have been used also in this work.
In this work, the power-law relation is ap-
plied to bilayers, being the layer thickness
inside the bilayer described by the ratio be-
tween the heavy material thickness and the
thickness of the whole bilayer =
d
h,i
d
i
. It has
been observed how, dierently from the case
of neutron optics, for which the optimal value
is easy to determine also from analytical con-
siderations, in the case of X-ray optics a value
of < 0.5 is favored, to limit the absorption
by the heavy material [Joensen et al., 1995].
In the same paper is also suggested that a
variable value for gamma provide the best so-
lution. We have also investigated the eects of using a (linearly) variable ratio, nding
some improvement. However, the gain achieved by the optimization of has a secondary
importance with respect to the optimization of the power-law parameters, then multilayers
with constant 0.350.4 are considered in this work for simplicity.
The relations between d-spacing and reectivity are not easy to be dened, even in a
qualitative way. However simple arguments can show why power-law solutions are usually
eective for the design of broad-band multilayer coatings and why the change in parameters
can determine a wide range of reectivity functions. In a power-law multilayer, the thinner
bilayers, reecting the more energetic and penetrating radiation, lie more deeply. Their
thickness determines the energy reected, but also the number of layers that are needed
for reection (see eq. 2.19). In a power-law multilayer the thickness variation is smaller for
thinner layers and the number of layer corresponding to the reection of higher energies
is consequently higher. On the other hand, this also determines the absorption, and the
amount of radiation able to reach the underlying layers, limiting the reection of still
higher energies. The problem of the optimization of a power-law multilayer consists in the
determination of the right balance between reection and absorption.
As a general rule, the thickness range determines the energy range for reection, ac-
cording to Bragg law, while the overall distribution of thickness models the shape of the
reectivity function.
37
2.3.1.1 Considerations about the parameter space
In any design or optimization problem, either numerical or analytical, the parameter space
is examined to nd the optimal solution. Analytical procedures looks for the mathematical
relations between the parameters and the resulting reectivity, while in numerical methods
the parameter space is sampled in a nite number of points, with the choice of the points
determined by the optimization strategy.
Some authors tried to address the problem of the multilayer optimization (for gen-
eral thickness distributions) by analytical treatments, based on kinematic approxima-
tions [Kozhevnikov et al., 1998, Protopopov and Kalnov, 1998]. They derived very in-
teresting, and possibly resolutive, analytical theories. However their application to the
optimization of X-ray telescope is not straightforward.
The power-law allows to reduce the description of the multilayer to a manageable num-
ber of parameters, easy to be handled in numerical optimization procedures. Considering
the problem of power-law multilayer design (but this is also valid for other kind of struc-
tures), it can be interesting to derive some considerations. The translation of a given set of
power-law parameters to a reectivity curve, as a function of angle or energy, is a double
step passage, from the parameter space to the reectivity):
a,b,c,N parameter space thickness distribution coating reectivity.
Often a further step is needed to evaluate a single value function of merit, that it is used
to establish the goodness of a given solution.
The diculties in this approach are twofold:
Determining the useful region of the parameter space to explore. Indeed, consider-
ing the wide parameter space constrained only by the existence conditions in equa-
tion 2.27, many points leads to non meaningful solutions, that are characterized by
negligible reectivity or unfeasible thicknesses, often raising overow or underow
errors in the thickness or reectivity evaluation, due to the presence of exponential
functions. It is not easy to isolate the subspace of good solutions, since this is not a
limited region inside the parameter space.
A metric in the parameter space is not easy to dene: small variations of the pa-
rameters can result in small or large variations of the thicknesses, depending on the
point in the parameter space (the combined values of the parameters). The relation
between the thickness sequence and the reectivity is even more dicult to under-
stand: the typical reectivity curve of a multilayer presents numerous peaks, whose
positions changes if the thicknesses are modied. Under these conditions, even the
denition of a good and uniform sampling of the parameter space is dicult to nd.
The rst of the two problems is probably the most severe and I will try to address it in the
following.
Alternative parametrization for the power-law In the above expressions of the
power-law, the number of bilayer has not been considered as a parameter. The thickness
of the rst layer is given by d
1
= a/(b + 1)
c
being independent from the number of layers,
with many values of a, b, c corresponding to the same thickness for the rst layer.
On the opposite, the thickness of the last layer is d
N
= a/(b +N)
c
, that is dependent
on the number of bilayers N. In gure 2.11 on the next page an examples of this is shown.
The crosses and squares represent two multilayers of respectively 10 and 13 bilayers and
38
the same power law parameters, the three additional bilayers corresponding to the addition
of points on the right side of the curve. The change in the minimum d-spacing corresponds,
in physical eects, to a dierent maximum energy for Bragg reection (for a xed incidence
angle). A similar change, e.g. a reduction of the number of layers keeping the same power-
law parameters, can sometimes be useful (see e.g. section 2.3.2), however it is interesting
to consider also changes of the number of layers that keep constant the range of d-spacings
(and the energy range). This also helps to isolate the regions of the parameter space with
feasible thickness values.
Figure 2.11: Thickness of layers for two power-
laws with 10 and 13 bilayers and same a, b, c.
If the additional layers are too thin they do not
participate to the reection, but they can lead
to exclude the solution, if conditions on thickness
are not set carefully. Under the same conditions
(especially if the number of bilayers N is used as
optimization parameter) the exploration of solu-
tions with needless layers can highly reduce the
eectiveness of the optimization.
Role of the number of layers in opti-
mizations Usually in numeric optimiza-
tions, the number of bilayers is xed at the
beginning. However in a real application is
convenient to keep it as low as possible, to
reduce time and costs and to improve the
results of deposition. Even by the point of
view of optimization procedures, the num-
ber of layers can aect the results: a set
of parameters that is optimal for a given
number of bilayers can lead to unrealistic
values for thickness if extended to a higher
N, even if the layers in excess does not af-
fect the reectivity. This can lead to the
exclusion of good solutions, if conditions on
thickness values are applied, or to an unnec-
essary exploration of the parameter space,
examining overlapping solutions.
To manage the thicknesses distribution
independently on the number of bilayers, it
is useful to introduce a rescaled power-law
as:
_
_
=
a
(N 1)
c
=
b + 1
N 1
x =
i 1
N 1
d(x) =
a
( +x)
c
(0, )
(0, )
c [0, )
x [0, 1]
(2.28)
These relations are useful if a conversion from the rescaled parameters , , c to the
traditional ones a, b, c is needed (e.g. for a comparison of results). If this is not the case,
the rescaled parametrization can be assumed as a starting denition of the power-law, since
a one-to-one correspondence exists between the two parameters spaces.
In the new formulation, x assumes the role of a continuous index for the bilayer. The
number of bilayers N is the number of equally spaced points to consider in the interval
between 0 and 1 to calculate the thicknesses.
In the next sections, I will use the rescaled form to investigate the characteristic of
the parameter space. The same conclusions can be easily obtained also with the usual
39
parametrization, but the rescaled one will be shown to oer two advantages:
it is independent on the number of layers, allowing to establish a clearer link between
the parameters values and some characteristics of the solutions (e.g. the minimum
thickness), allowing to easily isolate the solutions leading to meaningful thicknesses.
This also allows a comparison between results with dierent numbers of layers, since
the parameters does not changes with N if the range of thicknesses is kept constant;
it is more suitable to a numerical treatment, since the values of the parameters are
smaller. In the next sections is shown how acceptable solutions can be found for
arbitrary large values of the power-law parameters. The presence of an exponential
term makes the overow due to large numbers a limiting factor to the exploration
of the parameter space. The use of the rescaled formulation can increase the useful
region if used in numerical procedures.
Limits in parameter space exploration The combination of all the values for a, b
and c gives all the possible thickness distribution based on the power-law. The relation
between the power-law parameters and the actual thickness are expressed by the equations
(using the auxiliary parameter
x
):
_
x
def
d (x)
d
1
= d
1
c
=
1
1
c
x
1
x =
x=1
1
1
c
1
1
_
d
1
=

c
d
N
= d
1
(1) = d
1
_

+ 1
_
c
d(x) = d
1
x
= d
1
_

+x
_
c
(2.29)
Where the arbitrariness of the x value in the expression of allows to choose the value
x = 1 (deepest layer). The parameter c is left as a free parameter.
Looking at the relation between the parameters and the thickness distributions and
assuming xed values for the rst and the last layer in the stack, equation 2.29 dene a
relation between the parameters and and the parameter c. In particular, the relation
between and c, plotted in left side of gure 2.12, is independent on , and shows how
tends asymptotically to 1/2 + (log
1
)c.
The variation of c corresponds to the variation of the curve shape, or equivalently to
the change of an intermediate thicknesses, that can vary between d
N
(for c 0) and the
value from the linear interpolation between d
1
and d
N
(for c ). This puts a limit on
the exploration of the parameter space, since a valid solution with the same rst and last
layer exists for an arbitrary large value of c, and consequently large values of and ,
but the largest values cannot be used, because of the overow limits of the computation.
In this sense the rescaled parametrization oers the advantages of dealing with smaller
numbers than the traditional one. An example of calculation is show here, where the value
of the a,b and , parameters are computed for a sequence of value of c, keeping xed the
minimum and maximum d-spacing (10 and 100, with 100 bilayers).
------
a 1100.00 209627. 6.31e+7 2.62e+10 1.39e+13 9.0e+15 6.8e+18 6.03e+21 6.0e+24 6.68e+27
b 10.0000 44.7851 84.7563 126.204 168.262 210.629 253.175 295.832 338.565 381.349
c 1.00000 2.00000 3.00000 4.00000 5.00000 6.00000 7.00000 8.00000 9.00000 10.0000
-------
alpha 11.1111 21.3883 64.9968 272.557 1460.89 9542.07 73533.1 653145. 6.57e+06 7.38e+7
beta 0.111111 0.462475 0.866225 1.28489 1.70971 2.13767 2.56742 2.99831 3.42995 3.86212
c 1.00000 2.00000 3.00000 4.00000 5.00000 6.00000 7.00000 8.00000 9.00000 10.0000
-------
40
Figure 2.12: Left: Value of that keeps constant the ratio between the rst and the last thickness
in the stack, as a function of c. A solution exists for arbitrarily large values of c, with tending
to a straight line with steepness (log
1
). Right: Dierent thickness curves for dierent values of
c, keeping the rst and last thickness xed to respectively 100 and 10. The values are reported in
the inset.
The right side of gure 2.12 shows the corresponding thickness functions.
2.3.2 Multilayer coatings used in this work
Among the telescopes considered in this work, only the Simbol-X mirrors are foreseen to
be coated with multilayers. A few recipes for the multilayer coatings have been considered
in this thesis, both in design work and in the experimental phase. Their characteristic are
summarized in table 2.1, here follows a description:
Standard: It has been assumed as prototype of the multilayer structure for the Simbol-X
optics in simulations (chapter 4), with 200 bilayers for W/Si or Pt/C materials. As shown
in g. 4.5 on page 79 the resulting eective area (and reectivity) for the two couples of
materials are almost identical, apart from the spectral region above between the K edges
of tungsten and platinum, respectively at 69.5 keV at 78.4 keV.
Ml115: It is a modication of the standard design, with the same value for the c param-
eter, while a and b are changed. It has been used in part of the simulations in chapter 4
and it has been adopted for the sample WSi285, after a reduction of the number of layers
to 100.
PtC201: derived by a model resulting by previous optimizations. It has been adapted
for a lower number of layers (150 instead of 200) and used for the realization of the sample
PtC201. The design of the samples for the high-energy measurements is described in
section 5.5.1 on page 142.
41
Table 2.1: The models used in this work for the structure of multilayer coatings.
Name Materials
Number of Bilayer Power-law Gamma
Overcoating
bilayers thicknesses () parameters ratio
Coatings used in simulations
Standard W/Si - Pt/C 250 23.7195.5 105, -0.9, 0.27 0.35 variable
Ml115 W/Si 200 27.697.1 115.5, 0.9, 0.27 0.35 100 C
Coatings used in experimental work
Ml115_100 (WSi285) W/Si 100 33.297.0 115.5, 0.9, 0.27 0.35 100 Si
PtC201 Pt/C 150 22.96184.5 73.3, 0.98, 0.23 0.42 30 Pt,110 C
42
Chapter 3
Geometrical design of a nested shells
Wolter-like X-ray telescope
Wolter optics are of widespread use for the realization of X-ray telescopes and their em-
ployment is foreseen in almost the totality of future imaging telescopes. They are grazing
incidence mirrors based on pseudo-cylindrical shells, that focus the light by means of a
double reection on the inner surface of the shell. In the originally proposed design, the
two halves of the shell surface are shaped as a confocal hyperboloid and paraboloid (see
g. 3.1), but several variations have been proposed, originating a whole family of optics
(Wolter-like optics).
Figure 3.1: The focusing of radiation in a
nested multishell Wolter optics (credits ESA).
Several authors have studied the design
of Wolter-like optics, analytically and by
ray-tracing simulations, mainly regarding the
imaging quality and Point Spread Function
(PSF) (see references in section 3.1.3 on
page 47). Others (e.g. [Mao et al., 1999, Oka-
jima et al., 2003]) have studied the eective
area in relation with the optimization of the
reecting coatings. The eects on the eec-
tive area of the geometric parameters of the
design, that is the main subject of chapter 4
is not very studied.
In this chapter, the geometrical quantities
involved in the design of a telescope are in-
troduced. The rst section reviews the prop-
erties and denitions of the Wolter geometries. In the second section, the eective area
response of a Wolter telescope is analyzed in details, a new formalism is introduced and
several formulas applicable to the study and design are derived. In the last part, the
ray-tracing program developed and used during this thesis is described.
3.1 Introduction to Wolter-like geometries for grazing inci-
dence telescopes
The geometrical congurations employed for X-ray optics are quite dierent from the ones
used for other wavelengths. Indeed, in X-ray the possibilities of reection are limited by
43
3.1. Introduction to Wolter-like geometries for grazing incidence telescopes
the need of using small grazing angles (see chap. 2). The use of grazing incidence mirrors
to concentrate the X-ray radiation was proposed already in 1960 by Giacconi and Rossi
[1960] that considered the use of a truncated parabolic mirror. It was pointed out how the
proposed solution suers from severe image aberrations, even for on-axis focusing. In the
same work, it was suggested the investigation of geometries based on multiple reections,
like the Wolter geometries. These had been originally proposed by Wolter [1952b] for
microscopy application (but never used in that eld), with three dierent solutions, called
type I, II and III (g. 3.2), based on double reections and able to provide a real focusing
of the radiation with on axis perfect images.
Confocal paraboloid
& hyperboloid
Confocal paraboloid
& hyperboloid
F F
Reflecting surfaces
I
F F
Reflecting surfaces
II
F F
Confocal ellipsoid
& paraboloid
Reflecting surfaces
III
Figure 3.2: The three geometries origi-
nally proposed by Wolter.
The type I geometry is based on two internal
reections, rst on a paraboloid, then on a hyper-
boloid (confocal to the paraboloid) and it has been
widely employed for X-ray telescopes, oering sev-
eral advantages for astronomical applications:
each mirror can be made by a single pseudo-
cylindrical piece (shell), simplifying the re-
alization of the optics and their alignment,
that often gives one of the most critical
contributes to the degradation of the image
quality;
shells can be nested, allowing to increase the
total collecting area of the telescope. This
is important when, as it happens for X-rays,
the reection angles, and, by consequence,
the projected area of the single shells, are
small;
it has a relatively low F number (ratio be-
tween aperture radius and focal length), al-
lowing to keep the focal as short as possible
and the collecting area large.
Since the type I geometry is the only one of the
three originally proposed that has found applica-
tion in X-ray astronomy, from now on, I will refer
to Wolter type I optics simply as Wolter optics, calling Wolter-like optics the whole family
of optical designs based on a double-reection on the inner surface of a pseudo-cylindrical
shell, independently on the exact shape of the prole.
3.1.1 Angular resolution
The quality of the imaging over the eld of view is one of the most important eciency
parameters for every kind of telescope. The ability of concentrating the radiation on
a small spot determines the high sensitivity and high signal to noise ratio of focusing
telescopes with respect to direct view ones (see section 1.1). With the increase in sensitivity
and, consequently, of the number of detected sources, a good angular resolution becomes
important to avoid the problem of source confusion, deriving from the superposition of the
focal plane images of dierent sources.
The angular resolution is also important from the the point of view of the optical design,
since it is determined by the stiness of the shell (with a direct impact on mass) and by the
44
CHAPTER 3. DESIGN OF WOLTER-LIKE TELESCOPES
relation between the geometrical sizes of the telescope (angles and shell length). As such it
is one of the main parameters determining the constraints on the possible designs. Then,
even if the image quality is not strictly a subject of this thesis, no analysis of a telescope
performances can neglect this parameter, and it is important to give some remarks.
To fully characterize the image quality of a telescope over the eld of view, the PSF,
that is the focal plane response of the telescope for a point source, must be determined, in
dependence of the source position. However is often simpler and more convenient to have
a single number indicator, expressing the quality of the image resolution. The imaging
quality is as much better as the photons are concentrated on a small area on the focal
plane.
Several indicators can be derived from the PSF to quantify the performances in terms
of angular resolution. The HEW, dened as the diameter on the focal plane that collects
the half of the power of the focused photons, is usually considered the most meaningful
value for the X-ray telescope, because of the non-Gaussian prole of the focal spot. In
this work I will consider HEW to express the imaging quality and resolving power of a
instrument.
The imaging quality is degraded by dierent factors. In the simplest approximation,
these contributes can be considered independent on each other, and can be summed up in
quadrature to give the total HEW. These are:
The intrinsic aberration, characteristic of the prole of the surface. This eect is
present also for an ideal prole (determining the optical aberrations of the focal
spot) and is related to the shell length and angle. This source of error is the most
studied by means of analytical or numerical methods. Some of them are discussed in
section 3.1.3 on page 47.
Figure errors are deviations from the ideal surface due to the nite manufacturing
precision. In the case of replicated optics, these correspond to the gure error on the
mandrel prole, that is copied to the mirror shell for replicated optics. For gured
optics it is given by the (often almost perfect) guring accuracy.
Plastic deformations of the shell, that cause the deviation from the ideal prole.
Thin walls are needed to limit the telescope mass, making the shell shape very sen-
sitive even to small internal stresses and strains. Stresses can arise during the shell
production. In particular, for electroformed shells, there is a component due to the
growth of the material or to the release process. Handling and transportation, dif-
ferences between production and operative temperatures can introduce stresses and
consequent deformations. Other stresses arise if a thin lm is deposited on the shell
surface. The dependence of the HEW of the optics on the deformation is not easy
to determine, and it is usually studied numerically by means of ray-tracing and -
nite elements analysis (e.g. Parodi et al. [1993]). However, under the assumption of
an HEW to be proportional to any power of the shell deformation (HEW (r/t)
z
),
it is possible to estimate it in terms of one only parameter, the ratio k between the
radius and the thickness [Basso et al., 2008].
The micro-roughness (small-scale surface imperfections) of the optical surface causes
a wavelength-dependent scattering, that redistribute the reected radiation from the
specular direction to angles around it. This eect is often negligible for low energies
(of the order of a few keV), but it can be very important at the higher energies. It has
been recently found that the contribute from this term can be calculated analytically
from the spectral description of the surface micro-roughness [Spiga et al., 2006].
45
In the case of a multishell telescope, misalignments between dierent shells can give
an important contribute to the total spot size. The contributes can be due to a
lateral shift or tilt of each shell with respect to the others, that laterally shift the
focal spot position, or to a relative shift of the shell in the axial direction, that
gives a mismatch of the best focal plane positions. The last eect is impossible to
eliminate, over the whole eld of view, even in theory, since shells of dierent radii
have dierent focal plane curvatures. This also determines that the best focal planes
have a dierent oset with respect to the nominal focal length, making possible to
eliminate the image degradation for this eect only for a single value of the o-axis
angle. This kind of errors can be reduced by developing a careful alignment and
integration procedure, and are especially relevant in the case of a high number of
shells or shell segments. Generally speaking, it is reasonable to assume a dependence
of the alignment error roughly proportional to the square of the number of shells in
the telescope.
Reectivity eects can change the PSF in dependence of the photon energy. The
focused photons fall in dierent points of the focal plane, after double reections
on the mirror surface with dierent angles. The dependence of the reectivity from
the reection angles can give dierent shapes of the focal spot for dierent energies.
This is not very studied, also because present day telescopes focus light by means of
monolayer coatings in total reection. In this regime the reectivity curve is relatively
simple, and possibly this eect has a low inuence. In the case of multilayer optics,
that exhibit a more complex spectral dependence of the reectivity, the eect can be
relevant.
It is important to remark that the contribute of the dierent sources of image degrada-
tion, and which of them is the dominant one, is strongly dependent on the constructive
parameters and on the technology for the mirror realization.
To give an example, the intrinsic aberrations are dominant (at least in the central part
of the eld of view) only for optics realized with a technology that allows a very accurate
surface guring, like the polished glass technology used for the Chandra mirrors. Indeed, in
this case, the eect of the other sources of error is reduced by the high stiness and prole
accuracy of the mirrors, by their small number and by the relatively low-energy operative
band, with a total resolution at the border of the eld of view (15 arcmin o-axis) around
15 arcsec [Cha, 2007, Allen et al., 2004], that is lower than the value introduced by the
gure errors of thin-shell realization technologies.
On the opposite, in the XMM/Newton case, the thin walls and the larger number
of shells make the gure and integration errors the dominant contribute, being the in-
trinsic aberrations almost negligible with respect to the former. As a consequence, the
XMM/Newton angular resolution is around 15 arcsec, even on-axis, where the intrinsic
aberrations are in principle null for the Wolter design.
Yet, in the case of Simbol-X, in principle very similar to the XMM/Newton case, due to
the broad energy band (up to 80 keV) and to multilayer coatings, the reectivity dependent
factor and the scattering contribute can assume a comparable importance, or even being
the most relevant term, for the higher energies.
3.1.2 Mathematical description of the surfaces
The PSF function of a Wolter-like shell in dependence of the o-axis angle of the radiation
is determined by the shape of the longitudinal prole. This aspect has been studied in
46
literature essentially by means of ray-tracing simulations and semi-analytical approaches.
Variation of the Wolter geometry based on dierent shapes of the two reecting surfaces
have been proposed (see section 3.1.3) to improve the imaging quality.
In general, several Wolter-like geometries can be described by a common set of pa-
rameters (more in general this is true for all grazing incidence, axial-symmetrical geome-
tries [Saha, 1987]). Werner [1977] rst proposed a parametrization, expressing the radius
in terms of a polynomial expansion of the distance from the intersection plane, analyzing
the aberrations in terms of the Line Spread Function (LSF) by means of analytical and
numerical methods.
A dierent expression for the generic prole of a Wolter-like optics has been given by
Burrows et al. [1992], by the expansion of the square of the shell radius. Wolter-Swarzschild
and the Werner polynomial designs can be expressed in this form only including an innite
number of terms to the expansion. This is also the expression used in this work for the
construction of the telescope geometry and for the ray-tracing calculation.
In the parametrization by Burrows et al. [1992], the z axis is coincident with the optical
axis, with the origin at the intersection plane and the positive verse on the detector side
(second surface). The formula describing a generic surface is:
R
2
(z)
R
2
0
=
n
i=0
a
i
_
z
R
0
_
i
; z < 0 for rst surface, z > 0 for second one; (3.1)
The conditions on the radius and slope at the intersection plane forces, respectively, a
0
= 1
and a
1
= 2 tan
, where
is the surface slope at the intersection plane. The value of

the higher order coecients determines the shape of the surface.
In particular, if coecients of order higher than 2 are null, the surface is a conic section,
with the cases of hyperbola, parabola and ellipse respectively for a
2
> 0, a
2
= 0, a
2
< 0.
To give an example, the values of a
2
coecients for the two surfaces, for Wolter I and
double-cone optics, are:
rst surface second surface
Double-cone tan
2
tan
2
Wolter I 0
2R
0
tan
F+R
0
cot 2
being and the slopes at the intersection plane of the rst and second surface
In a Wolter-like optic, the relation between the shell slopes of the two surfaces at the
intersection plane can be varied as a design parameter. This is often expressed by the
value of =

2
, corresponding to the ratio between the angles of incidence of on-axis
photons onto the two surfaces. A value of = 1, ( = 3) is commonly assumed, making
the two impact angles at the intersection plane equal for on-axis radiation and, according
to Vanspeybroeck and Chase [1972], maximizing the collecting area of the telescope. I will
adopt this value in the following of the work.
3.1.3 Image quality of Wolter-like geometries
Parabolic mirrors are usually employed in visible light at normal incidence, in that case
the region of paraboloid used is the one near to the vertex. In X-rays, the needs for grazing
incidence, forces to choose an annular region far from the vertex. It can be shown that
also this solution is not practicable, because of the strong coma aberration. Indeed, the
47
condition to avoid the coma aberration is usually expressed by means of the Abbe condition,
that for sources at innite distance is:
h
sin
= r , (3.2)
where is the angle between the focused rays and the optical axis, r is a constant and h
is the distance from the optical axis of the intersection between the incoming rays and the
principal surface
1
. The above formula is the equation of a spherical surface and it means
that the principal surface must be, or be close to, a sphere with center in the parabola
focus. The condition is necessary and sucient to make paraxial rays focusing in a point
and not in an arc. A paraboloid approximates such a sphere only in a area close to the
vertex, so it is not usable at grazing incidence.
The Wolter geometry has a principal surface that approximates, but is not exactly, a
sphere and oers perfect on-axis imaging (parallel axial beams are focused in a point).
The geometry is aected by other aberrations, dominated by coma or spherical aberration,
for short and long focal length. Furthermore the ideal focal plane is curved, resulting
in an additional defocusing for o-axis angles, that can be the dominant reason for the
broadening of the focal spot.
Vanspeybroeck and Chase [1972] derived, by tting ray-tracing data, a formula for the
rms blur circle diameter
D
(a similar expression is also derived analytically by Werner
[1977]):
D
=
+ 1
10
tan
2
tan
H
1
F
+ 4 tan tan
2
, (3.3)
where =
1
/
2
is the ratio between the reection angles on the two surfaces for axial
rays (that is determined by the slopes of the surfaces and is usually assumed equal to one
for
1
= 3). The eects of the focal plane curvature is to double the eect of the rst
term of equation 3.3, while the curvature of the ideal focal plane is described by:
(r) = 0.055 ( + 1)
_
r
2
L
p
z
2
0
_
1
tan
2
. (3.4)
Several variations of the Wolter geometry has been proposed, studied and adopted,
with dierent aims, the most notable of which are:
Double cone: is the simplest approximation of Wolter geometry, it is the easiest
to build and gives in principle the highest collecting area for a given radius. This
kind of optics can be considered a concentrator rather than a focusing optics, since
photons impinging on the optic never converge in a point but are rather concen-
trated on a smaller area on the detector plane. The on-axis angular spot diameter
can be expressed as D = 2
sin(22)
cos
2
(22)

HR
2F
2
, where =
RinR
0
R
0
, being R
in
and
R
0
, respectively, the radii at the entrance pupil and at the intersection plane. The
approximation is valid for small shell slopes with = 3 and the usual focusing
condition tan (4) = R
0
/F. These geometry has been used for the concentrators
aboard the Beppo-SAX satellite [Boella et al., 1997, Citterio et al., 1988].
Polynomial: the use of surfaces based on polynomial expression of the radius as a
function of the position along the optical axis has been originally suggested by Werner
1
The principal surface is dened as the surface where the rays converging in the focus and the ones
coming from the source cross. In the case of a single reection mirror, it corresponds with the mirror
surface.
48
[1977], to generalize the prole of Wolter-like optics, and posed again by Burrows et al.
[1992] in a dierent form. The numerical optimization of the polynomial coecient
allows to tune the optical response of the telescope [Conconi and Campana, 2001].
In particular, it is possible to introduce aberrations dependent on the o-axis angle,
in order to compensate the intrinsic aberrations of the Wolter prole, that becomes
quickly large when o-axis directions for the incoming light are considered. This
kind of optics has been proposed for the realization of several missions with a wide
eld of view [Burg et al., 1990, Chincarini et al., 1998, Roming et al., 2004]. None of
these mission have been realized, even if prototypes of such kind of optics have been
made [Ghigo et al., 1999]. The use of the concept is envisaged for the WFI telescope
aboard the EDGE mission, that is studied in details in section 4.2.
Other proles: alternative proles have been studied, resulting not relevantly superior
to the parabola-hyperbola design. These have never been applied to real telescopes,
however the techniques used for analysis can be of general interest. To give a few ex-
amples, the same Wolter proposed a solution (Wolter-Schwarzschild [Wolter, 1952a])
able to exactly satisfy the Abbe condition, but characterized by strong aberrations
for o-axis sources [Chase and Vanspeybroeck, 1973, Werner, 1977]. Other variants
of the Wolter design have been proposed, like hyperboloid-hyperboloid [Harvey et al.,
2001] or equal curvature modication of the conical prole [Saha and Zhang, 2003].
It should be remarked that the dierent proles for the optics aect mainly the PSF
function and only slightly change the eective area of the single shell.
3.1.4 Technologies for the realization of the optics
The realization of a X-ray optic is always a trade-o. On one side, thick shells allow to
reach high angular resolutions, on the other, thinner mirrors have a lower mass, allowing
to assemble telescopes made of many shells and with a large collecting area. Furthermore,
especially for shell with small slopes, the wall thickness can reduce the collecting area of
the telescope. The technologies for the realization of the optics are the expression of this
trade-o: the techniques used up today (polished glass, replica techniques and thin foils)
strongly favor either one of the aspect. A main target of the technologies proposed for the
next generation of large telescope (pores optics [Gnther et al., 2006, Bavdaz et al., 2006],
slumped glass [Ghigo et al., 2008]) is to join excellent performances in both aspects.
In the following I will give a description of the most common techniques that constitute
the state of the art in production of X-ray mirrors, with a larger focus on the ones planned
for the realization of the missions described in chapter 4.
3.1.4.1 Foil optics
The optics are realized by assembling a large number of thin foils (with thickness 0.10.3
mm), usually made of aluminum or glass, and coated with a reecting layer. The foils
are bent mechanically for metals, while in case of glass segments, they can be shaped by
heating or by pressure (cold or hot slumping).
A large number of segments can be produced with a small eort and cost, allowing to
assemble telescopes with a high eective area. On the other hand, due to the low mechanical
stiness, the angular resolution can be very poor (of the order of some arcmin) making
the optics appropriate mainly for spectroscopic instruments, where the large eective area
is favored over the imaging quality. Foil optics are generally realized with a double-cone
49
prole, since the gure errors largely dominates the intrinsic aberrations and an accurate
prole is not needed.
The foil technology has been applied to the realization of the mirrors aboard several
missions, like ASCA [Serlemitsos et al., 1995] and ASTRO-E/Suzaku [Serlemitsos et al.,
2007].
3.1.4.2 Replica techniques
Replica techniques are based on the replication of the reecting surface from a mandrel,
allowing the production of monolithic shells with good mechanical properties. The good
stiness of the shells gives a good imaging quality to the mirror also facilitating the assembly
of nested optics. The most demanding part of the process is the realization of the mandrel
that needs to be gured and polished down to a few angstroms rms level, since the gure
errors and the surface imperfections are transfered to the nal mirror shell. However, this
makes easier to realize several mirror shells from the same mandrel, as done e.g. in the
case of XMM. This is useful both in prototyping and for the realization of telescopes with
many identical optical modules.
Figure 3.3: Comparison of the nickel electro-
forming replica (on left side) and Epoxy repli-
cation (on right side).
In the nickel electroforming replica tech-
nique a gold layer is deposited on the mandrel
polished surface by evaporation. The struc-
ture of the shell is then realized by grow-
ing electrolytic nickel on gold. At the end,
the replicated mirror is separated from the
mandrel by cooling the latter, taking advan-
tage of the dierence in coecient of thermal
expansion (CTE) between the shell and the
mandrel. Gold is used in the process due to
its poor adhesion to the mandrel, but, since it
is also a good X-ray reector, it has been used
as reector in the x-ray telescope realized up
today by nickel electroforming replica. How-
ever, after the shell production, it is possi-
ble to deposit other materials on the inner
surface. This is indeed the procedure en-
visaged for the realization of the Simbol-X
shells with multilayer coatings [Pareschi and
the SIMBOL-X collaboration, 2008].
The nickel electroforming replica has
been succesfully employed for the realizations of the optics of XMM/Newton [Lumb et al.,
1996], Beppo-SAX [Citterio et al., 1986] and SWIFT/XRT [Citterio et al., 1996], with
angular resolutions of the order of 15-20 arcsec. It has been suggested, and demonstrated
with prototypes, that better results can be achieved with thicker epoxy replicated carriers
made of low-density ceramic materials, like silicon carbide or alumina [Citterio et al., 1997,
Ghigo et al., 1999].
In the Epoxy replication method, the shell body is realized separately from the super-
polished mandrel and made with a slightly larger diameter (with a dierence of 100150
m). Then the mandrel and the shell carrier are nested, and the gap between the two is
lled with an epoxy resin. The carrier is then separated as in the case of nickel optics. The
technique has been proposed for the realization of the WFI/EDGE telescope, described in
chapter 4. The two production processes are illustrated in gure 3.3.
50
3.1.4.3 Superpolished glass
By means of this technique, the mirrors are manufactured giving rst the right shape to
the mirror substrate, made of a glass material (quartz has been employed for the Einstein
telescope, Zerodur for Rosat and Chandra). The choice of these materials is due to their
extremely low CTE and their relatively low density. The hyperboloid and the paraboloid
are separately ground and gured by high precision machine: the mirrors inner surfaces are
polished by lapping them with ultrathin alumina powders, a process that allow to reach
a few angstrom of microroughness rms. A thin (1000 ) reecting layer is then deposited
onto the superpolished surface. This technique allows an exceptional angular resolution
(less than 1 arcsec for Chandra), on the other hand the shell are expensive and not suitable
to repeatability (only six shells were originally foreseen in the Chandra telescope, two of
which have been discarded due to keep a higher imaging quality). Moreover, the high walls
imply a large reduction of the eective area . The technique is then suitable only for large
missions having also, as primary goal, the imaging quality more than the eective area.
3.2 Formulas about eective area and diameter distribution
Rin
R0
Rout
F

H1
L
1
L
2
H2
3
4
t
Figure 3.4: Geometrical parameters of
a double-cone shell. The corresponding
rescaled parameters (divided by the focal
lenght F are indicated in the text with small
letters.
In this section I will consider the geometrical
quantities that dene a shell and the related di-
ameter distribution for a multi-shells telescope,
deriving some formulas. In the rst subsection
the main relation and quantities are dened for
a single shell, in the following subsections the
case of a nested shell telescope is considered and
the main geometrical and merit parameters are
analyzed.
3.2.1 Denition and preliminary con-
siderations (single shell case)
A double cone optic is characterized by a few
fundamental parameters (g. 3.4): the focal
length F (dened as the distance between the
intersection plane and the focal plane), the pri-
mary surface height H (dened as the length
of the mirror surface projected along the opti-
cal axis), the shell radius R, and the primary
surface angle , corresponding to the incidence
angle for on-axis radiation. Usually, in a multi-
shells system, is convenient to keep the edges
of the shells aligned, and the secondary mirrors
is often made with the same height H as the
primary one. In a more general case, it can be
useful to dene the quantities H
1
and H
2
for the
heights of the two mirror surfaces, and L
1
and L
2
for the corresponding lengths, measured
along the mirror surface.
The focusing condition determines the the primary surface slope according to:
=
1
4
arctan
_
R
F
_
, (3.5)
51
3.2. Formulas about eective area and diameter distribution
is also the angle of incidence on the two surfaces for on-axis radiation. The slope of the
secondary mirror is equal to 3. Under this conditions the on-axis eective area is given by
A
e
= A
coll
R
2
(), where R() is the surface reectivity for the incidence angle. A
coll
is
the collecting area with:
A
coll
= (R
2
in
R
2
0
) = 2R
0
R
+ 2
2
R
2R
0
R
, (3.6)
where R
in
is the radius at the entrance pupil, and
R
the projected radial length of the rst
reecting surface. The condition for the height of the secondary mirror to be long enough
to collect all the on axis radiation incident on the rst surface is L
2
= L
1
H
2
= H
1
tan
tan 3
.
A rescaling by a factor k of all lengths does not aect the focusing condition, leaving
the incidence angle unaltered, while the collecting area scales as k
2
. The rescaling does
not change the angle distribution also for o-axis radiation, and consequently the eective
area on-axis or o-axis just rescales as k
2
(independently on the shape of the prole). Also
the PSF is not aected by the rescaling.
It is then possible to eliminate one among the geometrical parameter, assuming the
focal length as unit of measure. In the following I will indicate the rescaled lengths with
small letters (h =
H
F
, r =
R
F
, l =
L
F
), while for the shell wall thickness, I will use t
=
t
F
,
where t is the thickness in length units. The focusing condition (eq. 3.5) makes possible to
eliminate a further parameter, expressing all the geometrical quantities in dependence of
r (or, equivalently, ) and h. The exact expression of the angle as a function of the radius
is reported here for completeness:
tan =
1 +
1 +r
2
+
2
_
1 +r
2
+
1 +r
2
r
, (3.7)
however, considering the typical values of interest (r 10
3
10
2
), the Taylor expan-
sion of the formula above shows that the angle alpha, and all the related quantities, can
be conveniently approximated to the rst order (the second term is
5
64
r
3
), giving the
relations:
r = tan 4,
r h,
r
in
(1 +
h
4
)r,
a
coll

hr
2
2
.
(3.8)
(3.9)
(3.10)
(3.11)
The above formulas have been derived in a simple double-cone approximation. Similar
consideration can be done in the case of a Wolter (parabola-hyperbola) shell, to which the
formulas can be easily extended. In this case, the radii at the entrance and exit pupils
results are reduced by an amount
h
2
8
, with the consequent trivial modication of the
equations. The dierence in radius and collecting area is small for the single shell, and
leads to a small dierence also in the distribution of shells for a nested telescope, as it
will be shown in the next section. However, the formulas for nested shells can be trivially
extended in the same way.
3.2.2 Geometrical parameters for a multi-shell telescope
Due to the small angles needed for the grazing incidence reection of X-ray radiation, the
collecting area of a single shell is quite small. To achieve a higher collecting area, Wolter-
like telescopes are usually assembled by nesting many concentric and confocal shells over a
52
distribution of diameters. The performances of a multi-shell system depend on the sequence
of the shell radii.
The distance between radii of adjacent shells at the intersection plane, is determined
by the shell slope, the shell height and by the eventual gap between shells. The shell
height and thickness also determine the mass of the single shell, and have a direct impact
respectively on the intrinsic aberrations and on the stiness and deformations of the shell.
As such, they are often constrained by the requirements in term of imaging quality (see
sec. 3.1.1 on page 44).
3.2.2.1 Distribution of radii in a nested telescope
ff
Figure 3.5: Denition of the
angular separation between
shells in order to avoid shad-
owing for photons incoming
with an o-axis angle of
.
According to formulas 3.83.11, the main parameter describ-
ing the geometrical size of each shell is the rescaled radius r,
that also determines the incidence angle
r
4
, the reectiv-
ity and, for a given h, the eective area of the shell. Shells
are conventionally numbered starting from the outermost one,
however, in this section I will consider shell indexes ranging
from zero for the innermost shell, since this is appropriate for
the calculations.
According to the relations in the previous section, given
a shell with radius r
0
(shell 0) and ignoring the shell wall
thickness, the minimum radius for the next outermost shell
(shell 1), coincides with the radius at the entrance pupil and
is given by
r
1
= r
0
, with = 1 +
h
4
, (3.12)
that gives the formula for the i-th radius:
r
i+1
= r
0
i
. (3.13)
It is possible, in principle, to not leave any gap between
the projections on the intersection plane of primary mirror
surfaces for adjacent shells, achieving a full occupation of the telescope area (apart from
the loss in area due to the wall thickness). However, a more realistic design must account
for the eld of view of the telescope, leaving an extra space between shells, to avoid the
shadowing of the inner mirror for o-axis photons (vignetting). This is also useful to avoid
vignetting at the exit pupil, that can happen also for on-axis photons.
It is common to express the amount of spacing between shell by means of the lling
factor FF, dened as the ratio between the collecting area of the mirrors and the geometrical
area occupied by the telescope, the case with no spacing between shell corresponding to
FF = 1. However, dealing with the relations between radial distribution and eld of view,
it is convenient to dene the angular separation between shells in terms of the maximum
o-axis angle
for which the radiation is not shadowed (see g. 3.6. The distance between
the radii of adjacent shell is then given by r = htan
. Since this spacing is constant,

the consequent reduction of eective area will be larger for shells with small angles, that
oer a lower collecting area with respect to the area lost.
In a real case, also the wall thickness can give a relevant contribute to the shell dis-
tribution, especially if the angles are small, making smaller the projected area of a shell.
A common assumption (see also sec. 3.1.1) is that a wall thickness proportional to the
radius can keep constant the angular resolution between dierent shells. In other cases, a
constant thickness for all the shells can be preferred.
53
Figure 3.6: Distribution of radii for two of the telescopes considered in chapter 4. Left: two
congurations of the Simbol-X telescope, in which no gap between shells is assumed. The two shell
sequences are built as generated with the same maximum diameter (see sec. 3.3). In one case,
plotted with the blue diamonds, the wall thickness is set to zero. In the other one (red squares) the
wall are considered. Due to the small shell angles, the dierence is important. Right: a dierent
case of the WFI/EDGE telescope, having a shorter focal langth and lower F-number. In both cases
the continuous lines indicate the results of formula 3.16.
The way to consider these quantities in the formula 3.12 is the inclusion of two factors
and , accounting respectively for the contributes proportional to r and constant along
the shell sequence.
Some examples of common cases are:
= 1 +
h
4
+k, = htan , for linear thickness t
=
t
F
= kr; (3.14)
= 1 +
h
4
, = htan +t
, for constant thickness t
=
t
F
; (3.15)
The evaluation of the above terms can be used to nd out the most relevant for the
geometrical design of a given telescope and to select the free parameters to consider.
Equation 3.12, giving the radius of the i
th
shell, becomes:
r
i
4
i
r
0
i
+
i1
j=0
j
= r
0
i
+
i
1
1
(3.16)
If the wall thickness can be neglected or it is constant (hence included in the second term),
the rst term gives the contribute to the radii due to the projected area of the shell, while
the second one represents the contribute due to the extra-spacing between shells. If the
wall thickness is relevant, a further term adds to either one of the two.
Often the design constraints impose the largest radius of the telescope rather than the
smallest, then it can be useful to invert the formula, obtaining (in this case we consider
the index j starting from 0 for the largest shell, with radius r
max
)
r
j
=
j
r
max
+
j
1
1
(3.17)
54
Table 3.1: Geometrical parameters for representative congurations of telescopes described in
chapter 4. Radii at the intersection plane are considered.
Telescope
Focal Radius (cm) Shell thickness (mm)
length (m) min max height (m) min max (deg)

WFI/EDGE 2.75 10.9 37 0.08 2.00 2.0 0.500
Simbol-X 20 14.3 34.8 0.3 0.24 0.6 0.150
HXMT 2.1 4.5 13.0 0.3 0.20 0.20 0.000
Table 3.2: Rescaled parameters for the calculation of the radial distribution of shells.
Telescope N r
0
h/4 t
k
WFI/EDGE 2mm 61 0.040 7.27E-03 7.27E-04 / 1.0073 9.81E-04
Simbol-X 100 0.007 3.75E-03 / 1.72E-03 1.0055 3.93E-05
HXMT 30 0.021 3.57E-02 / 1.72E-03 1.0374 0.0
Table 3.3: Results of formula 3.16 compared with the real values. Partials are reported to give
the order of magnitude of the quantities involved in the calculation. The terms in the fourth and
fth columns gives respectively the contribute for the radius occupied by mirror and unused space
(if wall thickness is constant or negligible).
Telescope
N1
N1
1
1
r
0
N1
1
N1
1
r
max
calc.R
max
error (%)
WFI/EDGE 1.54 74.9 0.061 0.0735 0.135 37.0 0.11
Simbol-X 1.72 130.9 0.012 0.0051 0.017 34.8 0.02
HXMT 2.90 50.8 0.062 0.0000 0.062 13.1 0.48
55
Since the shell height is related to the imaging quality, and the number of shells to the
production cost, it can be useful to relate these two quantities; the maximum number of
shells (corresponding to the FF = 1 case) between a minimum and a maximum radii r
min
and r
max
is given by:
N =
log r
max
log r
min
log
. (3.18)
The shell height needed to entirely cover the area between the minimum and maximum
radii, with FF = 1 is:
h 4
_
_
r
max
r
min
_ 1
N
1 k
_
, (3.19)
while the angular spacing for xed minimum and maximum radii is:

1
h
(1 )
_
r
N

N
r
0
_
1
N
. (3.20)
3.2.3 Oaxis behavior
The reduction of Eective area for o-axis incidence angles (vignetting) is due to the com-
bination of geometrical eects, that depend on the path of the radiation in the telescope,
and to energy-dependent reectivity eects, that are related on the change in the distribu-
tion of reection angles and on the related changes in reectivity. The eects on a single
shell are here described.
3.2.3.1 Vignetting for a single shell
The eects arising on a single shell, for an o-axis angle greater than zero, are:
The collecting area of a shell is the projection of the shell surface on a plane perpen-
dicular to the direction of photons. The reduction due to projection eects is small,
and always negligible for x-ray grazing incidence telescope. This is easy to see, since
the entrance pupil and the circle at intersection plane projects ellipses with the same
eccentricity and a relative shift of hsin along the minor axis. If < , the ellipses
do not overlap
1
, and the projected area is given by:
A
coll,
= A
coll,0
cos A
coll,0
. (3.21)
The important eect is instead due to the fact that, with the increasing of the o-axis
angle, some of the photons undergoes a single reection over the rst surface, but
miss the second one. Right side of g. 3.7 on the next page shows the trajectory of
an o-axis photon on the tangential plane (i.e. the plane containing the trajectory
and the optical axis). For the case depicted in gure, the photon can hit the second
surface only because this is longer than the rst one l
2
< l
1
. If the two surfaces
have the same length photons impinging on the top part of the shell are lost. This
is shown also in gure 3.8 on page 58, where the same situation is illustrated in 3-D.
Vanspeybroeck and Chase [1972] found that the reduction of collecting area is given
by:
A
coll
(, ) =
2
3
A
coll
(, 0) , ( < ) . (3.22)
1
The collecting area can be exactly calculated also for . However the case is of little interest here.
56
3
4
h1
h2
l1
l2
.
. .
.
z
x
A
l1
.
3
h1
h2
l1
l2
.
.
z
x
4-
B
+
-
x
x
x
l1
Figure 3.7: Self-vignetting eects for an o-axis photon, see also g. 3.8
A totally dierent eect is given by the single reection over the secondary surface (g. 3.8
on the next page, right side), or the possibility that some of the photons strikes directly
the focal plane. Although this eects do not reduce the eective area, they give rise to
a detectable stray-light component that can be disturbing, especially for the observation
of extended sources or if a strong source is present in the proximity of the eld of view.
This component is usually eliminated or reduced by the use of expressly designed baes [de
Chambure et al., 1999, Cusumano et al., 2007]. However the eventual stray-light component
is not relevant for what concerns the eective area, so we will ignore it in the following.
Relation between vignetting angle and shell height The geometrical eects in the
previous section are dependent on the lengths of the shell primary and secondary surfaces.
In a multishell telescope, these have usually equal height, also equal for dierent shells,
to keep the edge aligned. For shells having instead the same length (that is, the shortest
possible secondary surface collecting all the photons reected by the primary), the height
ratio (g. 3.9, left panel) is
h
1
h
2
= cos /cos 3 1 + 4
2
. The dierence between the two
conditions is then absolutely negligible for the usual angles of the order of mrads.
As shown in gure 3.7, the secondary length determines the maximum o-axis angle
for which none of the photons reected by the rst surface is lost. It can be useful to
derive the relation between this maximum angle and the height of the secondary mirror:
increasing the o-axis angle, the rst photons to miss the secondary mirror are the ones
reected at the top edge of the rst shell, at a polar angle equal to 0 (g. 3.9). The angle
of reection is 2 +, and the condition for hitting the bottom edge of the second surface
is:
(h
1
+h
2
) tan (2 +) = h
1
tan +h
2
tan 3 (3.23)
57
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
-300
-200
-100
0
100
200
300
Z (mm)
Primary mirror of Simbol-X shell D=295 mm at 6 arcmin off-axis
double reflection primary single reflection
X (mm)
Y (mm)
Z (mm)
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
-300
-200
-100
0
100
200
300
Z (mm)
Secondary mirror of Simbol-X shell D=295 mm at 6 arcmin off-axis
double reflection secondary single reflection
X (mm)
Y (mm)
Z (mm)
Figure 3.8: Single shell vignetting on a Simbol-X shell for photons coming at a large oaxis
angle from the positive side of the xaxis. The shell edges and intersection plane are marked
by the circles. Double reected photons are shown in green, single reected ones in red. Left:
Primary mirror: the points density is lower on the shell side nearer to the source because of the
projection eects and is higher on the opposite side, where photons miss the secondary mirror.
Right: Secondary mirror: in addition to photons coming from a rst reection on the primary
mirror, some of the photons hit directly the secondary surface. Note that the regions of single and
double reections overlap (the region of single reected photons does not cover the whole secondary
because part of the surface is shadowed by the next inner shell). The single reected photons will
hit the focal plane, giving a straylight contribute to the image.
-0.15
-0.1
-0.05
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5
M
a
x
im
u
m

o
f
f

a
x
is

a
n
g
le

/

o
n
-
a
x
is

in
c
id
e
n
c
e

a
n
g
le

Ratio between secondary and primary mirror height (h2/h1)

Maximum off-axis angle for full geometric area in units of alpha
/
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
1 1.05 1.1 1.15 1.2 1.25 1.3
0.1
1
10
100
1000
M
a
x
im
u
m

o
f
f

a
x
is

a
n
g
le

(
a
r
c
m
in
)
M
a
x
im
u
m

o
f
f

a
x
is

a
n
g
le

(
a
r
c
s
e
c
)
Ratio between secondary and primary mirror height (h2/h1)
Maximum off-axis angle for full geometric area as a function of secondary height
Incidence angle (rad)
=0.001
=0.005
=0.01
=0.02
=0.03
Figure 3.9: Maximum o-axis angle that give only double reections.
that gives, to the rst order:
sv

h
2
h
1
h
1
+h
2
+ 2
3
, (3.24)
is small ( 10
3
10
2
) but is not zero, while h
2
h
1
can assume any (positive, null, or
negative) value, being is usually very small or zero. In this case, the second term can be
the most relevant. In any case, the minimum angle for loss of photons is usually very small
and for the typical oaxis angles of the eld of view. The reduction of the useful collecting
area cannot be totally avoided by increasing the secondary length. However, for very small
o-axis angles, it is possible to recover the area loss with an acceptable cost in terms of
mass. An application of this concept can be found in section 4.1.2.3, for the Simbol-X
telescope, as a solution to the variations of the eective area under small oscillations.
The right panel of g. 3.9 shows the the value of
sv
in units of the shell angle as a
function of the ratio between heights, below this angle the collecting area does not change
(apart from the small projection term cos ). Above this angle the collecting area start to
drop, in favor of the straylight reection from the rst surface.
58
3.2.3.2 Vignetting on a shell from the next inner one
In a multi-shell telescope there is a further vignetting eect, due to the obstruction of the
reected photons by the inner shell. As seen in 3.2.2.1, adjacent can be placed one imme-
diately after the other, making the intersection plane inner edge of a shell to coincide in
projection with the entrance pupil outer edge of the next inner shell. This allow (neglecting
the wall thickness) a full lling of the geometrical area of the telescope by the reecting
surfaces (FF = 1,
= 0) for on-axis radiation. In this conguration, when the radiation

come from an o-axis direction, a part of area of each shell is shadowed by the next outer
one.
The shadowing of photons that otherwise would be doubly reected, can happen in two
situations:
obstruction at the intermediate pupil: after a reection on primary mirror, the photon
is stopped by the next inner shell, on the back of the primary surface;
obstruction at the exit pupil: after a double reection, the photon hits the next inner
shell on the back of the secondary surface;
The entity of these eects depends strongly on the relative dimensioning of the dierent
shells, and are dicult to treat in a general way. They are usually studied by means of
ray-tracing softwares, and this is also the approach followed in this work (see section 3.3).
3.2.3.3 Reectivity eects
The on-axis eective area of a shell can easily be calculated, in double-cone approximation,
as A
e
() = A
coll
R
2
(), where A
coll
is the collecting area of the shell and R() is the
reectivity at the angle of the two reections. In this case, the distribution of the
incidence angles on the shell is a delta function.
For o-axis radiation, the collecting area varies according to the relations described in
section 3.2.3.1. The distributions of incidence angles on parabola and hyperbola (that are
related between them and determined by the shell parameters) change in a way that is not
easy to predict. The ray-tracing software has been used to study the distribution of the
impact angles and the relation with geometrical properties.
An interesting relation that has been derived is the relation between the incidence angle
on the parabola
1
and the polar angle of the impact point. can be calculated by the
vectorial equations of reection (see sec. 3.3 on page 62) and is given, for a double cone
optic, by:
1
= arcsin (sin cos cos + cos sin ) , (3.25)
with o-axis angle, shell slope and polar angle of the impact point on the primary
surface ( starts from zero in the direction opposite to the incoming direction of photons,
see sec 3.3 on page 62 for a description of the coordinate system). It is also possible to
show that the rule
1
+
2
2 is valid with very good approximation. The results of
these formulas are compared with data from a ray-tracing simulation on a Simbol-X shell
for a 6 arcmin o-axis angle in gure 3.10.
This means that, if a function is found, relating the polar angle of the impact point
with the collecting area associated to it, a formula can be derived giving the distribution
of angles, and, by consequence, the eective area of a shell. Such a formula, of great
importance both for the geometrical optimization of telescopes and for the optimization of
coatings, has been very recently derived at Brera Astronomical Observatory (OAB) [Spiga
et al., 2009]. The work on it is in progress and a paper is in preparation.
59
3.3. Numerical simulation of the performances by ray-tracing
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
-180 -150 -120 -90 -60 -30 0 30 60 90 120 150 180
in
c
id
e
n
c
e

a
n
g
le

(
d
e
g
)
polar angle (deg)
Simbol-X shell D=295 mm at 6 arcmin off-axis
incidence angle on 1st shell
from formula
incidence angle on 2nd shell for double reflection
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0 0.0005 0.001 0.0015 0.002 0.0025 0.003 0.0035 0.004
I
m
p
a
c
t

a
n
g
le

o
n

h
y
p
e
r
b
o
la

(
d
e
g
)
Impact angle on parabola (deg)
Simbol-X Wolter shell 295, 6 arcmin off-axis, double reflected photons
Ray tracing photons
Figure 3.10: Left: relation between the polar angle of the reection point on the rst surface and
the incidence angles on the primary and secondary mirrors for a Simbol-X double-cone shell. The
data are calculated by ray-tracing, the density of points on the plot corresponds to a higher useful
area. The horizontal lines mark the angle values for , and + . Right: relation between
the incidence angles on hyperbola and parabola. The sum of the two angles is constant within a
couple of arcseconds.
3.3 Numerical simulation of the performances by ray-tracing
Figure 3.11: Distribution of impact angles for
a Simbol-X shell for 3 arcmin o-axis.
Part of the work of this thesis has been the re-
alization of a ray-tracing software. The soft-
ware tracks the path of a number of randomly
generated photons across the telescope and
is aimed to the study of the conguration of
X-ray Wolter-like telescopes, in terms of ge-
ometry and coating.
The writing of the software starts from
previous existing code at OAB by P. Con-
coni. I have modied a large part of the soft-
ware, making changes both to the interface,
to allow more exibility in the choice of pa-
rameters and in the output data, and in the
internal mechanisms, to allow to extract more
information. The most relevant changes have
been a new mechanism to handle the tracking of the photon paths inside the telescope,
the possibility of using a dierent coating on each shell, the generation mechanism for the
photons based on a true Montecarlo instead than a grid, and the creation of a le-based
interface for the input and output, with the inclusion of several options.
The software is designed to be used for:
simulation of performances and geometrical optimization of telescopes (see chap. 4);
study of the general principles of reection and focusing in Wolter-like telescopes, in
relation to the parameters of design and coating, with particular attention to split
the two eects.
The output is optimized to provide all the information about the path of each photon,
the angles of reection and the resulting image. Several script for Gnuplot and Python
scripts have been realized, to calculate and plot the relevant information, of which the
60
Figure 3.12: IDL program for the visualization of the ray-tracing results. Starting and nal
positions of photons are plotted and tabulated, as well as the angular distribution. A single shell
or photons with a type of reections can be isolated and separately counted. In the window on the
right is shown the setting le.
gures in this chapter are examples. Tools and routines in IDL for the selection and
analysis of data have also be realized (see g. 3.12).
In this section I will describe the implementation details of the software. The working
algorithm goes through three steps:
1. creation of the geometry;
2. calculation of paths;
3. calculation of reectivity and eective area.
The input parameters are provided by means of a text le, with a list of mandatory and
optional settings. In case of missing or contradicting parameters, a message error is raised,
while, if a missing parameter is not vital and after a warning, the program tries to use a
set of default values. An example of input le
The following subsections describe, for each phase, the operations made by the program,
some usage options and possible improvements. In the following is reported an adaptation
of notes, to document the operation of the program, but also as a reference for future users
or developers.
Creation of the geometry
Input and options The starting value for diameters generation is the external diameter
of the entrance pupil (since this is usually the known value from the design constraints),
together with the other needed geometrical parameters:
focal length
parabola and hyperbola height, or a single value for use the same height
spacing between shell, in terms of the angle in arcmin as dened in section 3.2.2.1
wall thickness can be selected by imposing one of the following:
61
a maximum thickness for the external shell and a linear angular coecient;
the thicknesses of the rst and last shell, to use for a linear interpolation;
the m and q parameters for a linear variation of the thickness as a function of
the shell diameter;
a constant thickness;
a minimum acceptable value under which the thickness is kept constant can also be
specied.
prole parabola-hyperbole and double cone are implemented, anyway the internal
implementation is based on polynomial 5th grade development, so the upgrade to
other polynomial possibilities should be almost immediate;
the number of shell (or the minimum diameter for the most inner shell).
Alternately, a geometry le in the suitable format can be provided, or just a le with the
list of the parameters at the intersection plane, to be used with the settings le to build a
geometry.
Description The geometry is created starting from the most external shell, whose di-
ameter must be provided in the settings le.
Output The output of this phase of the programis a set of human or machine-readable
geometry les, containing all the information about diameters, collecting areas, angles,
obstructions, weights and prole parameters. The output les constitute the input for the
next phase of the program.
Calculation of photons path (geometrical)
Input and options This phase starts from a le with the description of the geometry
in a suitable format. The same settings le as in the above sections contains also variable
determining the ray-tracing parameters. These are:
number of points to generate over the telescope entrance pupil;
range and step for the values of the o-axis angles to be simulated;
level of details in the logging of data (it can be very space-consuming for the hard
disk), see below;
the distance of the source, to simulate a point source at a nite distance.
Some care must be taken in the case of a simulation for a nite-distance source: this
option is implemented and working, but with a caveat: the program generates a uniform
distribution of photons over a plane perpendicular to the photon direction, while for a
point-like source the distribution of photons is instead uniform over the solid angle. The
dierence is almost always irrelevant, since the source is usually at large distance, but it
could be important for a small source distance and large diameter optics.
62
Description For each of the o-axis angle to test, the o-axis angle is used to calculate
the director cosines of the rays. A random distribution of points over the projection of
the entrance pupil, and the path are followed through the optics to the focal plane. Each
photon is identied by a point P on the plane of the entrance pupil, and by the director
cosines of the ray, the path of each photon can be expressed through a parameter t by:
X = t
V+P. The axis z coincides with the optical axis, with the tangential plane (i.e. the
plane parallel to photon directions and to the optical axis) being the zx plane.
In the case of a source at innite distance (the only case considered in this work) all
the photons have the same director cosines, and, due to the symmetry of the system, the
director cosine with respect to the y-axis is assumed equal to one. This results in paths
parallel to the zx, while the other cosines are assumed to be negative, resulting in photons
coming from the positive directions of the x and z axis. Because of the relation between
the director cosines, one only parameter (the o-axis incoming direction of the photons) is
enough to describe the dependence on the o-axis direction.
The photons cross in sequence the entrance, intermediate and exit pupils planes, being
eventually reected by the shell surfaces between them. The intersection points are calcu-
lated by solving the system between the equation of the photon path and the equation of
planes or shell surfaces (determined by the parametrization in sec. 3.1.2). If a reection
happens, the new photon path direction is calculated by

v
= v 2 ( v n) n.

v
is the
versor of the reected photon, v is the versor before the reection and n is the versor
normal to the reecting surface. The reection angle is given by = arccos ( v n).
The position of the points at the three plains is compared with the shell sizes at the en-
trance pupil, before the reection, to determine the shell of interest, and at the intermediate
and exit pupils, after the rst or second reections, to evaluate the eventual obstruction.
A set of binary ags is set at each condition, returning a nal a value that characterize the
path history.
Output The software traces the path of each photon, even if does not hit the mirror
surface, making possible to analyze and quantify the problems related to obstructions or
vignetting (see e.g. 4.1.2.3), also at some cost of computing time. The data storing all the
information in a human readable format can be bulky, an option of the program allows to
set the level of details in the output according to the following possibilities:
not to write any geometrical information, just the output of the next phase;
to write also the relevant data for photons on the focal plane: image position and
direction cosines (these are e.g. to evaluate the eects of a focal plane tilt of shift),
the starting coordinates in the entrance pupil, the reection angles (if there are) on
both shells and the reections and obstructions along the path;
to write also the positions of the impact points on the shells, allowing to reconstruct
the full path of the photons from the start.
Calculation of performances
Input and options The usual settings le must contain also the data about the coating,
or the name of a folder containing data from a coating optimization performed with a
previous program Iterated Simplex Optimization for X-ray Multilayers (ISOXM) Cotroneo
and Pareschi [2004]. Due to the limitation of FORTRAN, to change the function for the
calculation of the coating structure (e.g. to change from power-law to constant blocks) must
be inserted in the source code, recompiling it. After that, it is possible to use dierent
63
structures for dierent shells in the code, selecting the functions by means of the settings
le.
Description The reectivity is evaluated according to the recursive procedure described
in chap. 2.2.3.2, starting from the multilayer parameters provided in the settings le or
in the result from a previous coating optimization. The shell of impact for each for each
photon is stored in the output of the previous phases, so it is possible to use a dierent
coating for each shell.
Output The output of this phase are the eective areas at the dierent angles, plus
several performances indicators, like e.g. the HEW or the percentage of useful area, that
were included in the original code.
3.3.1 Computational resources and possible improvements
The described approach is perhaps more devoted to the study than to the optimization of
the telescopes geometry, and this probably go to the expenses of computing time, however
is not prohibitive at all to use the program to optimize telescopes. The options to exclude
some output can give a someway faster execution, because the data les are quite large.
The most time-consuming part is however the evaluation of the reectivity (especially for
multilayer coating with a large number of layers). When the only interest is the geometrical
path of the photons it can be avoided, resulting in a much faster execution that allow to
try more parameters.
The software works ne and it appear to be quite reliable: several problems, like the
errors due to a statistical sampling, especially with a large number of shells, have been
overcome, at least if the software is run with a large enough number of photons. However
improvements and renements are possible, I think they could be:
Change variable names and groups, write documentation.
Sorting of photons by shell. The mechanism for the management of dierent coating
structures on dierent shells works ne, and it has been used in a few cases in
chapter 4. However some aspects can be improved: indeed, presently the program
cycles on photons, the shell is then selected and the corresponding coating structure
is simulated. A sort of the photons by shell number, cycling on shells should be
faster, less error prone (it makes easier to visually check the results) and generally
more exible. Even the external implementation can be improved: the software
have been written to match the structure of previous programs (e.g. the coating
optimization program described in Cotroneo and Pareschi [2004]), whose output (not
optimized) can be accepted as input. This is probably not needed today and a simpler
implementation could be adopted.
New log levels to calculate and write only doubly reection photons (for a faster
calculation of the eective area)
Adding more exibility, e.g. treating shells with dierent heights along the sequence.
Accept photons list as input, this can be very useful for the study of the general prop-
erties of telescopes, mapping selected lines or areas, and also to simulate experimental
conditions like pencil-beam light.
64
3.4 Chapter results and further work
In this chapter I have analyzed the problematic of the eective area response of Wolter-
like telescopes for on-axis and o-axis radiation. The approach followed is to separate the
eects related to the coating reectivity from the geometric ones. This approach has been
applied to the derivation of analytical expressions and to the development of a ray-tracing
software, to handle the optimization of telescopes and study the general problem.
It has been shown how the existence of a scaling relation allows to express all the
geometrical properties of a shell in dependence of radius and shell height. This formaliza-
tion allows to derive the sequence of diameter for an arbitrary choice of the geometrical
parameters. Applications of these relations are shown.
65
3.4. Chapter results and further work
66
Chapter 4
Design and optimization for future X-ray
telescopes
The general principles and the software programs developed in the previous chapters have
been applied to the design of several future X-ray telescope, to predict their performances
in dependence of the parameters and constraints and to determine the best design for the
optics.
The telescopes here considered are:
Simbol-X a multilayer based telescope, in phase of realization, with innovative tech-
nology for the extension of focusing capabilities to hard X-ray;
WFI/EDGE a proposed telescope based on total reection optics aboard a medium
size mission, whose optics require a technological development and whose wide-eld
capabilities has peculiar side eects on the design;
XPOL/HXMT a proposed small size telescope with moderate imaging perfor-
mances, to explore the new eld of X-ray polarimetry and based on the already
available technology;
A general procedure for the geometrical design of a Wolter telescope can be outlined
by the following steps:
Denition of parameter space, merit parameters and their target values.
Evaluation of the impact of variations in the design parameters.
Selection of congurations of interest to use as test cases.
Detailed evaluation of the merit parameters and scientic consequences.
In the following sections the aims of the instrument, the requirements and constraints,
and the work of design are described for each telescope.
4.1 Simbol-X
Simbol-X is a mission for the exploration of the hard X-ray Universe, whose launch is
foreseen for the 2014, originally proposed by Istituto Nazionale di Astrosica (INAF) and
Commissariat lEnergie Atomique (CEA) at Saclay. It then became part of the space
67
4.1. Simbol-X
program of the Centre National dEtudes Spatiales (CNES) and Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
(ASI). The main purpose of the mission is to extend the focusing capabilities of the present
day telescopes to the energy band above 10 keV.
In the current conguration, selected for the phase-B, it has an eective area and
angular resolution comparable to that of XMM/Newton (for one module) and extended up
to 80 keV, with a eld of view of about 12 arcmin. The improvement in angular resolution
and sensitivity above 10 keV, with respect to the today operating coded-mask instruments,
is roughly of three order of magnitude in sensitivity and angular resolution [Fiore et al.,
2008]. The present design is the result of a strong evolution from the rst one proposed. In
the following sections, after a short overview of the scopes and constraints of the mission, I
will describe the optimization work that was my contribute to the denition of the baseline
conguration for the phase-B, that will start in 2009. In the last section I will remark the
scientic impact of the current conguration, as estimated by other authors on the base of
the work of this thesis, with the focus on the specic eld of AGN study, that is one of the
main targets of the mission.
4.1.1 Technical overview
By a technological point of view, the innovative aspects the Simbol-Xmission are:
The long focal length is achieved by using two satellites in formation ight, the Mirror
SpaceCraft (MSC), housing the Wolter optics, and the Detector SpaceCraft (DSC),
that hosts a stack of two detectors [Laurent et al., 2008], the LED and the HED
(respectively Low and High Energy Detector) covering together the whole energy
band.
The broad band response of the focusing optics is made possible by the use of mul-
tilayer coatings (see sec. 2.2.3) on the reecting surface of the mirrors.
The technology chosen for the mirror shells realization is the nickel electroforming
replica approach (see chap. 3.1.4), already exploited with success for the optics of other
missions like SAX, XMM and SWIFT. In the case of Simbol-Xa further phase of deposition
of the multilayer coating on the inner surface of the shells is foreseen.
With respect to previous replicated optics, like the ones of XMM/Newton, the smaller
grazing angles of the Simbol-X shells, needed to reect the high energy radiation, oer
a much lower ratio between collecting area and mass. On the other hand, the angular
resolution needed to avoid the confusion limit, is presently achievable only by the use of
monolithic shells. To meet the weight requirements, the Simbol-Xoptics must be about
three times thinner than the XMM ones, with comparable performances.
At the current level of design, the mirror mass allocation is about 300 kg. With the
current status of development, the engineering optics that we have fabricated have an
angular resolution better than 30 arcsec. Further improvements on the optics production
process are being worked out between phase-A and phase-B in order to reach the required
value of 20 arcsec.
4.1.1.1 Scientic performances
The main characteristics of Simbol-X with respect to the scientic observations are:
Sensitivity and imaging capabilities in the 1080 keV of orders of magnitude better
than the current instruments operating in the same energy band;
68
CHAPTER 4. DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION
Broad band capabilities (0.580 keV), that allow the simultaneous observation in the
soft X-ray band with eective area and angular resolution comparable to the ones of
XMM/Newton;
Possible synergy with new instruments operating in other energy bands, for multi-
wavelength observations.
These characteristics can be particularly useful in the specic elds [Fiore et al., 2008]
that have been indicated by the Simbol-X Joint Scientic Mission Group as objectives of
the mission, that are:
Black Holes physics and census:
resolve into discrete sources at least 50% of the CXB in the energy range where
it peaks, determining the fraction and evolution of obscured sources and giving
a more complete census of SMBHs;
solve the puzzle on the origin of the hard X-ray emission from the Galactic
center that harbors the closest SMBH;
constrain the physics of the accretion ow onto both SMBHs and solar mass
BHs.
Particle Acceleration mechanisms:
constraining the acceleration processes in relativistic jets of blazars and GRBs;
probing acceleration mechanisms in the strong electromagnetic and gravitational
elds of pulsars;
measuring the maximum energy of electron acceleration in supernova remnants
shocks, and searching for hadron acceleration in these sites;
searching for, and mapping, the non-thermal emission in cluster of galaxies, and
if conrmed, determining its origin and its impact on cluster evolution.
According to these goals, the Simbol-X scientic committee xed, during the phase-A,
the top-level scientic requirements needed to meet the scientic objectives, reported in
tab. 4.1, that have been addressed in this work. The advances expected from Simbol-Xon
the core objectives and on additional science topics have been discussed during the rst
Simbol-X International Workshop [Fiore and Malaguti, 2008] and the second one just hold
in Paris (25 September 2008).
4.1.2 Design of the telescope
In the following sections I will review my work that has contributed to the denition of
the current phase-B design, and that can be divided in three phases, that are described in
the next sections.
4.1.2.1 Denition of the baseline [Cotroneo, 2006a]
Original design The original Simbol-X concept, proposed to CNES [Ferrando, 2002],
was aimed to the realization of a technology mission, based on monolayer (platinum or
iridium) coated optics and formation ight conguration. In 2005 the top-level scientic
requirements were added, to drive a redenition of the design.
69
4.1. Simbol-X
Table 4.1: Requirements for the Simbol-Xtelescope mirrors in the original and current congura-
tion (top-level requirements).
Parameter
Requirements
Original conguration Top-level
[Ferrando, 2003] [Pareschi and Ferrando, 2005]
Energy range (keV) 0.570 0.580
Field of view (arcmin) 6 913
On-axis eective area
(cm
2
)
1000 (E<2 keV)
600 (8 keV)
600 (E35keV) 450 (2040 keV)
150 (50 keV)
10 (67 keV) 100 (70 keV)
Angular resolution (arcsec,
HEW, E30 keV)
20 20
Sensitivity
< 5 10
8
ph s
1
cm
2
keV
1
< 1Crab
5, 100 ks, 30 keV 3, 1 Ms, 2040 keV
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
15 20 25 30 35
M
a
x
i
m
u
m

a
n
g
u
l
a
r

s
i
z
e

f
o
r

F
O
V

(
a
r
c
m
i
n
)
Focal Length (m)
Geometrical limit to image angular size
8 cm detector size
7 cm detector size
Figure 4.1: The detector angular size, as seen from the
mirror module, as a function of the focal length. The
detector is assumed to have a 7 cm side, according to the
technological reliability for the stacked detector system.
If we consider the eect of the satellite oscillations such
a detector partially covers an area about 1 cm wider.
The original conguration of-
fered an eective area of 600 cm
2
up to 35 keV, decreasing to 150 cm
2
at 50 keV and to tens of cm
2
at
higher energies. The small angles
xed by the 30 m focal length lim-
ited the eld of view to 6 arcmin
for a 50% vignetting, with an in-
trinsic limit of 89 arcmin, deter-
mined by the maximum size (78
cm) for the realization of the sys-
tem of high-energy and low-energy
detectors (see g. 4.1). Furthermore
the ratio between collecting area
and mass, and the collecting area of
a shell for a given shell height, are
both inversely proportional to the
focal length (see chap. 3 on page 43)
resulting in a higher cost for the
eective area in term of mass and
number of shells.
Procedure followed In this phase I studied the eects, over the eective area and mass,
of a reduction of the focal length and of the implementation of multilayer coatings, with the
aim of increasing the Field of View (FOV) and extending the energy band, while reducing,
at the same time, the mass to area ratio. This led to the denition of a new baseline with
a focal length of F=20 m.
70
The study went through the ray-tracing calculation of on-axis and o-axis eective areas
for several Simbol-Xgeometrical congurations with the comparison between monolayer
and multilayer coatings. The resulting weights, eective area and eld of view are evaluated
with the standard multilayer (whose parameters are described in sec, 2.3.2 on page 41) and
Ir monolayer coatings (platinum has performances very similar to iridium). The aim of the
study is to nd congurations that can enhance the telescope eld of view and sensitivity,
while keeping the weights below the mass limits of the mission.
Parameters and constraints I have considered congurations with 100 nested Wolter
I shells, assuming as parameters focal length, lling factor, maximum shell diameter and
mirror coating (Ir monolayer or W/Si multilayer with 250 bilayers).
The separation between adjacent shells can be varied, giving a more or less compact
shell arrangement. This changes the diameters of the shells: a more compact design (with
more shells at large diameters) gives a higher geometrical area, however the reectivity is
higher on the innermost shells, depending on the energy. The eects of vignetting are also
dicult to estimate in a general way, especially for o-axis angles. The lling factor for a
mirror shell is expressed in terms of
, the angular separation between the edge of a given

shell (at the telescope opening) and the diameter at the parabola-hyperbola intersection
plane of the next inner shell (see sec. 3.2.2.1).
The choice of a xed diameter for the largest outer shell determines the nested shell
sizes (and consequently mass) along the sequence, with a maximum diameter of 70 cm
being considered, to rely on the already available technology for the nickel electroforming
process. The mirror reectivity response depends on the incidence angle, given, for on-axis
rays, by the focusing relation =
1
4
arctan
R
F
, with incidence angle, R shell radius at the
intersection plane and F focal length.
The mass depends on the shell size and wall thickness, that is assumed to vary linearly
with shell radius, which is a reasonable assumption to keep constant the imaging quality
with respect to the shell size. The technological status at the moment of the work led to
assume a value of 0.36 mm for the thickness of a shell with 70 cm diameter, and 0.2 mm
for a diameter of 40 cm, corresponding to a value of 1 10
3
for the linear coecient k,
ratio between thickness and radius. The masses are calculated assuming a density of 8.8
g/cm
3
for the nickel walls.
The calculations are performed for shell diameters sequences derived from the possible
combinations of the assumed parameters, using, for the evaluation, the rst version of the
ray-tracing software described in section 3.3.
Ir monolayer coating and W/Si broad-band multilayer coating, with interfacial and
surface roughness of 3 are considered. For the multilayer coatings the standard (see
section 2.3.2) d-spacing distribution is assumed (same coating for all of the shells).
The parameters used in the simulations are:
Parameter Values
Coating Ir monolayer, W/Si multilayer (250 bilayers)
Focal length (m) 20, 22, 25, 27.5, 30
Angular shell separation () 0, 0.07, 0.015
Larger shell diameter (cm) 60, 70
The ray tracing is performed using a 10 000 points on the telescope aperture (on a
square grid instead than a true montecarlo, for that preliminary version of the program).
Eective area curves are evaluated in the range 0.1-60 keV with 100 energy sampling points,
71
4.1. Simbol-X
for o-axis angles from 0 to 10 arcmin (with 2 arcmin step). The resulting value for elds
of view is evaluated at the energy of 30 keV by the interpolation between the o-axis angle
values, to indicate a value of the angle for which the eective area is a half of the on-axis
value.
Uncertainty in the calculation Due to the high number of shells this procedure could
give some uncertainty about the details of the eective area curves (especially at high
energy), being some shells rather undersampled. Nevertheless, a calculation of the on-axis
eective areas with a more accurate analytical calculation (by summing up the eective
area of the single shells) has shown a good agreement with the ray-tracing calculation. Even
the indications about the eld of view resulted accurate into a few arcmin in diameter, as
veried on a restricted number of congurations by using a larger number of sampling
points.
Results The main trade-o is between area, weight and energy range, being the inner
shells (with smaller incidence angles) lighter (but with a higher mass to collecting area
ratio) and contribute more to the eective area at higher energies, while the outer ones are
heavier and have a larger geometrical area, but they are sensitive only to lower energies.
Figure 4.2 on the facing page shows the comparison between the simulated on axis
area for the congurations in the limit cases of 20 m with the multilayer coating (new
design), and 30 m with the monolayer coating (old design). The comparison between the
two coatings on the same geometries, for the intermediate case of 25 m focal length, is
presented in gure 4.3 on page 74.
Tables 4.2 on page 75 summarizes the resulting values of the performance indicators
for the dierent combinations of parameters. The corresponding eective area curves for
o-axis angles of 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 arcmin are shown in the original document [Cotroneo,
2006a], here I report, in g. 4.4 on page 78, just a couple of examples for two congurations
(20 and 30 m focal length) with comparable mass and the two kind of coatings. Weights
and eld of view diameters are indicated in the gures. The values indicated in gures and
tables include a 10% reduction for the eective area and a 30% increase of the masses, due
to the presence of the frame structures (spiders and optics case).
The last group of gures shows the on-axis eective area curves up to very high ener-
gies (0160 keV, g. 4.5 on page 79) for some illustrative geometrical congurations: for
the smaller shells there is some reection also at energies above the multilayer material
absorption edge. The cases of W/Si multilayer (W K- absorption edge at 69.5 keV) and
Pt/C (Pt K- absorption edge at 78.4 keV) are presented. They dier in a relevant way
only at the highest energies (above the edges), with an eective area, above the absorption
edge, of the order of 20-50 cm
2
.
Conclusions From the above study, the considerations about the eects of varying the
geometrical parameters that can be derived are:
The employment of graded multilayer coatings allows to extend the energy band of
the telescope up to high energies with an eective area between 100 and 200 cm
2
.
The maximum energy is determined by the position of the K- absorption edge of
the heavy material used as reector in the multilayer. Above this energy the eective
area is strongly reduced (of the order of a few tens of square centimeters).
Being xed the number of shells and the kind of coating, for a shorter focal length
the incidence angles on the shells are larger, as well the projected areas, implying
72
Figure 4.2: Top: eective area for the combination of parameters with the original design based
on 30 m focal length and Ir monolayer coating. Bottom: eective area for the shortest focal length
case of 20 m (that will result the nal design) and W/Si multilayer. The values of mass and eld
of view are indicated in the labels. A reduction of the eective areas of 10%, to account for the
spider obstruction, and an increase of 30% in the mass for the structure are assumed.
73
4.1. Simbol-X
Figure 4.3: Comparison of monolayer (top) and multilayer (bottom) coatings on the same geo-
metrical congurations with intermediate focal length of 25 m (compare with gures 4.2 on the
previous page).
74
Table 4.2: Performance with W/Si multilayer and Ir monolayer for the congurations with 20, 25
and 30 m focal lengths.
Focal length = 20 m
Coating angular Max Weight FOV On axis
shell sep diameter (+30% structure) diameter e. Area at 30 keV
(
) (cm) (kg) (arcmin) (-10% structure)

(cm
2
)
Ir monolayer 0 60 250.218 3.694 293.111
W/Si multilayer 0 60 250.218 7.29 372.506
Ir monolayer 0.07 60 221.865 5.268 334.883
W/Si multilayer 0.07 60 221.865 10.668 397.559
Ir monolayer 0.15 60 192.774 6.348 349.2
W/Si multilayer 0.15 60 192.774 10.801 393.914
Ir monolayer 0 70 349.463 3.436 97.308
W/Si multilayer 0 70 349.463 7.663 369.325
Ir monolayer 0.07 70 315.298 3.975 191.434
W/Si multilayer 0.07 70 315.298 12.92 352.492
Ir monolayer 0.15 70 279.654 5.517 285.682
W/Si multilayer 0.15 70 279.654 12.711 405.342
Focal length = 25 m
(

(cm
2
)
Ir monolayer 0 60 266.833 4.228 645.826
W/Si multilayer 0 60 266.833 5.543 568.365
Ir monolayer 0.07 60 236.41 6.029 592.665
W/Si multilayer 0.07 60 236.41 8.713 546.77
Ir monolayer 0.15 60 205.129 6.181 544.955
W/Si multilayer 0.15 60 205.129 8.337 506.777
Ir monolayer 0 70 372.642 3.689 391.319
W/Si multilayer 0 70 372.642 7.029 479.244
Ir monolayer 0.07 70 335.988 5.183 495.233
W/Si multilayer 0.07 70 335.988 10.616 527.47
Ir monolayer 0.15 70 297.68 5.946 459.026
W/Si multilayer 0.15 70 297.68 10.885 497.571
75
4.1. Simbol-X
Focal length = 30 m
(

(cm
2
)
Ir monolayer 0 60 278.812 5.157 725.835
W/Si multilayer 0 60 278.812 5.697 560.11
Ir monolayer 0.07 60 246.907 7.148 673.821
W/Si multilayer 0.07 60 246.907 8.894 551.802
Ir monolayer 0.15 60 214.056 6.738 667.926
W/Si multilayer 0.15 60 214.056 7.922 553.47
Ir monolayer 0 70 389.351 3.868 795.959
W/Si multilayer 0 70 389.351 5.779 646.114
Ir monolayer 0.07 70 350.917 5.706 774.945
W/Si multilayer 0.07 70 350.917 8.882 661.803
Ir monolayer 0.15 70 310.701 6.159 700.468
W/Si multilayer 0.15 70 310.701 9.232 612.448
a higher eective area at low energies (below 20 keV), and a lower one at higher
energies.
Multilayer coatings that oer a broad energy band response for a xed angle, show
also a wide-angle response for xed energies, allowing to increase the eld of view of
the instrument with respect to monolayer coatings, especially for lower focal lengths,
being the incidence angles smaller and the geometrical vignetting less important.
This is possible only for shorter focal length than in the original design, since for
longer focal lengths the size of the eld of view is limited by the detector size. It is
to be noticed that a linear increase of a factor 2 in the FOV value, corresponds to an
increasing of a factor 4 in the FOV area, which is particularly advisable for deep-eld
surveys and the study about of extended sources.
At the end of the study, the conguration with 20 m focal length with angular shell
separation of 0.15
and maximum diameter has been evaluated positively by the scientic

committee and assumed as new baseline for further engineering studies to be performed
in pre-phase-A. With the assumed technological level in shell production, the estimated
mass of the telescope, in this conguration, is around 280 kg (including structures), with
an eective area of 400 cm
2
at 30 keV and larger than 1200 cm
2
below 10 keV. The eld
of view at low-energy (below 30 keV) is around 12 arcsec in diameter, enough to cover all
the focal plane detector area.
4.1.2.2 Fine tuning of the design [Cotroneo et al., 2008a]
Fine tuning of parameters and alternative designs A latter evaluation is performed
on shorter focal lengths to evaluate the possibilities of variations and improvements and to
tune the parameters for the new baseline denition, also in the view of the updates on the
status of the technology.
Indeed, the results of new developments in the process of shell production, led us
to review the values of the shell thickness on the base of status of the technology. A
conservative estimation of the shell wall thickness needed to reach the aimed resolution can
be conducted by the extrapolation of the nickel replicated shells produced for tests [Basso
76
Table 4.3: Performances with W/Si multilayer coating for the congurations with 22.5 and 27.5
m focal lengths.
Focal length = 22.5 m
(

(cm
2
)
W/Si multilayer 0 60 259.257 6.198 476.966
W/Si multilayer 0.07 60 229.775 9.645 486.665
W/Si multilayer 0.15 60 199.491 9.463 469.297
W/Si multilayer 0 70 306.21 6.324 467.687
W/Si multilayer 0.07 70 326.551 11.955 430.285
W/Si multilayer 0.15 70 289.455 12.78 434.632
Focal length = 27.5 m
(

(cm
2
)
W/Si multilayer 0 60 273.273 6.153 525.262
W/Si multilayer 0.07 60 242.052 9.187 533.588
W/Si multilayer 0.15 60 209.926 8.907 501.302
W/Si multilayer 0 70 322.854 5.763 615.152
W/Si multilayer 0.07 70 344.013 8.706 631.95
W/Si multilayer 0.15 70 304.678 8.728 592.796
77
4.1. Simbol-X
Figure 4.4: Eective areas for iridium (left) and W/Si multilayer (right) coatings on two geometries
with comparable masses with 20 (top) and 30 m (bottom) focal lengths. The eective area for
dierent o-axis angles from 0 to 10 arcmin are represented by the sequence of lines in each gure,
with the orange thick line showing the 50% of the on-axis area determining the eld of view.
et al., 2008]. This gives a value 1.7 10
3
(instead of 1 10
3
) for the linear coecient
k, ratio between thickness and radius, that we believe to be compliant with the angular
resolution requirement.
This implies the reduction of the collecting area, due to the change in the shell distribu-
tion to account for the thicker walls, with a reduction of about 2.5 cm on the radius of the
innermost shell for the baseline conguration and, at the same time, an increase in mass of
a factor around 1.6. The eect of the update of the thickness values on two congurations
is shown in gure 4.6 on page 80.
Five congurations are selected as alternative baselines, on the basis of the mass esti-
mation. Their parameters are reported in table 4.4, the simulated eective area and eld
of view in gure 4.7 on page 80.
Coatings for extension to higher energy The Bragg law determines, for a given
incidence angle and d-spacing, the maximum achievable energy for the position of the
Bragg peaks. In a variable d-spacing multilayer, the position of the (rst order) Bragg peak
that corresponds to the minimum feasible d-spacing determines the maximum energy that
can be reected, with the X-rays of highest energies being reected only by the innermost
shells, which have the smaller incidence angles.
To give an example, assuming a minimum thickness of 30 the maximum energy for
the reection for a shell slope of 2.2 mrad (corresponding to the 80th Simbol-X shell in
78
1
10
100
60 80 100 120 140 160
E
f
f
e
c
t
i
v
e

a
r
e
a
(
c
m
2
)
Energy (keV)
W/Si multilayer, different configurations
FL=30 m, Dmax=60 cm, ang. sh. sep.=0.000
Figure 4.5: Eective area in the high-energy range for some test congurations with 20 and 30 m
focal lengths for W/Si and Pt/C multilayers. The two kinds of coatings are essentially equivalent
at low energies, with the sharp drops of reectivity due to the absorption edges of W and Pt placed
at 69.5 and 78.4 keV respectively. Above this energy there is still some area, that is due almost
totally to the innermost shells.
the baseline geometry), gives approxiamtely a rst order Bragg peak at about 94 keV.
However, for W/Si and Pt/C multilayers, the eective area performances are limited with
respect to the energy range by the reecting coating material absorption edges (69.5 keV
for W, 78.4 keV for Pt). Other materials, like nickel, have no high energy absorption edge
at high energies, then a possible way to extend the energy range of the telescope could be
the employment of dierent materials for the multilayer coatings of dierent shells. Ni and
carbon is usually considered a good couple for X-ray multilayers, but, due to the relatively
small dierence of density between the two materials, a large number of bilayers (of the
order of 400500) is usually needed for a broad band reection.
Ni/C multilayers could be employed on the most inner shells only to reect at high
energy (above Pt absorption edge), while on the outer shell Pt/C can be used. W/Si
multilayers may be preferred on the outermost shells to reect if convenient by a practical
point of view (if the deposition can be easier, faster or more controllable). However the
use of dierent coatings could complicate the development and deposition phase, being
necessary obtaining a dierent cathode and nding the right setup for each of the materials.
In gure 4.8 on the next page the application of Ni/C multilayers for the shells whose
maximum Bragg energy above the Pt K- edge, and Pt/C for shells whose Bragg peak
energies lay between the W and the Pt edges.
79
4.1. Simbol-X
Figure 4.6: Comparison of the on-axis eective area and weights for the updated thickness values,
with respect to the previous rst baseline.
Figure 4.7: The eective areas (left) and FOV for 50% of the on-axis area for the ve congurations
selected as alternative baselines. The parameters are reported in table 4.4 on the facing page.
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
0 20 40 60 80 100
O
n

A
x
is

E
f
f
e
c
t
iv
e

A
r
e
a

w
it
h

1
0
%

s
p
id
e
r

r
e
d
u
c
t
io
n

(
c
m
2
)
Energy (keV)
SimbolX, F = 20 m, Dmax = 70 cm, ang. shell sep. = 0.15
Pt/C multilayer on 100 shells
W/Si (sh 126) + Pt/C (sh 27100)
W/Si (sh 126) + Pt/C (sh 2772) + Ni/C (sh 73100)
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
220
60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100
O
n

A
x
is

E
f
f
e
c
t
iv
e

A
r
e
a

w
it
h

1
0
%

s
p
id
e
r

r
e
d
u
c
t
io
n

(
c
m
2
)
Energy (keV)
Pt/C multilayer on 100 shells
W/Si (sh 126) + Pt/C (sh 27100)
W/Si (sh 126) + Pt/C (sh 2772) + Ni/C (sh 73100)
Figure 4.8: Eective area of the Simbol-X telescope for the baseline conguration, if dierent
materials are used on dierent shell ranges. The use of a Ni/C multilayer allow to maintain an
high eective area also above the Pt or W absorption edge. As already shown (g. 4.5), the eective
area with Pt/C and W/Si multilayer are not very dierent, apart than in the 7080 keV range.
The number of shells on which the dierent coatings can be applied are reported in table 4.5.
80
Table 4.4: Performances of the ve congurations as alternative baselines.
Angular Focal Max Weight FOV On axis
shell sep length diameter (+30% structure) diameter e. Area at 30 keV
(
) (m) (cm) (kg) (arcmin) (-10% spider)

(cm
2
)
0.15 18.5 65 365.4 13.0 307.8
0.15 19.0 65 368.5 12.7 342.8
0.15 19.5 65 371.4 11.6 383.7
0.15 20.0 65 374.2 12.0 382.0
0.15 20.0 70 441.6 12.0 420.1
Table 4.5: Indicative numbers of shells for the application of dierent kinds of multilayer coatings.
The numbers are determined by the calculated position of the rst order Bragg peak in energy
with respect to the energy of the absorption edges, by assuming a minimum feasible thickness fo
30 .
Conguration Number of shells
) Focal Length (m) D

max
(mm) Ni/C Pt/C W/Si
0.15 18.5 650 30 44 26
0.15 19.0 650 32 45 23
0.15 19.5 650 21 46 33
0.15 20.0 650 16 60 24
0.15 20.0 700 25 48 27
Overcoating for soft X-ray eective area enhancement The use of a top layer
made of a low-density and low-absorption material like carbon over the multilayer coating
(gure 4.9 on the following page), can considerably enhance the reectivity in the soft
X-ray spectral region (E<15 keV), being the photoelectric absorption for carbon much
lower than for heaviest materials (see also chapter 5). Due to the high transparency and
small thickness of the carbon layer, the response of the mirror at energies higher than the
carbon critical one is only slightly aected by the use of the top layer. The application
of the carbon overcoating presents no particular technical diculties, coming naturally in
the case of the deposition of Pt/C multilayers, for which is sucient to end the deposition
with a last thin layer of carbon. If other materials are used for the multilayer coatings, the
carbon can be applied in a following phase.
Another solution that has been found to be useful in some cases [Pareschi et al., 2003]
is the increasing of the rst layer of the heaviest material. The usefulness of this technique
is obviously strongly related to the multilayer recipe. In the case here considered, the
eect is to enhance the total eective area around 20 keV, while reducing it at higher
energy of about 10% (see right panel of gure 4.9). Further implications of this option are
considered in 4.1.2.3 on the next page, in relation with the small changes in the angles of
the reections.
Conclusions The conguration with 20 m FL, shell separation of 0.15
and maximum
diameter of 70 cm appears to be a very appealing one in terms of eective area, energy
operative range and FOV, fully satisfying the top-level scientic requirements. Due to the
limited detector size, a much longer FL has the eect to reduce the telescope FOV, while a
81
4.1. Simbol-X
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
O
n

A
x
is

E
f
f
e
c
t
iv
e

A
r
e
a

w
it
h

1
0
%

s
p
id
e
r

r
e
d
u
c
t
io
n

(
c
m
2
)
Energy (keV)
Pt/C +C multilayer
Pt/C multilayer
Figure 4.9: Left: The eect, on the eective area, of the addition of a 100 layer of carbon on top
of the Pt/C multilayer (for the baseline conguration), compared with the same multilayer ending
with carbon on top. The response at soft X-ray energy is increased, without aecting the high
energy eective area. Right: example of the change in the top layers parameters and overcoating
(applied on the conguration C2, with D
max
= 65 cm and angular shell separation of 0.015
). The
carbon thickness can be optimized, but its application does not give in general negative eects.
An increasing of the rst underlying platinum layer can improve the performances around 20 keV,
but with a reduction of the eective area at higher energies.
shorter one seems to be not advisable for technical problems related to the formation ight
control (in particular to reduce the collision risk). Dierent materials for the multilayer
coating of the optics can be used on dierent shells (depending on the incidence angles) to
achieve a wider energy operative range; a carbon overcoating (especially on the outer shells)
enhances the low energy response. Improvements in the optic realization technologies aimed
to reduce the shell thickness keeping the same optical quality are highly desirable. A slight
reduction of the maximum shell diameter (to about 65 cm) can be considered in a descoping
phase. The optimization of the optical coating is required for improving and tuning the
eective area response and the FOV over the energy range.
4.1.2.3 Eects of satellite dithering [Cotroneo et al., 2009]
The ray-tracing software described in section 3.3 was used to study the variation of the
eective area for small oscillations of the MSC for sources at the center of the eld of
view. The positions of the two spacecrafts are continuously tracked, so it is possible to
reconstruct the image, correcting for the shift in the position of the focal spot with the
oscillations [Civitani et al., 2009], anyway the stability of the eective area and its eects
on the calibration must be evaluated. The expected stability of the satellite is smaller than
20 arcsec, with a pointing accuracy of the order of arcseconds [srd, 2007].
Vignetting eects for small oscillations The eects of the satellite oscillations (dither-
ing) are equivalent to small variations of the angles of incidence onto the mirror surface
and they can be calculated by evaluating the variation of eective area for small o-axis
angles.
The situation has been already described in section 3.2.3.1: considering a single shell
(the eects for a multishell telescope area the sum of the single shell ones), if the parabola
and the hyperbola have the same length, a on-axis photon hitting the border of the parabola
at the entrance pupil hits the hyperbolic surface exactly at the exit pupil, but if the
radiation comes from an o-axis direction, part of the photons miss the second surface, with
82
Figure 4.10: Left: The maximum value of the o-axis angle for which all photons are double
reected, expressed as a function of the ratio between the second and the rst surface height for
the angles of the Simbol-X shells (calculated assuming double-conical approximation, as in g. 3.9).
The dierent lines correspond to the dierent shells (and incidence angles ). Right: Contribution
of individual shells to the 30 keV telescope eective area, integrated from the outermost shell.
Making the secondary mirror longer allows to recover the whole area for a group of outermost
shells, however for higher energies, the innermost shells are the ones that give the most relevant
contribute, imposing a trade-o between the shell mass and the eective area loss.
a consequent reduction of the eective area for double reection and focusing. Assuming
an equal height for both the hyperbole and parabola surfaces of all the mirrors, according
to the original design, the geometrical area is constant up to a maximum angle given by
equation 3.24, while for larger angles the geometrical area is expected to decrease, due to
photons that miss the secondary surface. In the case of Simbol-X, the maximum angle for
constant geometrical area is very low, due to the small shell slopes.
This can be seen in gure 4.11, where the 1 keV eective area (red line) starts to drop
for o-axis angles larger than about 10 arcsec (black arrow). The coating reectivity at 1
keV is very close to 100%, and the eective area cannot be distinguished by the geometrical
area (the evaluation in this case is performed on the on the rst Simbol-X design, with
D
max
=70 cm, presented in section 4.1.2.1, the change in the design to smaller diameters
does not aect the result, see g. 4.13). Something not totally expected was the signicant
decrease of the eective area at high energy (30 keV, blue line), also for very small angles.
The dierences in the trend of the eective area cannot be ascribed only to geometrical
eects: the green and purple triangles respectively represent the eective area for 1 and 30
keV assuming a secondary surface with a test value of 350 mm for the projected length:
the area at 1 keV is totally recovered up to 1 arcmin, indicating that all the geometrical
area is used by the double reection, but the decrease in the 30 keV area remains.
A convincing explanation is the change in the distribution of the incidence angles on the
mirror shell: on-axis photons hit the two surfaces with nearly equal incidence angles (ideally
equal if the optics is approximated by a double cone), while for o-axis photons the two
incidence angles are dierent, with a distribution related to the shell slope and to the o-
axis angle. The phenomenon is enhanced by the characteristics, related to the broad energy
band response, of multilayer coatings: the reectivity as a function of incidence angle is
rather smooth for the single layer coatings used in the current X-ray telescopes, with a high
reectivity plateau for low incidence angles and a sharp decrease to zero above the critical
angle (see chap. 2.2.1 on page 26). On the opposite, for the Simbol-Xmultilayer coatings,
the reectivity function can be very dierent, depending on the multilayer structure; in this
83
4.1. Simbol-X
Figure 4.11: The lost of eective area for small oscillations for 1 and 30 keV (red/blue lines for
equal primary/secondary height, triangles for a longer secondary). A longer secondary recovers
some of the geometrical loss. The ratio of 1.17 between secondary and primary surface can be
compared with equation 3.24 and g. 4.10, keeping into account the larger angles for D
max
=70 cm
and the larger importance of the bigger shells.
case, the variation of the impact angle distribution between the on-axis and o-axis case
can strongly aect, even for small oscillations, the eective area of the mirror, changing the
averaged on-axis response. For Simbol-X, the small shell angles and the small dierence
between them (less then ten arcsec) makes the change of eective area more relevant.
Figure 4.12 on the next page shows the 30 keV reectivity, as a function of the incidence
angle, for the standard multilayer (red line) used for the Simbol-X coating simulations. The
minimum and maximum angles for the on-axis reection (corresponding to the minimum
and maximum slopes for the Simbol-X shells) are marked by the dashed vertical lines.
In case of o-axis radiation with angle , the incidence angles for a shell with slope ,
covers the range from to + . Even for small changes in the angle distribution
(20 arcsec correspond roughly to 0.1 mrad), the total throughput, given by the product of
the reectivities for the two incidence angles on the two surfaces, can change considerably.
Increasing the thickness of the rst layer of Pt has the eect of suppressing the abrupt
changes of reectivity due to the dip pits in the region of highest eciency, and we have
tested the results of having a thicker Pt rst layer (the multilayer starts with carbon to
enhance the soft X-ray response [Pareschi et al., 2003], but this can be neglected at 30
keV).
Solutions for the reduction of the vignetting As seen in the previous paragraphs,
the loss in eective area is caused by geometrical and reectivity eects. These can be
addressed separately by:
Geometrical vignetting can be reduced by realizing a longer secondary (hyperbolic)
surface, with the same length of the primary. This allows to recover to double re-
ection, for small o-axis angles, part of the photons that miss the second surface,
giving rise to stray-light. Looking at gure 4.10, a secondary height of 330 mm, with
a ratio of 1.1 between secondary and primary height, allows to recover up to 20 arc-
sec o-axis more than the 50% of the contribute to the eective area, with a mass
84
30 keV reflectivity as a function of angle with and without Pt extrathickness
0 1 2 3 4 5
Grazing Incidence Angle, [mrad]
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
R
e
f
l
e
c
t
a
n
c
e
,

R
aC layer (1), z=variable , =4.00 (err. fun.)
Pt layer (2), z=variable , =4.00 (err. fun.)
[Pt/aC] multilayer, N=200, gradedd
Pt layer (3), (aC/Pt)=4.00 (err. fun.)
> z=36.75/(0.90+i)
0.27
=68.43 to 8.80
aC layer (4), =4.00 (err. fun.)
> z=68.25/(0.90+i)
0.27
=127.09 to 16.34
Si substrate
aC layer (1), z=variable , =4.00 (err. fun.)
Pt layer (2), z=variable , =4.00 (err. fun.)
> z=36.75/(0.90+i)
0.27
=68.43 to 8.80
> z=68.25/(0.90+i)
0.27
=127.09 to 16.34
Si substrate
R, E=30.000 keV, , z [Pt]=50.00
R, E=30.000 keV, z [Pt]=0.00
Figure 4.12: Theoretical reectivity of the multilayer coating used in the Simbol-X simulations
(red line). The multilayer is a 200 bilayer power-law [Joensen et al., 1995] (d = a/(b + i)c with
a = 105, b = 0.9, c = 0.27, = 0.35), where d is the bilayer thickness, i the index from the
surface, d
h,i
= d
i
is the thickness of the heavy material i
th
layer. The green line shows the
eects of increasing the rst layer thickness by 50 . A carbon overcoating of 100 is also applied
on top to enhance the low-energy response, but it does not aect the 30 keV reectivity.
overhead of about 5%.
Reectivity eects can be recovered by using a coating with a broader angular reec-
tion band. In the limit of a coating with an ideally at response over the distribution
of reection angles, this would provide an unchanged eective area for telescope os-
cillations. However, such a choice is likely limited by the trade-o with other design
requirements, like the eective area of dierent energies or at larger angles over the
eld of view. Since the optimization of the coating is foreseen in the phase-B of
the mission, I have considered in this work the test cases of the standard multilayer
with a thickening of the rst Pt layer and the ML115 coating (see section 2.3.2 on
page 41).
The results of the ray-tracing simulations with 50 000 photons for the dierent com-
binations of enhancements are shown in gure 4.13 on the next page: the right side of
the gure shows the vignetting for the congurations with the long hyperbola, while the
bottom part represent the case of the enhanced coating. The recovering of the geometrical
area with the longer surface is apparent from the 1 keV vignetting, on the right side of g-
ure. The results on the vignetting at 1 keV and 30 keV are also shown together in g. 4.14
on the following page, together with the results for the ML115 coating. At 1 keV the
performances are not dependent on the coating and the reduction is purely geometric. On
the opposite, the better results at high energy the ML115 coating, selected for a broader
angular response, shows the importance of the coating optimization. For a comparison
of the overall performances, the Simbol-Xtotal eective area with the dierent coatings is
also shown in gure 4.15 on page 87.
Conclusions and further developments It is shown how a reduction of the eective
area for small oscillations (and o-axis sources) is expected and how it is caused by a com-
binations of a geometrical factor, aecting the low energy performances and a reectivity
85
4.1. Simbol-X
Figure 4.13: Vignetting for a thicker rst Pt layer (bottom gures), and for a longer hyperbolic
surface (on the right). The standard coating, with equal parabola-hyperbola length, is on top-left.
The congurations with a longer hyperbola allow to recover the geometrical area reductions. The
congurations with the extra-thickness partially recover the energy-dependent loss of reectivity.
Figure 4.14: Vignetting at 1 keV (left) and 30 keV (right) for the dierent solutions. A dierent
coating can reduce the non geometrical loss of area. ML115 is a variation of the standard coating,
having power-law parameters a=115.5, b=0.9, c=0.27, =0.35, N=200.
86
Figure 4.15: The on-axis eective area for the coatings considered in this section. The coatings
that have a better angular response have also a slightly lower on-axis area with respect to the
standard coating.
factor, that determine the high energy response. The energy of 1 keV and 30 keV are used
as test cases for the low and high energy regime. The geometrical losses at low energies
can be recovered only by geometrical modications, and particularly, making the hyper-
bolic surface longer. The loss at high energy cannot be totally recovered by a geometrical
correction, but can be strongly reduced by the optimization of the coating, also without a
loss of on-axis eective area.
The critical energy, even for the outermost Simbol-Xshells, is larger than 10 keV and the
reduction of eective area below this energy is only geometrical, with the geometry being
the largely dominant factor up to about 20 keV. The geometrical area can be recovered
almost totally up to about 1 arcmin by taking the secondary mirror height from 300 mm
to 330 mm. The suggested solution for the geometrical factor oers an unaected low-
energy area up to about 40 arcsec o-axis, with about 98% at 1 arcmin, at the cost of a
mass overhead of about 5%. The impact of this solution on the scientic performances
of the telescope and on the mass constraints is to be determined, eventually leading to a
redenition of the shell geometry.
Two improved coating are suggested to recover about 5% of the on-axis eective area
(or more if used in combination with the shell height extension) of the performances even
at 30 keV. A redesign of the coating could lead to a better performances for high energy, as
shown by the case of the ML115 coating. However an improvement can be achieved on the
standard coating in a simple way, by increasing only the uppermost platinum layer. This is
probably a general rule, even if we have not tried to optimize the thickness of the layer. It is
not clear if the whole multilayer structure aects the performances in this limited angular
region or if only a few layers can provide a sucient contribute. Furthermore the relation
and the tradeo with the response for energy dierent than 30 keV should be considered.
Another important point are the deviations from an ideal prole due to the unavoidable
prole error in the production of the mirror shells, they cause a further broadening of the
angular distribution that overlaps to the one that causes the vignetting. The expected
angular resolution of Simbol-Xis around 20 arcsec. The gure errors acceptable to achieve
87
4.2. WFI/EDGE
this goal, according to theoretical considerations [Spiga et al., 2008], should not introduce
slope errors larger than some arcseconds, however the impact of the further spread should
be veried. The software tools realized in this thesis are a good instrument to do it. By
introducing a further spread in the reection angles (with a distribution inferred by surface
prole measurements) and checking the consistence of the resulting focal spot size with the
angular resolution requirements, it is possible estimate if the inclusion of the gure errors
can change the results of this section.
4.2 WFI/EDGE
In this section I will describe the work performed on the design of the Wide Field Imager
(WFI) telescope for the Explorer of Diuse Emission and Gamma-ray burst (EDGE) mis-
sion. The EDGE mission was proposed as a medium class mission for the ESA cosmic
Vision program, in the scope of a collaboration between national agencies and major insti-
tutions from Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Denmark, France, Germany, Switzerland, UK and
the USA. The payload would have been provided by institutes from ESA member states,
Japan and the USA.
4.2.1 Target of the mission
The main scientic target of the mission is the study of the large-scale structure of the
Universe. The concept is to explore the baryonic matter in X and gamma rays, to trace, by
means of its dierent manifestations across the cosmic history, the formation and evolution
of structures on various scales from the early Universe up to present time. The targets of
the mission are:
The recent Universe (z 1) WHIM:
Observe the matter that is known to be in the recent Universe, but still miss the
detection from z 1 to the present time and is predicted to reside in the WHIM.
The WHIM retains key information on the history of gravitational collapse and
heating at the accretion shocks, on the time-dependent kinetic energy injection
from galactic winds and AGN jets, and on the metal enrichment in the Universe.
The objective is measuring densities down to 10
5
cm
3
(30 times smaller than
currently probed within clusters of galaxies).
Place constraints on the interplay between diuse baryons and star formation.
The young Universe (z 1 2) Clusters of galaxies:
Trace the evolution and physics of clusters out to their formation epoch (z>1).
Measure the thermodynamical and chemical properties of a fair sample out to
the virial radius, a fundamental step to qualify clusters as cosmological probes
and for constraining their evolution through the link with the WHIM.
The primordial Universe (z 2) Gamma-Ray Bursts:
Study the evolution of massive star formation using GRB to trace their explo-
sions back to the early epochs of the Universe (z>6).
Measure the metals in the host galaxies of GRB and the explosive enrichment
in their close environment out to z>6.
88
To allow these observations unique capabilities are required: fast repointing, low back-
ground (a low equatorial orbit is needed), a wide eld of view and accurate spectroscopy
capabilities. No single instrument can provide them simultaneously, they can instead be
obtained by the synergy between dierent instrumentation: the spirit of the mission is to
build an observatory with innovative capabilities by assembling parts based on existing
technology.
According to this aims, the instruments included in the payload are:
Wide Field Spectrometer (WFS): a high spectral resolution (3 eV) instrument, of-
fering an eective area of about 1000 cm
2
based on a cryogenic calorimeter with a
modest imaging capabilities (4 arcmin), achieved by means of a focusing optics with
2 and 4 reections.
Wide Field Imager: based on monolithic optics and a CCD detector sensitive to soft
X-ray (below 10 keV). The eective area is 1000 cm
2
with an angular resolution of
15 arcmin, constant over the full 1.4
diameter FOV.
Wide Field Monitor (WFM): two coded-mask instruments with a hard X-ray CdZnTe
detector sensitive in the 8-200 keV band and a FOV of 2.5 sr, consistent with
requirement for follow up measurements of 80 bright bursts per year.
Gamma-Ray Burst Detector (GRBD): based on crystal scintillators (without imaging
capabilities) to extend the energy range of the WFM beyond 1 MeV. Can be used to
detect a higher number of GRB and measure the peak energy.
The rst two instruments are the main observing tools, providing together good imaging
and spectral capabilities, while the WFM and GRBD have the principal task of triggering
the repointing of the satellite when a bright transient is detected (measuring also the high
energy spectrum).
4.2.2 Design of the WFI telescope
I have studied the design of optics for the WFI instrument, with the scope of dening
the possibilities of the instrument, compatibly with the constraints given by the feasible
technology and by the allocation budget for the coexistence with the other instruments.
In the next sections I will describe the details of the work of design and simulation.
4.2.2.1 Parameters and constraints
The main requirement for the WFI telescope, and also the innovative feature with respect
to the other X-ray telescopes realized up today, is to have a good image quality and high
eective area over the whole eld of view (1.4
). The requirement over the eective area

imposes to contain the vignetting and rely on relatively high slope angles for the shells,
compatibly with the energy target of the telescope, that is 16 keV. By a point of view
of the eective area, the main target is the 0.52 keV energy band, with some capabilities
requested at 34 keV and a requisite at goal-level for the 6 keV, that would be useful to
enable the diagnostic power of the Fe-K line. The study of cluster physics and cluster
formation and evolution (see section 1.3.2) requires about 500 cm
2
at 1 keV, while 1000
cm
2
are desirable for the study of the missing baryons through the absorption features.
The requirement about the imaging quality can be satised by an optimized (polyno-
mial) design for the shells proles, and by making the shells as short as made possible by
the technological limits, with the aim of avoiding the o-axis optical aberrations typical
89
4.2. WFI/EDGE
of Wolter-like optics. These facts together drive the telescope design with respect to the
mirror sizes and shapes and to the shell thicknesses, impacting on the design parameters
in terms of:
Shell thickness To satisfy the HEW requirements, the shell production technology must
not introduce errors (mainly regarding the guring of mirrors) that would degrade too
much the imaging quality with respect to the theoretical one. To this aim, the Nickel
electroforming replica approach appears to be unsuitable (the best optics realized with
this technology have an HEW of the order of 15-20 arcseconds also on-axis, where the
Wolter prole is able in principle to provide a perfect imaging). Stier (and, reasonably,
thicker) shells are needed. On the opposite, the polished glass approach, followed for the
Chandra telescope, is able to provide very small gure errors and a HEW across the eld
of view that follows almost exactly the theoretical one, but is not applicable to a large
numbers of shells due to the long and expensive realizative process.
Epoxy replication (see section 3.1.4.2 on page 50) on silicon carbide carriers can be a
suitable technology. Being the SiC density about 3 times smaller than the nickel one, ticker
and stier shells can be realized with a sustainable weight, even if with a loss of eective
area due to the wall vignetting. In this case, indeed, a thickness value in the range 12
mm for the shell walls is able to provide very sti shells with limited prole errors.
Shells sizes and shape The idea that is possible to obtain an approximately uniform
HEW across the eld of view by using an optimized polynomial design for the mirror shells
proles, has been proposed by [Burrows et al., 1992] and afterward analyzed in details
by Conconi and Campana [2001] (see section 3.1.2 for details).
The above studies provide the following drivers on the design (only the rst point aects
the eective area):
The mirror shells has to be built with dierent heights to keep a constant focal plane
curvature, and be widely spaced to avoid vignetting. The result is a rather large loss
of area, with a low lling factor, higher for the outermost shells and lower for the
innermost ones.
The focal plane detector is made of an array of CCD detectors, with the more external
ones tilted and shifted, to approximate the best focal surface, that is curved.
The mirror shells must have a dierent osets along the axial direction to aligned
the focal plane distance for best average focus, that is dierent for each shell.
Other constraints and previous results The fast repointing (1 deg/s) requirement im-
poses a compact satellite, with a maximum focal length, for the WFI optics, of F
max
3 m.
With a densely packed payload this is compatible with the VEGA launcher and a weight
constraint of 150 kg for optics and spider.
The preliminary designs inherits from the study conduced for the Wide Field X-ray
Telescope (WFXT) telescope, performed at OAB [Citterio et al., 1999], that foresaw a focal
length of 3.5 m and 50 shells with diameters 350700 mm. The main peculiarity of the
design are the polynomial optics (see chap. 3.1.3 on page 47), whose prole are optimized
by numerical methods [Conconi and Campana, 2001] to have an almost constant HEW of
1015 arcsec over the wide eld of view of
>
1 degree. The feasibility of the concept is

proved by the realization of a prototype of a mirror shell [Ghigo et al., 1999]. The values
for the shells heights assumed in that study are in the range 90 to 140 mm for the single
surface (parabola or hyperbola).
90
4.2.2.2 Procedure followed for the design
For the work of design I have simulated the eective area for several geometrical congura-
tion. The request is to determine the design and evaluate the performances of the telescope
for the proposal, xing a preliminary baseline. The scientic goals x the requirements
over the eective area and Grasp, that is the main merit parameter assumed for the mission
design.
A complete design of the telescope, considering the angular resolution, must pass
through the optimization of the shell proles (by the determination of the polynomial
coecients) and of the shell heights. However this is a time consuming procedure, that is
not needed for an evaluation of the eective area at a proposal level. In this preliminary
phase, I have assumed the relation between the shell diameter and height by a rescaling of
the telescope sizes resulting from the above cited previous study.
The implementation of variable heights is possible in the ray-tracing program previously
described. However, at the moment of this work, the program was in a development phase
and the implementation of the new feature were not easy to implement.
1
It was instead
easy to calculate the on-axis eective area of the telescope, including the case of variable
shell height, by summing the eective areas of the single shells, evaluated as the product
of the collecting area times the square reectivity for the shell angle.
Since previous studies were available and easily scalable to the present situation, the fol-
lowing less consuming and error-prone approach was adopted, with respect to the eective
area and related quantities calculation, instead of a real ray-tracing:
1. A possible geometry with variable shell height for a set of values for the geometrical
parameters is determined, under the above constraints, in terms of the geometrical
parameters of each shell. The total on-axis eective area of the telescope for this
design is calculated by summing the eective area of the shells.
2. The shell height that gives nearly the same eective area for a conguration hav-
ing constant shell height and the same minimum and maximum diameter is found,
dening an equivalent conguration. Since the prole has a negligible eect on the
eective area (because of the relatively large shell slopes, the angular distribution
has a small eect on reectivity), the evaluation of the eective area is accurate.
3. The o-axis eective area is evaluated for the equivalent conguration for the most
interesting congurations, to estimate the vignetting over the eld of view.
Determination of the parameter space Several conguration are investigated with
the aim of identifying a baseline conguration. The variables taken into account are:
The ideal thickness of the mirror shells is strictly related to development of the mirror
shell production process. Two values are considered:
A 2 mm wall thickness is fully compliant with the polynomial monolithic SiC car-
rier optics prototype developed a few years ago and calibrated at NASA/MSFC,
with a HEW of 10 arcsec almost constant up to 30 arcmin o-axis [Ghigo et al.,
1999].
A less conservative (goal) value of 1 mm. A SiC mirror shell of 1 mm has already
been developed and tested on axis at Panter, presenting an angular resolution of
1
Unluckily even if at the current status of the program it would be possible, and indeed easy, to
implement the feature, this is not needed, because the mission has nished earlier than the program.
91
4.2. WFI/EDGE
15 arcsec HEW at 0.22 keV[Citterio et al., 1999]. This value already approaches
the scientic requirement and can be further improved.
The possible coatings: Au, Ir, IrC (a quick test on nickel was also performed). The
gold can be deposited on the superpolished mandrel, since its adhesion is low. The
iridium and carbon should be deposited in a subsequent phase of the process, but
they oer better performances.
The impact of diameters with ranges 300700 mm, 300750 mm and 210750 mm on
weight and eective area is evaluated. Diameters larger than 750 mm are not useful,
because the slope angles of the shells are in this case above the critical angle for total
reection by iridium also for the lowest energy of interest, especially considering the
almost total blindness of the instrument at energies below 1 keV, because of the
thermal coating and the detector quantum eciency.
4.2.3 Results of the evaluation
4.2.3.1 On axis performances and determination of the equivalent congura-
tions
A rst evaluation is performed with the scope of determining the diameter range of interest
for the telescope and the equivalent congurations for the ray-tracing simulation. The
geometry is built by assuming a variable angular separation of
= max (, 30arcmin),
where is the shell slope. The shell height varies according to a linear scaling law. The
on axis eective area is calculated for the dierent coatings. The geometrical parameters
of the adopted congurations are reported in table 4.6. In the following, the convention
for the names of the congurations indicates the minimum and maximum diameters and
the wall thickness, the sux vh indicates a conguration with variable shell height, while
eq indicates the equivalent conguration with constant shell height.
Figure 4.16 shows the expected eective area for dierent numbers of shells, for the two
cases of thin walls (1 mm, left side) and thick walls (2 mm, right side). In both cases, walls
are much thicker than in typical X-ray telescopes based on Nickel electroforming replica
technique, and the reduction of eective area by eect of the shell walls can by no means be
ignored. This is apparent by the comparison between the right and left side in the gure.
For the WFI telescope, because of the short (and decreasing) heights, the innermost
shells have a much smaller collecting area than in a typical Wolter telescope because a
larger fraction of area is lost due to the walls occupation. If a wall thickness of 1 mm is
considered instead of 2 mm, the eective area increases dierently for the high and the
lowe energies, with gains that are of the order of 50% and 30%, respectively.
The comparison between the red and green curves (see also table 4.6) shows how the
addition of shells at diameters larger than 70 cm, that have large collecting area and a high
area-to-mass ratio, gives a 15% enhancement to the eective area below 2 keV, but with
a negligible eect (a few percent of increase) on the response at higher energies.
On the opposite, for the smallest shells in the telescope, the incidence angles are lower
than the critical one also at the higher energy, and the shells give a contribute over the
whole energy range. They have however a high cost in terms of mass and number of shells.
The increase in area is again strongly dependent on the wall thickness: the increase in
collecting area for the two thickness values is of about 66 and 100 cm
2
(including the
spider obstruction), about half of which contributes to the eective area over the whole
energy range. This contribute is not very important at low energy, but it corresponds to a
50% of the previous value at 4 keV and to an increase of 56 times of the area at 6 keV.
92
Table 4.6: Summary of the results on the dierent congurations considered. The values reported
are calculated for a focal length of F=2.75 m and iridium coating. The values for area include
a 10% reduction due to the spider, weights are increased by 30% to account for the supporting
structure of the optics. The convention for the names of the congurations indicates the minimum
and maximum diameters and the wall thickness, the sux vh indicates a conguration with variable
shell height, while eq indicates the equivalent conguration with constant shell height.
Conguration Diameters Shell Wall Total Number Eective
(mm) heights thickness mass of shells area (cm
2
)
(mm) (mm) (kg) at 1.0/ 4.0 /6.0 keV
d3070t1_vh 303.4702.0 56.595.2 1.0 64.6 68 905/ 93.2 /7.1
d3070t1_eq 303.4702.3 90.0 1.0 63.8 54 890/ 99.1 /8.1
d3075t1_vh 300.0741.4 56.199.1 1.0 72.9 71 1033/ 95.3 /8.1
d3075t1_eq 304.7742.0 90.0 1.0 71.0 58 1003/ 98.3 /7.7
d2175t1_vh 211.0741.4 47.599.1 1.0 81.0 94 1109/143.9/48.7
d2175t1_eq 210.9742.6 80.0 1.0 78.6 81 1064/153.3/55.8
d3070t2_vh 306.0700.0 56.995.2 2.0 98.3 49 692/ 66.1 /4.6
d3070t2_eq 304.8700.4 88.0 2.0 99.9 43 699/ 75.2 /5.9
d3075t2_vh 302.7739.4 56.699.1 2.0 112.0 53 797/ 67.6 /5.2
d3075t2_eq 304.3740.0 90.0 2.0 113.2 46 800/ 76.4 /6.1
d2175t2_vh 214.3739.4 48.099.1 2.0 122.7 68 848/ 99.8 /31.8
d2175t2_eq 218.3740.6 80.0 2.0 120.8 61 824/111.5/38.0
With the assumed linear relation, the shell height corresponding to the innermost shell
of 21 cm is less than 10 cm, corresponding to a collecting area lower than 3 cm
2
(but
eective also at the highest energies) for the smallest shell. In a more accurate design
the possibility of xing a minimum height for the shells with smaller radii, enhancing the
high-energy eective area, can be considered.
Eects of coating The test on the dierent materials shows very similar results on all
the geometrical congurations. In gure 4.17 the case for the d2175t2 (see table 4.6) is
reported as example: the iridium is favored with respect to the gold by a higher eective
area around 1 keV and in the 24 keV range. A nickel surface was tested because this
material is expected to have a high reectivity at low energies, due to the lower density
and absorption, and less aected by the K- absorption edge in the 24 keV (that is located
around 2 keV for heavier materials). However the absorption edge of the nickel is located
nearly at 1 keV, in the most important region for the telescope, while the gain at lower
energies has a low importance, considering also the low-energy cut due to thermal coating
and detector (see section 4.2.3.2 on page 98).
The eects of the application of a thin layer of carbon is also simulated, with the most
eective thickness estimated to be around 75 (see right side of gure 4.17). Even if, due
to the relatively high reection angles of this telescope, the enhancement of the eective
area is lower than in other cases, the gain of about 20% at 1 keV makes the use of this
kind of coating highly desirable.
93
4.2. WFI/EDGE
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 E
f
f
e
c
t
i
v
e

A
r
e
a

(
c
m
2
)

i
n
c
l
u
d
i
n
g

s
p
i
d
e
r

(
1
0
%

o
b
s
t
r
u
c
t
i
o
n
)
Energy (keV)
WFI/EDGE Ir coating 1 mm wall thickness low energy
d3070t1_vh reference: D 300700
d3075t1_vh: d3070t1_vh + 5 outer shells: D 300750
d2075t1_vh: d3075t1_vh + 23 inner shells: D 210750
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 E
f
f
e
c
t
i
v
e

A
r
e
a

(
c
m
2
)

i
n
c
l
u
d
i
n
g

s
p
i
d
e
r

(
1
0
%

o
b
s
t
r
u
c
t
i
o
n
)
Energy (keV)
WFI/EDGE Ir coating 2 mm wall thickness low energy
0
50
100
150
200
250
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 E
f
f
e
c
t
i
v
e

A
r
e
a

(
c
m
2
)

i
n
c
l
u
d
i
n
g

s
p
i
d
e
r

(
1
0
%

o
b
s
t
r
u
c
t
i
o
n
)
Energy (keV)
WFI/EDGE Ir coating 1 mm wall thickness high energy
0
50
100
150
200
250
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 E
f
f
e
c
t
i
v
e

A
r
e
a

(
c
m
2
)

i
n
c
l
u
d
i
n
g

s
p
i
d
e
r

(
1
0
%

o
b
s
t
r
u
c
t
i
o
n
)
Energy (keV)
WFI/EDGE Ir coating 2 mm wall thickness high energy
Figure 4.16: Eects on the on-axis eective area of dierent choices for diameters range and wall
thickness. The eect is shown for the low energies (top) and for the higher ones (low), in the cases
of 1 mm (left) and 2 mm (right) walls. The contribution of the innermost shells to collecting area
is small, especially in the case of thick walls. The contribute of the innermost shell is limited to
the low energies, while the innermost shells contributes equally over the whole energy range.
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
0 2 4 6 8 10
E
f
f
e
c
t
iv
e

A
r
e
a

(
c
m
2
)

in
c
lu
d
in
g

s
p
id
e
r

(
1
0
%

o
b
s
t
r
u
c
t
io
n
)
Energy (keV)
WFI/EDGE, effects of coating, d2175t2_vh: D=210750, 2 mm wall thickness
Au coating
Ir coating
Ir+C coating
Ni coating
0.8
0.85
0.9
0.95
1
1.05
1.1
1.15
1.2
1.25
0 100 200 300 400 500
E
n
h
a
n
c
e
m
e
n
t

f
a
c
t
o
r
C overcoating thickness (Angstrom)
1 keV effective area enhancement factor for C overcoating (WFI/EDGE d2175t2_vh)
A
eff,Ir+C
/A
eff,Ir
Figure 4.17: Left: eects of dierent materials for the reecting coating. The conguration
d2175t2_vh is assumed as test case (the eects are very similar for all the congurations). Right:
gain oered by the application of a carbon layer on an iridium reecting layer, expressed as the
ratio between the eective areas at 1 keV with and without carbon, as a function of the carbon
thickness. A gain of about 20% in eective area is expected for carbon thickness of 60100 , with
a optimal value around 75 . In a more detailed design the thickness can be optimized for each of
the shells. In the left gure and in the following, a carbon layer thickness of 100 is considered.
94
4.2.3.2 Selection of congurations and evaluation of the o-axis performances
The analysis in the previous section allows us to select some test congurations. The most
relevant factor in the geometry resulted to be the wall thickness. However the possible
value for this parameter is determined by the results of the development in the technology
of shells realization. The wall thickness determines also the telescope mass, that can be
decreased by one third passing from the 2 mm value (demonstrated by the prototype) to
1 mm.
Due also to the low lling factor, the telescope mass is always inside the limits, while the
limit size for diameters and the maximum number of shells allowed by production time and
cost budgets are not dened at this level. A more accurate optimization of the polynomial
design is also needed in a further development to verify that the values of shell heights and
diameters are compliant with the HEW requirements. According to these considerations,
two designs are assumed for inclusion in the proposal, each of them is considered with the
two possible values for the wall thicknesses:
a baseline design, corresponding to the d3070 congurations including 49 and 66
shells, depending on the thickness;
an extended design, corresponding to the d2175 best-case, comprising 68 or 94 shells.
The o-axis performances for the selected congurations is estimated for the equivalent
design with constant shell height.
Field of view The eective area is evaluated for dierent values of the o-axis angle
by means of a ray-tracing performed on the equivalent congurations. The eld of view
value is evaluated, as a function of energy, by interpolating the values of the vignetting as
a function of the o-axis angle to nd the value of the angle with a 50% vignetting. This
value will be assumed as indicator for the FOV. A denser sampling for the o-axis angle
is used around the FOV value (see left side of gure 4.18 on the next page). The results
are reported in the right side of gure 4.18 in form of the FOV as a function of energy for
the dierent congurations.
The FOV value is almost equivalent for all the considered congurations at low energies.
In general, due to the small high-energy eective area, the outer part of the eld of view is
not very eective at the highest energy. It can be noticed that the d2175eq_t1 conguration
appear to have a lower eld of view, while the congurations with a narrow diameter range
seems favored at the high energy.
However the eld of view with the above denition takes into consideration the ratio
between the on-axis and o-axis area, with the on-axis area being larger for congurations
with a higher lling factor and number of shells. Thus, the parameter can be considered a
good merit parameter only if the complexity (weight and number of shells) of the telescope
has a considerable importance.
If we consider the overall performances, gure 4.20 is more meaningful: by the compar-
ison of the eective areas over the eld of view at the reference energies of 1,4 and 6 keV,
it is easy to see that the dierences in the on-axis eective area dominate also the o-axis
behavior. Even in this case, the determining factor for the low-energy performances is the
wall thickness, while the high-energy eective area is determined by the extension to the
smallest diameters.
An indicator that tries to combine the on-axis and o-axis performances is the Grasp,
that is a measure of the power of the telescope for wide-eld surveys and whose values are
shown, in the lower right panel of gure 4.20.
95
4.2. WFI/EDGE
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Energy (keV)
d3070t2_eq: F=2.75 m, Ir+C coating, shell thickness=2mm
off Axis Angle 0100 arcmin, step 20 arcmin
off Axis Angle 4060 arcmin, step 2 arcmin
50% on Axis Area
40
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Energy (keV)
WFI/EDGE, F=2.75 - FOV as a function of energy
d2175t1_eq
d3070t1_eq
d2175t2_eq
d3070t2_eq
Figure 4.18: Left: procedure for calculation of the FOV value (the d3070t2_eq conguration is
presented as an example): the eective area is calculated by ray tracing for dierent o-axis angles
and the results are interpolated for each energy to nd the o-axis angle for which the eective
area is 50% (dotted line) of the on-axis value. Right: the resulting values of the FOV for the four
congurations of interest.
10
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1000
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Energy (keV)
Ir+C coating, Wall thickness = 1 mm
baseline: D 300-700 - 66 shells, on Axis
baseline, 45.0 arcmin off Axis
extended: D 210-750 - 94 shells, on Axis
extended, 45.0 arcmin off Axis
10
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Energy (keV)
Ir+C coating, Wall thickness = 2 mm
baseline: D 300-700 - 49 shells, on Axis
baseline, 45.0 arcmin off Axis
extended: D 210-750 - 68 shells, on Axis
extended, 45.0 arcmin off Axis
Figure 4.19: Eective area on-axis and at the border of the eld of view (45 arcmin o-axis) for
the baseline (red lines) and extended (blue lines) congurations with 1 mm (left) or 2mm (right)
wall thickness.
96
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Off-axis angle (arcmin)
WFI/EDGE: vignetted effective area at 1 keV, IrC coating
d2175t1_eq
d3070t1_eq
d2175t2_eq
d3070t2_eq
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d2175t2_eq
d3070t2_eq
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d3070t1_eq
d2175t2_eq
d3070t2_eq
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Energy (keV)
WFI/EDGE - GRASP (A
eff
x A
FOV
) as a function of energy
d2175t1_eq
d3070t1_eq
d2175t2_eq
d3070t2_eq
Figure 4.20: Behavior of the eective area at the reference energies of 1, 4 and 6 keV as a function
of the o-axis angle. The general trend outlined in section 4.2.3.1 on page 92 for the on-axis
performances is still valid: the wall thickness is the most important factor for the low-energy
eective area, while the performances at higher energies are mostly obtained by the addition of
innermost shells. On the bottom right gure the values of the grasp (the power for wide eld survey,
expressed by the product of the average eective area and the eld of view area) as a function of
energy is given. The data presented in the gure do not account for the reduction of area due to
the thermal blanket and to the detector QE and can be assumed as upper limits. The same data,
accounting for the shielding, are presented in gure 4.22 on page 99.
97
4.2. WFI/EDGE
Inclusion of shielding The project of the telescope foresees the application to the satel-
lite of a thermal coating to maintain the thermal stability of the inner environment, that is
important to reduce thermal gradients that can deform the optics image quality. For the
evaluation of the scientic capabilities of the telescope the overall eciency, including the
thermal coating transmission and the detector quantum eciency, must be evaluated. The
quantum eciency of the detector (a front illuminated MOS CCD, similar to that aboard
XMM/Newtonis assumed) is plotted in gure 4.21. For the thermal blanket, the trans-
mission is calculated by assuming as a model the structure employed for the Suzaku [ISA,
2005] satellite (0.2 m of Mylar and 0.03 m of Al). The resulting eective areas for the
dierent geometries are shown on the bottom panels of gure 4.21.
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
0 2 4 6 8 10
Q
E
Energy(keV)
WFI/EDGE estimated detector quantum efficiency
0
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0.8
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T
Energy(keV)
WFI/EDGE estimated thermal coating transmission
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Dmax=750 mm, F=2.75 m, Ir+C coating, shell thickness=1mm
on Axis
30 arcmin off Axis
45 arcmin off Axis
60 arcmin off Axis
75 arcmin off Axis
50% on Axis Area
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Energy (keV)
Dmax=750 mm, F=2.75 m, Ir+C coating, shell thickness=2mm
on Axis
30 arcmin off Axis
45 arcmin off Axis
60 arcmin off Axis
75 arcmin off Axis
50% on Axis Area
Figure 4.21: In the top panels are shown the quantum eciency assumed for the detector (left)
and the transmission of the thermal blanket (right). The detector is a front-illuminated CCD,
similar to the ones used on XMM/Newton, while the thermal blanket structure assumed is the
one used for Suzaku (0.2 m of Mylar and 0.03 m of Al). The adoption of a back-illuminated
detector could increase the low-energy quantum eciency, while still keeping a low instrumental
background. The feasibility of this concept will be explored in future phases. The bottom panels
show the expected nal eective areas (compare with gure 4.19 on page 96).
4.2.3.3 Conclusions
In this section I presented the work done for the estimation of the WFI/EDGE eective
area for several preliminary conguration. The eects of variations in the design, depending
on the allocation budget are evaluated. The designs here presented are compliant with the
scientic requirements by the point of view of the eective area. Reasonably, on the base
of the extrapolation of previous results, the HEW requirements should be accomplished,
however a more accurate work of simulation and optimization of the mirrors shells proles
and heights must be done if the telescope will go into a further phase of development. This
98
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d2175t1_eq
d3070t1_eq
d2175t2_eq
d3070t2_eq
0
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d3070t1_eq
d2175t2_eq
d3070t2_eq
0
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d2175t1_eq
d3070t1_eq
d2175t2_eq
d3070t2_eq
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0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
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Energy (keV)
WFI/EDGE - GRASP (A
eff
x A
FOV
), including spider, QE, blanket
d2175t1_eq
d3070t1_eq
d2175t2_eq
d3070t2_eq
Figure 4.22: The behavior of the eective area at the reference energies of 1, 4 and 6 keV as a
function of the o-axis angle is shown, as in gure 4.20 on page 97, but including the eects of
thermal blanket and detector quantum eciency (shown in gure 4.21 on the preceding page). The
bottom right plot shows the values of the grasp (the power for wide eld survey, expressed by the
product of the average eective area and the eld of view area) as a function of energy is given.
will determine also if the shell heights can be increased, leading to an increase of eective
area.
An Ir+C bilayer is the best choice for the coating, allowing to compensate the decrease
in the response due to the thermal blanket and to the detector eciency. The application
of this kind of coating should not be problematic by the technological point of view. The
congurations here selected depends on two main parameters: the shell thickness and the
diameter range, for any of which two possible values are considered. By the estimation,
under some assumptions, of the eective area over the eld of view, some indicators for
the scientic capabilities of the instrument (eective areas, FOV and grasp) are discussed.
The eective areas at 1, 4 and 6 keV over the eld of view can be assumed as test values
for low, medium and high energy performances. The performances at 1 keV are the main
driver of the telescope, they are strictly related to the wall thickness that determines the
lling factor of the optics. At 4 keV the on axis performances At 6 keV some tens of square
centimeters are relevant only in the thin walls case and on a limited (but still relevant if
compared with the typical values for X-ray telescopes) region of the eld of view.
99
4.3. XPOL/HXMT
4.3 XPOL/HXMT
4.3.1 Description of the project
The introduction of X-ray focusing optics increased the sensitivity of X-ray missions of
orders of magnitude, on the contrary, the polarimetry remained a low throughput subtopic,
for which observing capabilities have evolved very slowly, due to the lack of sensitive
detectors. The XPOL telescope come from the idea of building a small payload that,
beneting from the recent developments in the eld of micropixel detectors [Bellazzini
et al., 2006a], could open the new eld of high sensitive X-ray polarimetric observations.
Indeed the reasons for the stilling of the research in X-ray polarimetry it is due to the
limits, in terms of both statistics and control of systematics, of conventional polarization-
sensitive detection techniques like Compton/Thomson scattering around 90
and Bragg
diraction at 45
. The abandoning of rotating vehicle, that was still a requirement for

polarimeters based on conventional techniques, denitely ruled out the possibility of new
implementations. Gas pixel detectors are instead truly imaging devices, that, by means
of the detection of the photoelectron tracks created in a mixture of low-Z gas, allow to
reconstruct the incoming direction of photons and their polarization. Combined with X-ray
optics, they would permit to extend to polarimetry the same huge increase of sensitivity
achieved for imaging and spectroscopy by the introduction of focusing technologies and
their use has been proposed for the realization of dedicated missions [Costa et al., 2006a]
and is foreseen in the baseline for the large area observatory XEUS [Perkinson et al., 2006,
Bellazzini et al., 2006b].
At the moment the last polarimetry observations in X-ray date back to the late sev-
enties, with the rst detection of polarized X-rays from the Crab Nebula by a series of
rockets by the Columbia University Team [Novick et al., 1972] and the next improvement
by Orbiting Solar Observatory (OSO)-8 satellite [Weisskopf et al., 1976]. Only recently,
new polarization measurements of the Crab have been obtained with INTEGRAL [Dean
et al., 2008]. In this picture, even a small telescope can do much, in addition of constituting
a pathnder for larger missions.
According to an extended literature X-ray sources are expected to show a signicant
degree of linear polarization. A sample of high luminosity and/or high expected degree of
polarization includes Crab Nebula/PSR, accreting binary pulsars and black hole binaries.
But polarimetry should be a tool capable to solve crucial problems on several classes of
X-ray emitting sources, provided that an adequate telescope is available. Models predict
polarizations of the order of a few % in low luminosity sources, such as AGNs, or in sources
showing a high luminosity in a short time interval, such as millisecond binary pulsars or Soft
Gamma Repeaters. However the low level of expected polarization (1 to a few percent)
raise the number of photons to be collected for statistically meaningful observations to
numbers of the order of 10
5
10
6
, limiting the possible targets for a non dedicated mission
just to the brighter sources. Since a connection does exist between physics of hard X-ray
emitters and expectations of polarization, a polarimeter and a hard X-ray instrument can
eciently combine, resulting in a very performing mission for deep Physics of non thermal
sources.
In this sense, the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT) satellite [Li, 2007], a hard
X-ray collimated telescope candidate for the rst Chinese dedicated astronomy satellite
with launch foreseen in 2011 is an ideal candidate. The main target of the mission is to
perform a hard X-ray (50250 keV) high sensitivity all-sky imaging survey, can also make
high signal-to-noise ratio pointed observations of sources of particular scientic interest. To
this aim, the implementation of a small instrument, XPOL, based on focusing optics and
100
micropixel polarimeters, has been proposed by a group of italian scientists as an additional
payload to the mission and it is now under assessment study by ASI.
In the scope of this project I have handled, from the beginning, the design of the optics
for the telescope, in close collaboration with the group of IASF/Rome led by E. Costa (P.I.
for the XPOL telescope), that estimated the scientic capabilities of the proposed designs,
with the purpose to maximize the scientic power of the instrument in the limits of the
space and mass availability on board of the satellite. A rst study [Costa et al., 2006b]
was devoted to dene the scientic potential of the instrument for the submission to the
scientic community [Costa et al., 2006b]. A further evaluation of the constraints and of
their impact on the telescope performances, has led to a renements of the design [Cotroneo,
2006b], keeping into account the evolution in the denition of the allocation constrains. In
a last phase a nal design [Costa et al., 2007] has been derived and submitted to ASI, that
selected it for the assessment study. In the following sections I will review these phases
and the resulting
4.3.2 First design and evaluation of the scientic performances
The main constraints are due to the needs of allocating the telescope in the space left avail-
able by the main instruments, with a very small overload for the mission. The preliminary
parameters assumed are a focal length of 2.45 m and a maximum weight of 50 kg for the
mirrors (resulting in a total weight around 100 kg, including structures and detectors).
Figure 4.23 shows the possible allocation of the XPOL telescope into the HXMT satellite.
The diameter range available for the mirror shell is quite limited: the space available
in the carrier forces a maximum diameter around 3040 cm, while for the smallest shell a
minimum diameter of 9 cm is posed as lower limit by the technical diculties in the real-
ization of very small shells by means of Nickel electroforming. Furthermore the contribute
to the collecting area by each of the innermost shells is rather small, making uneconomical
the inclusion of additional shells. However, being the observable targets strong sources,
polarimetry observations are always performed in a high signal-to-noise ratio regime, where
the background is negligible and the sensitivity to polarization is only a matter of number
of photons, independently whether they are collected with more telescopes. This makes
possible to increase the eective area while exploiting the most useful diameters range, by
adding more than one identical telescope modules.
In this rst study, three geometrical congurations are considered, called T1, T2 and
T3 and based, respectively, on a single large diameter optical module (40 cm, 30 shells), a
couple of medium size ones (30 cm, 20 shells per module), or three small size modules (25
cm, 20 shells). Each module is composed by nested Wolter shells with total shell height
(parabola + hyperbole) of 60 cm and focal length (measured from the parabola-hyperbole
intersection) of 2.45 m (giving a total telescope length of 2.75 m). For the T3 design the
number of shell for each module is limited to 20 by the allowed mass, the possibility of
adding ten innermost shells, raising the eective area of about 20% over the whole energy
range, is also considered (conguration T3a). The resulting geometrical parameters and
weights are summarized in table 4.7. The strict schedule and small budget impose to rely on
well developed technology, but with moderately good performances. The gas pixel detector
has an intrinsic resolution of the order of 150 m, with an uncertainty on the depth of the
interaction. Since in the focus of a telescope photons impinge inclined on the gas cell due
to the dierent point of reection in the optics, the error in the interaction depth increases
the maximum achievable spatial resolution to the order of 400 m, corresponding to an
angular uncertainly of 40 arcsec. The nature of the astrophysical targets (strong sources
101
4.3. XPOL/HXMT
Figure 4.23: Possible allocation of the XPOL telescope aboard the HXMT satellite, for the con-
gurations with three (T3), two (T2) and one (T1) optical modules (from left to right in the
gure).
Table 4.7: Geometrical and mass parameters of the three congurations, assuming 0.2 mm min-
imum thickness. The total weights (including the number of modules) from the mirror shells are
considered.
T1 T2 T3 T3a
Number of modules 1 2 3 3
Number of shells per module 30 20 20 30
Minimum diameter (cm) 15 15 9 13
Maximum diameter (cm) 40 30 25 25
Total mirrors weight (kg) 25 29.5 36 46.5
in pointed observation, with the number of collected photons as main merit parameter)
makes the angular resolution not a critical factor. To give an example, a quite relaxed value
of 30 arcsec for intrinsic resolution of the optics at the center of the eld of view, combined
in quadrature with the one from the detector, raises the total resolution to 50 arcsec, that
is still an acceptable value, while, with the imaging resolution values usually considered for
Nickel electroformed optics (1520 arcsec), the increase of the HEW is less than 5 arcsec.
Under these assumptions the Nickel electroforming replica technique is the ideal technology
for the realization of the optics, being well under control and allowing to achieve the desired
imaging resolution by using very thin shells (of the order of 0.10.2 mm). The technology
is also very convenient for the realization of more than one identical optical modules,
permitting to obtain several copies of the same shell by a single mandrels (as in the case of
the XMM/Newtontelescope), greatly saving on the cost of the instrument. The sensitivity
of the polarimeter is maximum just between 2 and 4 keV, for the incidence angles for the
considered telescope size and keeping into account the steepness of the spectra of sources
and the energy-dependence of the modulation factor and of the reectivity of materials.
In this energetic range, a coating made of a layer of iridium with a thin overcoating layer
(around 100 ) of carbon is highly convenient to maximize the mirror reectivity, and
this is assumed in the present calculation. The impact of using dierent materials on the
102
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Effective area per module for T1, T2, T3 configurations
T1: 30 sh, 15-40 cm, 25 kg
T2: 20 sh, 15-30 cm, 14.3 kg
T3: 20 sh, 13-25 cm, 12 kg
T3a: 30 sh, 9-25 cm, 15.4 kg
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Total effective area (cm
2
)
T1: 1 mod. x 30 sh, 15-40 cm, 25 kg
T2: 2 mod. x 20 sh, 15-30 cm, 28.6 kg
T3: 3 mod. x 20 sh, 13-25 cm, 36 kg
T3a: 3 mod. x 30 sh, 9-25 cm, 46.5 kg
Figure 4.24: Eective area for the four congurations considered in the rst evaluation. Left:
Eective area of a single optics module. Right: Total eective area considering the number of
modules.
performances and on the realization technique is considered in 4.3.3 on page 106.
The eld of view performances are not very important for the XPOL telescope, both for
the nature of pointed observations to be performed and for the large angles that imply an
intrinsically wide eld of view (limited by the detector size to a square of about 22 arcmin
side), also for a close packing of the shell. The shell height is also not very relevant for the
eective area because of the small shell thickness and large angles, an eventual reduction
of the shell height could give a better imaging quality, if needed, and even allow a slightly
longer focal length for the same total telescope length (2.60 m instead of 2.45 m, if the total
shell height is taken to 30 cm), at the cost of a higher number of shells (and corresponding
mandrels) for the same eective area.
The eective area of a single telescope module, on the base of the above calculations,
is reported in the left panel of gure 4.24, while the right panel shows the total area of the
telescope, considering the number of modules. The best choice to maximize the astrophys-
ical performances of the instrument is by far the T3 conguration, especially if the version
with 30 shells per module (T3a) is considered. The T2 design is less demanding in terms
of allocation and mass resources, at a cost of a reduction of the eective area, especially
at high energy. The polarimeter is sensitive at energy above 1.52 keV, depending on
mixture used, where optics area of Conguration T3a is about twice that of Conguration
T1, allowing a gain in sensitivity of about 50% (or more at the highest energies). Costa
et al. [2006b] have calculated the astrophysical performance of the XPOL telescope with
the described designs: the sensitivity to sources is usually expressed as
MDP =
4.29
F
_
B +F
ST
, =
C
max
C
min
C
max
+C
min
(4.1)
where MDP is the minimum detectable polarization at 99% condence, is the modulation
factor, is the eciency, S is the ux from the source, B is the background per unit of area
and T is the observing time. The background is evaluated considering either the internal
background from low Z (neon) proportional counter own on board of OSO-8 [Novick
et al., 1972] and the diuse X-ray background with an internal background of 1.5 10
4
cts s
1
cm
2
keV
1
(1.63 keV ) and 1.0 10
4
cts s
1
cm
2
keV
1
(310 keV). The
performances of XPOL with the proposed designs, and especially the T3 conguration,
is capable to perform polarimetry of AGN sources down to the 1% level, to study SgrB2
down to a polarization of 15%, to perform the phase and energy resolved polarimetry of
X-ray pulsars such as VelaX-1 or Her X-1.
103
4.3. XPOL/HXMT
Table 4.8: Percentual MDP for the dierent designs of the XPOL telescope, considering the uxes
of some astrophysical sources (observation time 10
5
s) according to Costa et al. [2006b].
Source 210 keV 24 keV 410keV
T3 T2 T1 T3 T2 T1 T3 T2 T1
Crab Nebula 0.24 0.29 0.34 0.27 0.32 0.37 0.44 0.59 0.74
Mrk 421(typical) 3.33 4.00 4.59 3.64 4.30 4.87 7.04 9.42 11.63
MCG-6-30-15 4.66 5.66 6.56 5.26 6.24 7.11 8.76 11.80 14.64
Cyg X-1 0.26 0.31 0.35 0.28 0.33 0.37 0.67 0.89 1.10
Her X-1 1.08 1.35 1.60 1.34 1.61 1.85 1.62 2.22 2.80
4.3.3 Optimization of the telescope for the T2 design
After the presentation of the rst results to the Chinese Space Agency, the most promising
T3 conguration has been ruled out by power-budget considerations, leaving place for the
two telescope (T2) conguration. In the following phase I have focused on the conguration
T2, assuming dierent coatings, focal lengths, number of shells and maximum diameters
for the shells The work I have performed is the evaluation of the weights and performances
for the combinations of the parameters listed in table 4.9, with the aim of determining a
reliable baseline for the evaluation of the scientic performances and their dependence on
the design parameters, considering also the rather undened dimensioning of the mission
at the moment of the work. This led to the denition of the conguration with the highest
performances allowed by the constraints, and to the estimation of the impact on the tele-
scope capabilities as a consequence of an eventual relaxation of the design. The evaluation
of the merit parameter is presented in [Cotroneo, 2006b]. Here I will give a summary of
the main results, also showing the eects of the variation of the parameters on the selected
baseline.
Preliminary considerations about the diameters allocation Figure 4.25 shows the
variation of the eective areas and weights integrated along the sequence of mirror shells
(starting from the inner) as a function of the shell diameter. The values in the gure are
calculated for the test case of 2.45 m focal length and Ir+C coating. A target angular
resolution of 40 arcsec is considered, assuming a conservative constant value of 0.2 mm for
the walls of the mirror shell (with a nickel density of 8.8 g/cm
3
). The following general
considerations can be done:
The weight increases approximately linearly with respect to the shell diameter, but
smaller shells are more tightly nested. The number of shells (and mandrels) needed
to have the same increase in area is much larger at the smaller diameters. A lower
diameter limit around 10 cm can be indicated (it is apparent that lowering too much
the minimum diameter is not practical, due to the need of realizing a large number
of mandrels, with a small contribution to the collecting area by part of the single
shell).
In the range of the diameters considered here, also the eective area at 2 keV (just
above the lower energy limit of the polarimeter) increases nearly linearly with the
diameter). This is not true for the area at 3 keV, where the polarimeter has its
maximum response. In fact for diameters larger than 300 mm the variation of the
eective area at 3 keV is considerably lower than a simple linear behavior. Neverthe-
less, because of their larger collecting area, the outer shells contribute considerably
104
0
10
20
30
40
50
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
W
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m
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s
h
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l
l
s

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l
y
Shell diameter (mm) from inner
Integrated shell weight as a function of diameter
Weight (kg) for thick wall (0.2 mm)
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
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Integrated Shell Area as a function of diameter, F=2.45 m, Ir+C coating
Effective Area 2 keV
Collecting Area
0
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300
100 120 140 160 180 200
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300 320 340 360 380 400
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Collecting Area
Figure 4.25: Integrated contributions to mass (left top) and eective area at several energies (right
top) by shells along the sequence. In the bottom panels expanded views of the contributions to
eective area for the smaller and larger shells are shown.
to the eective area at energies around 3 keV. Therefore it is convenient to have a
diameter for the outer shells as large as possible.
The contribution to the eective area at higher energies comes only from the inner
shells. At 6 keV the maximum useful diameter is 290 mm, at 8 keV is 220 mm.
Denition of the parameters for the optimization To maintain the possibility of
variations in the satellite project, a set of dierent values for the geometrical parameters is
considered. At the moment of this study the allocation of the telescope in a tube sticking
out from the satellite body, was a favorable option (g. 4.26), allowing some exibility in
the choice of the focal length. The values assumed for the focal length are: 245, 265 and
285 cm.
The maximum allowed diameter for the mirror modules has also been evaluated during
the work and dierent values (300, 330 and 350 mm) are considered. Also dierent choices
for the number of shells in a module led to two kinds of congurations: the basic congu-
rations (analogous to the one in 4.3.2), with a number of shells xed to 30; the extended
congurations, for which a variable number of shells is employed to ll the whole diameter
range down to a minimum diameter of 9 cm. The values of parameters considered in
the simulation are reported in table 4.9.
Evaluation of the mirror module weight The weight of a shell depends directly
by its thickness, which is usually assumed to be linear with the diameter (to keep the
deformations and, consequently, the angular resolution constant along the shell sequence).
In the case of XPOL, the diameters are rather small and a minimum thickness for the shell
105
4.3. XPOL/HXMT
Table 4.9: Values of parameters studied in the design of the XPOL telescope.
Shell thickness trends Heavy (min. tick. = 0.2 mm), Light (min. thick = 0.1 mm)
Focal length 2.45, 2.65, 2.85 m
Number of shells
basic conguration (30 shells);
extended conguration (variable number to ll the di-
ameter range from Dmin=9 cm).
Maximum diameter 30, 33, 35 cm
Coatings Au, Au+C, Ir+C
walls has to be imposed. The choice of the thickness for the shell walls determines the
total weight of the telescope, but has a little impact on the eective area, because of the
large shell slopes and dense packing of shells. The weights calculated for the congurations
studied in this document are reported in table 4.10 and table 4.11. We have considered
two possibilities:
Heavy shells (minimum thickness of 0.2 mm): this results in a constant thickness of
0.2 mm for all the shell (and weights linearly increasing, as shown in Fig. 2). The
requested angular resolution of 40 arcsec (or better) can be reached quite easily with
the current shell manufacturing technology.
Light shells (minimum thickness of 0.1 mm): this results in a constant thickness for
the inner shells (diameter less than 230 mm) and a linear increase for the outer ones.
The requested angular resolution is compatible with the current shell manufacturing
technology.
Selection of some interesting congurations The above considerations and the eval-
uation of the performances for the combination of parameters in table 4.9 led to the def-
inition of a set of congurations for the renement of the T2 design. In particular, a
conservative baseline with good scientic capabilities and a very high feasibility level is
selected as the conguration T2/C1. This corresponds to the T2 conguration presented
in the preliminary design (4.3.2), if ten shells are added. The result is a design with 30
shells, Au+C reecting coating, 2.45 m of focal length and a maximum diameter of 30 cm.
Two possibilities of enhancement of the scientic performances can also be highlighted: the
conguration T2/C2 is able to give a notable improvement with a minor eort (13 shell
more than T1/C1, a 20 cm longer focal length and a maximum diameter of 33 cm), while
the T2/C3 can give a strong enhancement by a similar further step in the geometrical
parameters and the use of Ir+C coating. The overall improvements over the performances
for the T2/C3 design is in the range 50100% with respect to the T2/C1. However, this
last conguration exploits all the technological resources considered in this study and its
practical convenience should be careful evaluated. The performances of the three design
are compared in table 4.12 and gure 4.27.
Eects of the parameters variation For the incidence angles determined by the as-
sumed telescope size, the energy-dependence of modulation factor and mirror reectivity,
the steepness of the source spectra make the sensitivity of the polarimeter to be maximum
106
Table 4.10: Weights (mirrors only) for the basic congurations, constituted by 30 mirror shells,
with dierent maximum diameters.).
BASIC CONFIGURATION (30 shells)
Focal Weight (kg) of 30 shells (mirrors only) for:
Lenght (m) D
MAX
= 300 D
MAX
= 330 D
MAX
= 350
Light Heavy Light Heavy Light Heavy
2.45 10.2 18.7 12.0 20.6 13.4 21.9
2.65 10.6 19.3 12.4 21.3 13.9 22.6
2.85 10.9 19.8 12.8 21.9 14.3 23.2
Table 4.11: Weights (mirrors only) for the Extended congurations consisting in the full area
occupation by mirror shells for diameters larger than 9 cm.
EXTENDED CONFIGURATION (Dmin = 9 cm)
Focal Length (m)
Weight (kg) for:
D
MAX
= 300 D
MAX
= 330 D
MAX
= 350
Light Heavy shells Light Heavy shells Light Heavy shells
2.45 11.6 21.0 37 14.0 24.1 40 15.7 26.2 42
2.65 12.5 22.7 40 15.2 26.0 43 17.1 28.2 45
2.85 13.4 24.1 42 16.3 27.8 46 18.3 30.2 48
Table 4.12: Parameters and performances for the three selected versions of the T2 conguration.
Conguration Number
of shells
Coating Diam. (mm) Focal
Length (m)
Weight (kg) Eective area
@ 3 keV (cm
2
)
Eective area
@ 6 keV (cm
2
)
min max light heavy
T2/C1 (basic) 30 Au+C 115 300 2.45 10.4 18.7 405 185
T2/C2 (extended) 43 Au+C 90 330 2.65 15.5 26.0 530 260
T2/C3 (extended) 48 Ir+C 90 350 2.85 18.4 30.2 650 380
107
4.3. XPOL/HXMT
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Energy (keV)
Effective area per module for the three versions of the T2 design
T2/C1 - 30 shells (11.5-30 cm), 10.4/18.7 kg, F=2.45 m, Au+C
T2/C2 - 43 shells (9-33 cm), 15.4/26.0 kg, F=2.65 m, Au+C
T2/C3 - 48 shells (9-35 cm), 18.4/30.2 kg, F=2.85 m, Ir+C
Figure 4.27: Eective area of a single module for the three selected versions of the T2 conguration.
between 2 and 4 keV. The instrument has to be optimized to work in this range, keeping
into account the interest in measures performed up to 10 keV. Figure 4.28 shows the eects
of a change in the focal length and number of shells. An increase of the focal length (left
panel), keeping constant the maximum diameter and number of shells, makes the reec-
tion angles smaller. This cause a small decreasing of the collecting area, but produces
an increase of the reectivity at highest energies, resulting in a 1530% enhancement for
the eective area above 3 keV. The right panel of gure 4.28 shows with dierent line
colors, the eective area as a function of energy as achieved by summing dierent groups
of shells by starting from a diameter of 9 cm up to 35 cm (this corresponds to the extended
conguration with maximum diameter of 35 cm) for the case of heavy 0.2 mm shell walls.
It has to be noticed that the T2/C1 conguration corresponds to the one in the gure,
if the innermost 7 shells and the outermost ve are removed. The innermost shells are
eective over the whole energy range, even if with a small area, while the outermost ones
are still eective in the energy range that constitutes the main objective of the telescope,
even if with an increasing cost in term of weight and size.
The impact of the material selected as reecting coating is also very important: the
mirror shells realized by means of the Nickel electroforming replica process oer, after
the detaching from the mandrel, a gold-coated reecting surface, since the gold is used
as release agent in the replication process due to its low adherence onto the superpolished
mandrel surface. However, the M edges of Au (or also of every other reecting heavy-metal)
introduce a strong decrease of reectivity just in the range 24 keV. For this reason, the
telescope sensitivity can greatly benet by the deposition of a thin carbon overcoating, that
can signicantly reduce the photoelectric absorption, strongly increasing the reectivity in
this range. Also the use of Iridium as a reector can give a good contribution to the mission
capabilities, allowing to enhance the reectivity at the highest energies.
By the point of view of the realization, both Iridium and Carbon present a strong
adherence to the mandrels and, then, have to be applied to the gold surface in a post-process
coating deposition on the inner surface of the shells, after the usual replication method.
108
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Energy (keV)
Au+C coating T2/C1 configuration (30 shells) with D
max
=30 cm
F=2.45 m, 10.2/18.7 kg
F=2.65 m, 10.6/19.3 kg
F=2.85 m, 10.9/19.8 kg
0
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Energy (keV)
Au+C coating F=2.45 m contributes of shells with diameters 935 cm
innermost 7 shells: 2.3 kg, D=11.1 cm
total 42 shells: 26.2 kg, D=33.9 cm
Figure 4.28: Left: Eects of variations of the focal length on the eective area, for the same
coating, number of shell and maximum diameter. Right contributes to the eective area by groups
of shells along the sequence.
0
100
200
300
400
500
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Energy (keV)
F=2.45 m T2/C1 configuration (30 shells) with D
max
=30 cm, 10.2/18.7 kg
Au
Au+C
Ir+C
Figure 4.29: Eective area for reecting coatings made of dierent materials. The increase of
eective area due to the use of a carbon overcoating is highly convenient in the 24 keV energy
range, where the detector eciency is maximum.
109
4.3. XPOL/HXMT
The deposition of iridium and carbon are both well established operations, tested in several
contexts and they will not introduce any major problem in the process of manufacture of the
mirrors. However, there will be a small slow-down of the production, due to the additional
phase and an increase of the cost. Anyway the adoption of this coating does not interfere
with the manufacture of mandrels which is the most demanding part of the process.
Figure 4.26: Possible de-
sign of the satellite, with the
XPOL telescopes located in
a tube sticking out from the
body of the satellite (Credits:
ALCATEL/Alenia).
The deposition of the additional materials on the inner-
most mirrors is probably not possible due to the small di-
ameters, however, the simulations do not show any visible
changes in the eective area, because of the small incidence
angles. It is then reasonable to limit the deposition of addi-
tional coatings to the outer shells, where the improvement is
very relevant and the process is relatively easy. The tradi-
tional coating with gold is a very safe back-up solution, even
if with a downscale of about 20% of the eective areas.
4.3.4 Final design and scientic capabilities
A further reduction of the total length for the XPOL instru-
ment to 2.40 m was forced by a redesign of the spacecraft,
with the whole telescope structure inside the satellite body,
leading to a focal length of 2.10 m. Also the space for the
mirror module has been reduced to a maximum diameter of
30 cm. Keeping into account the external support structure
for the optics, this leads to a maximum diameter of 27 cm
at the entrance pupil of the outermost shell. The new con-
straints force to exploit the whole range of allowed diameters
with 30 shells having diameters at the intersection plane in the range 926 cm. With the
aim of evaluating the scientic capabilities of the instrument I have calculated the eective
area of the telescope, keeping a single gold coating on the eight innermost shells (with
diameters smaller than 12 cm, for which the deposition of additional material is dicult)
and dierent combinations of materials for the reecting coating on the largest shells. The
results are shown in gure 4.30. The mirror module under these conditions is very light,
and with the large thickness is possible to enhance the optical quality: the resulting weight
for a single mirror module (mirror only) are 8.1 and 15.7 kg, respectively for the light and
heavy options. The expected total eective area (gure 4.30) is not very dierent from the
one evaluated during the preliminary design phase (sec. 4.3.2), where a list of interesting
targets is indicated.
Costa et al. [2007] has performed a more detailed evaluation, based on the nal de-
sign, of the MDP(eq. 4.1) as a function of the ux for observation times of 10
5
and 10
6
s (gure 4.31), calculating the MDP for some sources peculiar or representative of various
classes.
One day of observation can be sucient to study bright galactic sources, such as Cyg-
X3, GRS1915+105 or 4U1700-37. With a few days of observation phase resolved polarime-
try of Her X-1 or Vela X-1 could be performed to a few % level, allowing for a direct
measurement of the inclination of the magnetic axis with respect to the rotation axis and
to the sky: a breakthrough for the detailed modelling of these systems. A few bright ex-
tragalactic sources can be measured with one week pointing. Also relatively faint sources
that are expected to exhibit a high degree of polarization, like Circinus Galaxy or 3C279
could be observed.
110
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450
0 2 4 6 8 10
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XPOL/HXMT, 1 module, focal length = 2.1 m, 30 shells, D = 9-27 cm
Ir+C coating
Ir coating
Au+C coating
Au coating
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Total telescope effective area for subsequent refinements of the design
Preliminary T2 configuration
Refined configuration T2/C1
Final design
Figure 4.30: Left: eective area for the nal geometrical conguration for dierent choices of
the reecting coating. Right: comparison between the best geometries considered the preliminary
estimation (4.3.2), in the renement study (4.3.3) and in the nal design (4.3.4), assuming the
most convenient coating (Ir+C).
Figure 4.31: The expected Minimum Detectable Polarization for a selection of sources for observing
times of 10
5
and 10
6
s.
111
4.4. Chapter conclusions
4.4 Chapter conclusions
A general procedure for the study of the performances has been applied to three Wolter
telescopes with dierent aims and sizes, using the software described in the previous sec-
tion to simulate the eects of dierent choices for the design parameters. A nal design
complying with the requirement of the instrument is found for each telescope.
112
Chapter 5
Experimental results on mirror samples
In this chapter I describe the results of the three experiments performed during this thesis.
Two of them consisted in the deposition of metal/carbon bilayer coatings and in their
reectivity measurement in soft X-rays (below 10 keV) [Cotroneo et al., 2007, 2008b]. The
third dealt with the deposition of depth-graded multilayer, designed for a broad angular
band and their measurement at high energy [Cotroneo et al., 2009]. In all cases the samples
has been deposited at the CfA deposition facility under the supervision of S. Romaine.
My role in the experiments was:
I have attended the measurements of the rst bilayer samples set, that were performed
at the X-ray Astronomy Calibration and Testing facility (XACT) in Palermo (Italy)
and at Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility (BSRF) in Beijing (China).
In the second experiment, I have managed the planning of the experiment and par-
ticipated to the deposition of the second set of bilayer coating. The measurements
of the samples has been performed at the PANTER/MPE facility in Munich. An
experimental energy-dispersive setup (550 keV) has been also successfully employed
at OAB
I have designed and deposited the multilayer samples for the experiment, participat-
ing to the measurement in high energy at the BNL synchrotron in Brookhaven (NY,
USA).
For all the measurements, preliminary characterizations have been performed at 8.04 keV,
using the X-ray refractometers at OAB at CfA. I have been involved in the preliminary
tests at OAB at CfA.
In the following sections I will describe the techniques used for the experiments and for
the data analysis. Then, the two papers describing the results of the bilayer coatings are
reported. The rst results of the measurements of the multilayer samples are presented,
showing the very good quality of the deposition process. The work in progress is also
presented.
5.1 Aims of the studies
In the preceding chapter I have shown the simulated reectivity for several telescopes. In
general, my research group:
113
5.1. Aims of the studies
has been the proposer of the use of carbon overcoatings on top of a heavy metals, for
the enhancement of eective area in soft X-rays (0.310 keV) [Pareschi et al., 2004,
Cotroneo and Pareschi, 2004];
is managing, in collaboration with Media Lario s.r.l.
1
and CfA, the development of
future X-ray telescopes for hard X-ray. In particular OAB is managing the develop-
ment of the multilayer coatings for the Simbol-X telescope.
Both bilayer and multilayer coatings are in a development phase before the application
to telescopes in space. The issue of multilayer coating in particular is not an easy task.
The control in thickness accuracy, repeatability of the deposition process and the control
of interface roughness depends on many parameters, the development of good, possibly not
destructive, tests and diagnostics.
Here are summarized the reasons for the experimental studies of bilayer and multilayer
coatings.
5.1.1 Carbon overcoatings
Some years ago, we have suggested the use of lms with carbon overcoating in the soft
X-ray band [Pareschi and Cotroneo, 2004, Cotroneo and Pareschi, 2004], oering also a
rst experimental verication of the eect Pareschi et al. [2004]. The idea was suggested
by the observation of an increase of the eective area of the Chandra mirrors after the
launch, that was ascribed to contaminations by thin layers of hydrocarbons. Afterwards,
other research groups have investigated the use of this kind of coatings [Lumb et al., 2007,
2008], that is now envisaged for the use on several telescopes, like the XEUS telescope.
The simulations in the previous chapter shown how this coating oers a easy way
to obtain increases of 1030% of the eective area of a telescope. However, before the
application to a real telescope, it is important to verify experimentally the eciency of
these coatings by an experimental point of view.
The requirements on the carbon deposition are not strict: large tolerances are admitted
for the layer thickness (the only constraint for the metallic layer is to be thicker than the
penetration length for total reection, while the error admitted on the carbon thickness
is around 20%, see e.g. g. 4.17 on page 94). Also the surface roughness is not a critical
factor, due to the low energy of reection.
However, the deposition carbon presents some peculiar aspects. Carbon can react with
some material forming composites at the layer interface (e.g. with tungsten [Petford-Long
et al., 1987]). Furthermore it can grow in dierent allotropic forms [Logothetidis, 2000],
diering for the bond hybridization (sp
2
or sp
3
, or a mixture of them). The dierent forms
of carbon can have dierent mechanical properties and dierent reectivity, that is mainly
dependent on density, variable in a wide range [Baranov et al., 2002].
The measurements in soft X-ray are not easy to set, because not all apparatus can
provide vacuum environment and small grazing incidence angle.
5.1.2 Multilayer coatings
The deposition of multilayer samples is a much more critical process with respect to the
single or bilayer deposition. A good control of the individual thickness is required, and the
process must be stable for the long time needed for the deposition (several hours).
1
The Italian company that developed and realized the mirrors for the XMM/Newton telescope.
114
CHAPTER 5. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS ON MIRROR SAMPLES
The theory is well developed, and also the use in ground-based applications. However
the deposition on integral shells is in a development phase. The work is continuously
improving, with the realization of prototypes at CfA [Romaine et al., 2006, 2005] and at
Media Lario [Vernani et al., 2008]. The main issues are the accuracy of the lm (stability
of the process), interfacial and surface roughness, the lateral homogeneity and the stability
of the lm. Physical properties of the lm, like the density or the crystallicity are also
important.
One of the main issues is the diagnostic of the deposited lm and the quality criteria.
In the development of Simbol-X mirrors is important to establish how to analyze the lms
and the accuracy of the process. X-ray measurements oer a non destructive test, able to
investigate the whole properties of the lm down to the deepest layers, however the analysis
of data is not easy neither standardized. Improvements in these sense are currently ongoing
at OAB.
We have shown how it is possible to determine the structure of a lm by means of a t
of reectivity measurements. In Spiga [2007] we have compared the results of Transmission
Electron Microscopy (TEM) analysis with the t of the structure from reectivity measure-
ments at 8.04 and 17.4 keV, for multilayers up to 20 bilayers. The energies used, however,
determined a limited information on the deepest layers, because of absorption. We have
then measured the reectivity at high energy (50110 keV) to investigate the structure of
the lm in depth and test the possibilities of analysis down to deeper layers.
5.2 Methods for deposition and measurement
The methods employed for the deposition of the samples and for the reectivity measure-
ments are described in this section.
5.2.1 Deposition of coatings
Thin lms coatings are usually realized by means of Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD)
techniques: In these methods a material is made evaporate in vacuum from a target of
high purity material, condensing on the sample substrate. Several methods fall into the
category of PVD techniques, diering for the mechanisms that cause the evaporation from
the target. These can be heating the material to high temperature, locally or wholly (e.g.
in Joule evaporation, electron beam evaporation or pulsed laser techniques), or by impact
of energetic particles against the target (e.g. ion beam sputtering, magnetron sputtering).
The dierent methods lead to dierent deposition rate and dierent ranges of kinetic
energy for the evaporated particles, determining the characteristics of the deposited lms
in terms of structural properties (e.g. homogeneity, smoothness, stability).
The technique employed for the realization of the bilayer and multilayer coatings object
of this chapter is the DC magnetron sputtering. Figure 5.1 shows a scheme of the deposition
chamber and of the magnetron assembly. In this assembly (circular planar magnetron),
the target has a circular shape and is placed face to face with the sample over it.
A high voltage (100500 V) is directed from the target to the sample and strong mag-
netic eld, of the order of 1000 Gauss, is created, in radial direction, close to the target
surface (see right panel in g. 5.1). The eld is generated by a rare-earth magnet, placed
behind the target, its eld lines are oriented perpendicularly to the electric eld.
When a gas is introduced into the chamber, some of the particle are ionized. Charged
particles are subject to a Lorentz force and to the electric eld, with a total force F =
q (E+v B).
115
5.2. Methods for deposition and measurement
Figure 5.1: Deposition chamber (left) and magnetron (right) schemes (from Ivan [2002]).
Electrons are forced to move in helical paths, creating a plasma conned in proximity
of the target surface and generating further ionization during collisions with neutral gas.
Due to the higher mass, the eect of the magnetic eld on positive ions is much weaker
and they are accelerated toward the sample by the electric eld. The energetic ions impact
on the target, causing the ejection of material (sputtering) that deposit on the substrate.
The magnetron sputtering technique allows to generate a high number of heavy ions
even at low pressure (mTorr), resulting in a high sputtering yield and a limited number of
collisions between sputtered atoms and plasma ions. This is useful to avoid contaminations,
and also leads to a higher (and tunable) kinetic energy and mobility of the sputtered atoms
over the sample surface, helping to produce smoother lms. The technique can be applied
also to materials with a high melting point, that are dicult to evaporate by means of
heating techniques.
5.2.1.1 The deposition chamber at CfA
The multilayer deposition facility at CfA hosts two deposition chambers. The R&D deposi-
tion system, shown in gure 5.2, is the smaller one, used for the production of the samples
in this thesis. The facility is described in depth by Ivan [2002], who performed several
depositions and calibrated the deposition parameters.
The chamber can host two at, small-size (maximum size of the order of 10 cm) sub-
strates (2 in gure) per deposition run. A couple of targets (1) made of dierent materials
can be located in it, allowing the deposition of multilayer coatings.
The samples are placed on a rotating platform (4), that is used to place the samples
below the target for the deposition. A small amplitude, oscillatory motion is applied during
the deposition phase, to improve the lateral homogeneity of the coating.
A couple of shutters (3) shadow the targets, opening during the deposition phase.
During the deposition phase the targets are always on, the thickness control is achieved by
controlling the opening and closing time of the shutters.
A double-stage pumping system, constituted by a mechanical pump and a turbo-
molecular pump is used to create and maintain a clean vacuum inside the chamber. High-
purity argon, used for the deposition, can be introduced at a constant rate, tunable by
acting on a ow mass controller.
A set of instruments, sensitive in dierent ranges of pressure and to dierent gas species
are used to monitor the environmental conditions:
116
Figure 5.2: Left: the deposition chamber at CfA: the target (1), the sample holders (2), the
shutters (3) and the supporting platform (4). Right: a magnetron target.
a convectron gauge (p > 10
4
torr) used to monitor the nitrogen (air) pressure during
the rst phase of vacuum creation;
a ion gauge (p < 10
4
torr) used for pressures below the minimum sensitivity of the
convectron gauge during the vacuum creation;
a baratron manometer, a gas independent instrument used to control the pressure of
the Ar atmosphere during the deposition.
a RGA used to measure the presence of residual contaminants, before and after the
deposition.
The combined use of the above instruments allows to monitor the correct execution of
the deposition process. The operative parameters are well calibrated and tested. With a
careful setting of parameters and environmental control, accuracies of the order of a few
can be achieved.
The operations followed for the deposition of the samples are described in the next
section.
5.2.1.2 The deposition process
The deposition starts placing the samples inside the chamber and setting the zero of the
rotating platform. The distance between target and samples can be varied, a distance of
11 cm has been used for the deposition of the samples in this thesis.
Before starting the deposition process, a high vacuum is created by operating the
mechanical pump and the turbomolecular pump in sequence. The pressure and the time
needed for the vacuum is monitored to control the regularity of the process.
The RGA is run to measure the composition of the residual atmosphere. Typical values
are H, H
2
O ( 10
7
torr), OH, N
2
, CO
2
( 10
8
torr), O
2
(< 10
9
torr). The argon is
injected in the chamber and the voltage is raised to high tension (e.g. 275 V and 370 V
for W and Si respectively) to start the plasma.
During this phase and all the deposition process, the pressure is monitored by means
of the baratron instrument and controlled by regulating the argon ow. The value used for
the deposition is 2.7 mtorr, the constance of this value is particularly important for the
outcome of the process, since it determines the plasma density.
117
5.2. Methods for deposition and measurement
Before the deposition, the magnetron is run for twenty minutes, to clean the target
from residual and reach a steady condition. The target consumption is not homogeneous,
occasionally a recalibration is needed.
The deposition is then started. The opening and closing time are controlled by software.
The platform can host two substrates, however only one at time is used for the deposition.
5.2.2 Measurement of X-ray reectivity at grazing angles
Several instruments have been used for the reectivity tests in the three experiments per-
formed. In general, an apparatus for the measurement of X-ray reectivity is composed by
several elements:
An X-ray emitting source. In these measurements both conventional X-ray tubes and
synchrotron sources were used.
A system of slits or apertures, to limit the divergence of the beam, and/or monochro-
mators.
A goniometer controlled by the operator, that allows to move the sample along one
or more axis and shifting directions.
A detector, collecting the light reected by the sample.
Apart from these common features, the particular setup of the instrument determines
the possibilities of measurements. The detector can have imaging capabilities or being just
a radiation counter. In the second case a window or a slit in front of the detector limits
the collected radiation, dening the angular resolution.
Detectors with spectral capabilities allow to simultaneously measure the reectivity
over the whole spectrum of the source. If the detector has no spectral resolving power, a
monochromator is used to select a single wavelength.
Considering specular reectivity measurements, two general way of operation are pos-
sible, depending on the energy resolving capabilities of the detector:
In energy dispersive measurements, a broad band X-ray beam illuminates the sample
placed at a xed angle with respect to the beam. The energy-sensitive detector is kept
at a double angle, collecting the reected light. In general, relatively long integration
times are needed, because the ux can considerably vary along the spectrum, and
it must be kept low to avoid the detector saturation. The signal corresponding to
dierent energies is collected in separate channels by a multi channel analyzer.
Angular scans in monochromatic light. A single energy is selected by means of a
monochromator and collected by a collimated counter. The sample and the detec-
tor are moved together by a system of stepper motors, keeping the detector at the
specular reectivity angle. The signal is recorded by the control software that keeps
track of the position of the motors.
Theoretically, with energy sensitive detectors, it is also possible to perform an angular
scan, measuring simultaneously the reectivity at dierent energies, in practice this is not
feasible due to the long integration times.
During the experiment several instruments with dierent characteristics have been used,
they are described in the following sections. The operative details determining the possible
kinds of measurement are summarized in table 5.1.
118
Table 5.1: Characteristic of beamlines cited in this chapter. The characteristics that determine
the kind of operations are reported.
Facility Type of source Type of scan Background
subtraction
Normalization Imaging
Facilities for measurements in soft X-rays
XACT (OAPa/INAF) Mg/O anode
emission lines
angular at
1208 eV
constant
average
before/after
constant
average be-
fore/after
yes
BSRF beamline 3W1B synchrotron angular 200 eV no linear no
PANTER/MPE PSPC Ag, Ti anodes
emission lines
angular at
2.98, 4.51 keV
no constant yes
PANTER/MPE
TRoPIC
C anode
continuum
energy
dispersive
0.16 keV
no constant yes
Facilities for measurements in hard X-rays
BNL beamline X17B1 synchrotron energy
dispersive 5-50
keV
yes real-time no
OAB BEDE
reectometer with
AMPTEK detector
Cu anode
continuum
energy
dispersive 5-50
keV
yes constant no
In-house instruments
OAB BEDE
reectometer with
scintillator
Cu K- anode angular scan at
8.04 keV
no constant no
CfA reectometer with
scintillator
Cu K- anode angular scan at
8.04 keV
no constant no
5.3 First measurements on carbon overcoating
A set of carbon coated samples made of dierent materials have been realized and measured
in soft X-rays.
The results was published in Cotroneo et al. [2007]. The rst part of the paper summa-
rizes the advantages of the use of carbon overcoating and shows the eects on the simulated
eective area for four telescopes. The setup employed for the measurements and the results
are then presented.
Measurements were planned in two energy bands on two separate beamlines (200
1280 eV on beamline 3W1B and at 1.56 keV on beamline 4B7B). However it was not
possible to use the higher energy beamline, due to a breakdown in the synchrotron. The
main diculty encountered was the presence of second order harmonics. Furthermore the
sample holders were not suitable to grazing incidence measurements, because of shadowing
from the supporting structure at small grazing angles and deformations of the samples. We
have kept into account this factors in the second campaign of measurements (see sec. 5.4).
The measurements were performed between 200 and 800 eV at the 3W1B beamline.
The data at 200 eV was almost totally free by second harmonics contamination, because
a carbon lter of 0.53 m allowed to eliminate them to a limit of 3%, as reported in the
beamline data sheet and conrmed by the t of the data. Furthermore at that energy the
reectivity enhancement is higher, because the absorption of carbon is lower below the
K edge at 280 eV. The eect is detectable at larger angles, permitting to overcome the
problem of the shadowing by the sample holder.
The data shown a signicant gain in reectivity with respect to the simulations for bare
metals. The data from XACT also conrmed the eect at the higher energy of 1280 eV.
The paper is reported in the following pages.
119
5.3. First measurements on carbon overcoating
Carbon overcoatings for soft X-ray reflectivity enhancement

V. Cotroneo
a,b*
, D. Spiga
a
, M. Barbera
c
, R. Bruni
d
, K.Chen
e
, A. Marcelli
f
, G. Pareschi
a
, S. Romaine
d
,
Y.D. Zhao
e
, L. Zheng
e
, Z.Y. Wu
e

a
INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, via Bianchi 46, 23807 Merate (Lc), Italy;
b
Universit degli Studi, via Celoria 16, Milano, Italy;
c
INAF- Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, Piazza del Parlamento 1, 90134 Palermo, Italy;
d
Harvard-Smithsonian Center For Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138;
e
Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Institute of High Energy Physics, CAS, 100049 Beijing,
China;
f
INFN /National Frascati Laboratories, Via E. Fermi 40, Frascati (Roma), 00044
ABSTRACT
In X-ray astronomical telescopes, the focalization of the radiation is achieved by means of grazing incidence Wolter I
(parabola + hyperbola) optics in total reflection regime. In general, high density materials (e.g. Au, Pt, Ir, W) are used as
reflecting coatings, in order to increase as much as possible the cut-off angles and energies for total reflection. However
these materials present an important reduction of the reflectivity between 0.2 and 5 keV, due to the photoabsorption, and
this phenomenon is particularly enhanced in correspondence of the M absorption edges (between 2 and 3.5 keV). In
general, this determines a strong decrease of the telescope effective area. To overcome the problem we suggested in
previous works the coating of the mirror surface by a low-density material such as carbon. Mirror samples with different
coatings made by high density materials: Au, Ir, Pt, and W with a carbon overcoating were manufactured and reflectivity
data in the soft X-ray band (100-2000 eV), performed both at the XACT facility in Palermo (Italy) and at BSRF
synchrotron in Beijing (China), are showed. In this paper we present some of the first results concerning the
measurements carried out at the photon energies of 200 eV (i.e. below the carbon K absorption edge) and 1280 eV (i.e.
the region just below the heavy material M absorption edge).
Keywords: X-ray astronomical mirrors, carbon overcoatings, enhancement of the X-ray reflectivity
1. INTRODUCTION
In X-ray astronomical telescopes, like e.g. XMM or Chandra, the focalization of the radiation is achieved by means of
grazing incidence Wolter I (parabola + hyperbola) optics in total reflection regime. High density materials (Au, Pt, Ir,
W,) are typically used as reflecting coatings, in order to increase as much as possible the cut-off angles and energies
for total reflection. However these materials present an important reduction of the reflectivity between 0.2 and 5 keV due
to the photoabsorption, and this phenomenon is especially relevant at energies above the M absorption edges (i.e.
between ~2 and ~3.5 keV). In general, this determines a strong decrease of the effective area of the X-ray telescope, a
phenomenon particularly enhanced by the fact that we are dealing with two-reflection mirrors. As a solution of this
problem, the use of a top layer made of a low-density material, like carbon, has been proposed
1
in previous works. Light
materials are much less affected by the photoelectric absorption and can considerably increase the reflectivity compared
to traditional monolayers used so far. Moreover, due to its very low density (2.1 g/cm
3
), the presence of carbon does not
affect the mirror response at energy higher than the cut-off one.
The development of this new kind of coatings is particularly attractive for several X-ray missions operational in the next
future such as XEUS, like e.g. XEUS
2
. The use of the low-density overcoating is also foreseen for the optics of the X-ray
polarimeter aboard the HXMT
3
mission, currently being studied by the Chinese Space Agency with a participation of the
Italian Space Agency (ASI), and for other projects currently investigated such as EDGE
4
and Simbol-X
5
. Carbon is a
suitable material for this purpose, although reflectivity performances and resistance of this kind of films to extreme
environmental conditions have to be carefully investigated before implementation in space missions may occur.

*
corresponding author; e-mail: vincenzo.cotroneo@brera.inaf.it
120
At this regard, in the present work five small diameter (2) flat samples, coated with ~300 thick film of a high density
materials (Ir, Au, Pt, W) with a carbon coating on top on them were produced and made available for testing.
Reflectivity scans at soft X-rays energies (0.2 5 keV or higher) were performed at different energies.
2. POSSIBLE APPLICATION FOR FUTURE X RAY ASTRONOMY MISSIONS
As already mentioned, several X-ray telescopes operating in a wide range of energies and angles, are foreseen to be
implemented in the next years. All are based on a double reflection at small grazing angles in a Wolter-like geometry. In
this design a telescope is composed by a set of cofocal and concentric nested shells, that, depending on the
manufacturing technology, can be monolithic with a pseudo-cylindrical shape, or made by different segments integrated
to obtain a close shell configuration
6
, or finally formed by a cellular structure (pores) of reflecting channels
7
. The
incidence angle on the shells is related to the aperture radius and focal length by the focusing condition:
4
1
=
F
R
,
where R is the aperture radius, F the focal length and the incidence angle on the reflecting surface (almost equal for the
two reflections for the onaxis rays). The maximum energy for which the overcoating enhancement is effective is related
to the carbon critical energy and to the radiation penetration in the carbon layer, and is strongly dependent on the
incidence angle.
2.1 Considerations about the energy range for a possible application
As discussed before, carbon is characterized by a much lower photoelectric absorption compared to Au, Ir, Pt, W, and, if
sufficiently thin (70-150 ), the overcoating does not affect the response at higher energies (after the total reflection cut-
off region). The use of a carbon overcoating on high density materials can therefore enhance the effective area of
telescopes in the low energy spectral region. The effect is particularly relevant at small incidence angles (<~ 1) for
energies above ~2 keV and it is also apparent, for larger angles, between 280 eV (after the C K-edge) and 2 keV. Figure
1 shows a set of simulations of the effective area for a mirror shell with a monolayer coating of iridium (dashed lines),
compared to the one for the same coating with on top a thin (100 ) layer of carbon (solid line). In the figure shells
operating at angles ranging from rather small (0.3) to quite large (1.5
o
) angles are simulated. These angular values are
the typical of astronomical grazing incidence optics. It can be seen from the simulations that the effective area
enhancement due to the carbon overcoating is maximum at small angles (below ~1) for the energies above the M
absorption edge of heavy elements (~2 keV) and for very small angles (see the curve for 0.3) is effective over a wide
energy range, limited by the iridium L edge around 10 keV. For larger angles the effect is still apparent, but smaller, and
upper limited by a cutoff energy (see the curve for 1) that decreases with the increasing of the incidence angle. At even
higher angles the effect is limited to the spectral region between the carbon K edge (~280 eV) and M edge of the heavy
element. There is also a very strong enhancement in the range of energies lower than the carbon K edge, that is usually
out of the operative range of X-ray telescopes because of the presence of optical filters on the detector (although this is
not yet the case for the XEUS mission). However it should be underlined that in this region the effect is relevant, and this
energy range represents a reliable experimental test to investigate the effect of low Z coatings.
2.2 Application to some future mission concepts
We proposed the application of a carbon overcoating onto classical high-density reflecting films a few years ago to
optimize the design of the XEUS telescope (at that time the configuration, now changed, was based on a 50 m focal
length and 10 m diameter), in order to achieve a strong enhancement of the low energy effective area
1,8
. We have also
already presented experimental proofs of the concept
9
. Now the carbon overcoating solution has been envisaged for the
XEUS telescope because, as discussed in the proposal recently presented by a large consortium of international scientists
in response to the ESA Cosmic Vision call, even with the new design reduced in size (D = 4.5 m, F = 35 m), it allows
us to maintain an effective area acceptable with respect to the scientific requirements. The approach is being studied for
the application to XEUS also by other authors
10, 11
. It is worthy to note that we considered the concept suitable also for
the design of other X-ray telescopes like HXMT, EDGE and Simbol-X, i.e., for a very different range of incidence
angles.
In the next, a short description of the main characteristics of these telescopes and simulations illustrating the capabilities
of the carbon coating concept to these specific systems are showed. The main characteristics of the missions considered
in the present work are summarized in table 1.
121

0.3 0.6
1.0 1.5

Fig. 1: Simulations showing the effective area enhancement effect (in arbitrary units) associated to a carbon overcoating of
100 on top of a Ir surface, for a mirror shell operating at angles from 0.3 to 1.5. Traditional high density reflecting
materials show M absorption edges around 2 keV and L edges at about 10 keV similar to iridium. The reflectivity
enhancement effect is maximum at small angles (below ~ 1) and at energies higher than the energies of the M edges.
At higher angles the enhancement is observed in the spectral region between the carbon K edge (~280 eV) and around
the M edges. A strong reflectivity enhancement at energies lower than the carbon K edge is also observed.
XEUS
XEUS is a follow-on to ESA's Cornerstone X-Ray Spectroscopy Mission (XMM-NEWTON). It is a very ambitious
mission based on a long-focal length (35 m in formation flight) and a large diameter optics (about 4 m of diameter). The
optics will be realized by assembling a very large number of high performance pore optics (HPO), each produced by
piling a set of (about 100) grooved silicon wafers. The coating has to be applied to the wafers before the stacking phase.
In fig. 2a it is presented a simulation for the effect of the overcoating on the first HPO XEUS design12 (assuming an old
configuration with 50 m of focal length and about 6 m diameter). It has to be noted that, also if the first design is
different in size from the current one, the incidence angles on the optics are nearly in the same range.
PolarX/HXMT
The Polar-X experiment, aboard the Chinese mission HXMT, is a small (F = 2.10 m, Dmax = 27 cm) polarimetric
telescope based on the GEM/Multipixel sensor13. In this case, the shell are expected to be realized by means of the Ni
electroforming techinique
14
, already successfully used e.g. for XMM and Swift: the shell material is deposited onto a
superpolished mandrel, then removed by cooling, taking advantage of the difference of the thermal expansion
coefficients. In this process a gold film is used on the inner shell surface as a release agent, due to its poor adhesion to
the mandrel surface. Gold is itself a good X-ray reflector, already used many times in past missions (e.g. XMM).
122
However the performances can be further improved by the use of Iridium (like in Chandra), in order to extend as far as
possible the energy operative range, since it presents a larger energy cut-off. Carbon can be applied directly on the gold
or after the deposition of an additional layer of iridium (to achieve a better response at the higher energies). Figure 2b
shows the predicted total effective area of the Polar-X telescope with the different kinds of coating (Ir, Ir+C, Au, Au+C).
It should be noted that the design of the telescope and coating has to be performed aiming to enhance the effective area
between 2 keV and 10 keV; at lower energy the polarimetric detector is not sensitive.
WFI/EDGE
The WFI (Wide Field Imager) telescope on EDGE requires a wide field of view (1.5) with a good imaging quality (15
arcsec). To this end, the WFI will implement optics with a polynomial profile, variable shell heights and a wide range of
incidence angles for the different shells (0.8 - 1.8 deg). In this case the polynomial mirror shells will be made by using
monolithic silicon carbide and realized by means of epoxy replication from superpolished mandrels. Also in this case a
layer of gold is used as a release agent with the following deposition of an iridium layer, to enhance the effective area at
the higher energies. The carbon overcoating will be applied to Ir or directly to the Au layer.

Fig. 2: Simulated total effective area for Wolter-like telescope composed of several shells. The expected performances
is plotted with dashed lines for the traditional reflecting coating (Ir and Au for polar-X/HXMT, depth-graded Pt/C
multilayer for Simbol-X and Ir for the other two telescopes) and with solid line for the overcoating option. A
carbon thickness of 100 and a surface roughness of 3 for all layers are assumed in the simulations.

c) WFI/EDGE

d) Simbol-X

b) Polar-X/HXMT

a) XEUS
123
Simbol-X
Simbol-X is a hard x-ray formation flight mission
15, 16
a very long focal length (20 m) and, consequently, very shallow
angles. Its main target is the observation in the hard X-ray spectral region (from 10 up to 80 keV), by means of a
telescope based on multilayer coated (Pt/C or W/Si) mirror shells; however also performances at low energies play a
fundamental role to collect simultaneously data in the soft X-ray band. The multilayer coating, with a depth-graded
structure, is required to widen and extend the operative range in a broad energy band, while the carbon coating can be
applied on it to enhance the performances below 10 keV without degrading the performances in the high energy spectral
region. This is shown in figure 2d, where the effective areas assuming a standard depth-graded Pt/C multilayer with
(solid line) and without (dashed line) overcoating are compared.
Tab. 1: Geometrical parameters and performances of the telescopes considered in the text.
Mission
Possible coating
for mirrors
(without
overcoating)
Focal length (m)
Energy range
(keV)
Min/max angle (deg)
Simbol-X
W/Si, Pt/C
multilayers
20 0.5 - 80 0.1 0.23
XEUS
Ir, Pt, Au
monolayer, W/Si
multilayer
35 0.05 - 40 0.49 0.92
EDGE/WFI Ir 2.75 0.3 - 6 0.57 1.89
HXMT/Polar-X Au, Ir 2.1 1.5 - 10 0.31 0.92
3. EXPERIMENTAL
3.1 Samples
A set of samples, all produced by DC magnetron sputtering at the Harvard-Smithsonian CfA. The heavy material (Au,
W, Pt), with a thickness of about 300 has been deposited onto two inches commercial silicon wafers, and a carbon
overcoating, with a thickness of 75 or 120 , has been later applied without break the vacuum, by using the same
technique. In addition, a Ir/C sample was also prepared, depositing carbon by magnetron sputtering on top of one of the
witness samples manufactured in the past during the Chandra telescope development phase (Ir coating was done on a
fused silica flat). In the present contribution we report reflectivity measurements of angular scans at fixed energies,
performed at the XACT facility in Palermo, at a energy of 1280 eV, and at the BSRF in Beijing, at 200 eV. Among the
available ones the angular scan energies have been chosen, in the spectral region where the expected reflectivity
enhancement due to the carbon coating is maximum and, for the measurements performed at the XACT facility, at the
energies of the highest X-ray flux. The characteristics of the samples and the kind of measurements reported in this
contribution are summarized in table 2.
In order to characterize the samples, their reflectivity of them has been firstly measured at the energy of 8.04 keV
(corresponding to the K-alpha line of Cu) using a three axis BEDE D120 X-ray diffractometer available at the INAF
Brera Astronomical Observatory (Milano/Merate) equipped with a phototube coupled to double crystal monochromator
as source. In this case the tests were performed in air, and a not-imaging counter system (crystal scintillator) was used as
a detector. The measured data have been fitted to determine (mainly from the positions and sizes of the interference
fringes) the real layers thicknesses of both the heavy material and carbon layers. All samples are very regular and the
thickness values accurate (errors less than a few ) compared to the nominal value. Being the theoretical reflectivity in
the soft X ray region less sensitive to thickness variations, with respect to the thickness range, for comparison with
experimental data we considered for the theoretical simulations the nominal values. As an example, on the left side of
fig. 3 we show the fitted reflectivity at 8.04 keV for the Pt/C sample, and, on the right side, the expected reflectivity
change induced by a small ( 5 ) variation of the C thickness. The thickness errors of the heavy layer are not relevant,
being the reflectivity almost independent in the energy and angular ranges considered in this study.
124

Tab. 2: List of the measured samples. Angular scan have been performed at 1280 eV (XACT facility) and 200 eV (BSRF).
Mirror coating coating thickness () Measurement energy (eV)
Au 75 200
W 75 1280
W 120 200
Pt 75 200, 1280
Ir 100 200
3.2 Experimental setup of the 3W1B facility at BSRF
The 3W1B facility is a soft x-ray monochromatic beam line operated at BSRF
17
working in the photon energy region
from 50 to 1600eV and with typical resolution powers in the 100-1000 ranges The main optical elements of this
beamline consist of a spherical mirror (SM), a plane mirror (PM), and a varied space plane grating (VSPG) as showed in
the layout in fig. 4. The x-ray beam is first focused and then deflected in the horizontal direction by the SM that also acts
as a low pass to cut off the short wavelength component of the x-ray beam. The emerging beam is then reflected in the
vertical direction first by the PM and then by the VSPG who monochromatize and focus vertically the radiation. This
station is equipped with a reflectometer located in a test chamber at about 1 m after the slit S. An aperture 80 m wide at
the entrance of the test chamber limits the beam size. The sample is set in a HV chamber at a distance of 600 mm from
the aperture and at 240 mm from the detector. The sample and detector axis can be rotated between 0 and 360 deg.
driven by high precision goniometers, with a rotational step of 0.002 deg and errors < 2%. The beam divergence is
estimated to be around 1 mrad but higher order harmonic contributions, almost due to the second order, are present. The
higher order contributions are functions of the monochromator energy and estimations are available from tabulated
calibration data.

Fig. 4: Schematic of the 3W1B beamline where mirrors and monochromators (spherical mirror M1, plane mirror PM and
varied space plane grating VSPG) are outlined. The HV chamber with the reflectometer, is 1 m after the exit slit S.
125
3.3 Experimental setup for the XACT facility
The soft X-ray reflectivity system was specifically prepared at the XACT
18
(X-ray Astronomy Calibration and Testing)
facility operated at INAF-OAPa (Palermo, Italy). XACT is a general purpose facility for the development and calibration
of filters, detectors, and moderate angular resolution grazing incidence optics for astrophysical and laboratory
applications. The facility has been recently improved with the set up of a 35 meter front-beamline connecting a X-ray
source to the test section. For our tests in order to achieve higher fluxes in the soft X ray spectral region, the lateral
UV/Visibile beamline, connected directly on the side of a test vacuum chamber was instead used.
The X-ray source employed is a multi-anode micro-focus Manson model 5 (J.E. Manson CO., Inc. Electrons) equipped
with the Mg/O anode, with emission is in the range 300-1600 eV. A monochromatic energy in this range can be selected,
by means of a grazing incidence grating. A movable slit 300 um wide is located at the entrance of the chamber, whit the
sample mounted on a single-axis goniometer at a distance of 500 mm from the slit. The detector is a Micro-Channel
Plate imaging system with a sensitive area of 40 x 40 mm
2
and a spatial resolution of 100 um, located 60 mm after the
sample. The beam divergence is lower than 50 arcsec and the sample (2 inches diameter) is mounted asymmetrically
with respect to the rotation axis.

Fig. 5: Layout of the XACT apparatus used for tests. The MgO anode X-ray source, coupled with the grazing incidence
grating monochromator, is mounted directly on the side of the test chamber. A 300 m wide slit (S) is placed at the
entrance of the test chamber. The distance between the slit and the sample mirror (M) is 500 mm, while the micro
channel plate detector (MCP) is placed 60 mm after the sample.
Fig. 3: Reflectivity scan of the Pt/C sample performed at 8.04 keV with the BEDE diffractometer (left side). The
simulation for the fitted coating parameters is superimposed. On the right side we show for the same sample, the
very small variation ( ~1%) of the soft X rays reflectivity (200 eV) induced by 5 in the C thickness.
126
4. RESULTS OF REFLECTIVITY MEASUREMENT
4.1 Reflectivity scan at 200 eV at the BSRF facility
A series of angular scans (/2 ) at 200 eV have been performed on the developed samples. This energy is lower than the
carbon K edge energy (~280 eV) and, also if out of the operative energy range of many telescopes (mainly due to the
thermal radiation shields applied to the detectors of the telescope), data can be useful to study the reflectivity
enhancement effect due to the low Z coating. Being the enhancement at this energy apparent over a wide angular range,
it allows to overcome the experimental limits associated to the minimum incidence angle (the beam size on the sample is
mainly determined by the beam divergence) that it is around 2.75.
Figure 6 shows the measured data compared to the theoretical values for the high density reflecting materials with and
without overcoating. The data have been normalized keeping into account the intensity decreasing of the synchrotron
radiation source. The contamination by second order harmonics at this energy has been estimated by fitting the measured
data to be less than 3% (consistent with the beamline calibration data that report a value of 2%) and has been included in
the simulation. The data appears to be in very good agreement with the theoretical model.

Fig. 6: Experiments performed at 200 eV synchrotron radiation. Data for the W/C, Au/C, Ir/C and Pt/C samples are
compared with simulations of the reflectivity with (black line) and without (grey line) carbon coating at the nominal
coating thickness values of 75 for the Pt/C and Au/C samples, 100 for the Ir/C sample, and 120 for the W/C
sample. The second order harmonic contamination (3%) has been included in the simulations

127
4.2 Reflectivity scan at 1280 eV at the XACT facility
The data presented in this manuscript has been obtained performing an angular scan (/2 ) at the energy of 1280 eV, to
exploit the higher flux of the anode, in correspondence of the Mg K emission line, e.g., an energy where the effect of the
carbon coating is detectable, for Pt and W samples coated by a 75 carbon layer.

Fig. 7: Example of images recorded by the micro channel plate detector at the XACT facility. In the left panel we show the
image of a 400 sec background acquisition. In the middle panel, the acquisition of a 400 sec of direct beam, and on the
right the 800 sec acquisition of the reflected beam. Two backgrounds and two direct beam images have been recorded
for each angle, before and after the reflected beam acquisition and sum for the reflectivity calculations. The reflectivity
is obtained by the number of photons in the selected box centered on the beam image (possible small changes in beam
position between the direct and the reflected beam were also taken into account). The presence of alignment or
positioning errors can be checked in the images.
For each of the angular positions a measure of the background (moving the slit outside the beam path to totally obstruct
it) and of the direct beam (slightly shifting the slit to make the beam not to intercept from the sample) were recorded.
The number of photons in the region of interest around the beam image is counted. The reflectivity is then calculated,
after the subtraction of the background counts and the normalization for the acquisition time, by the ratio between the
reflected and the direct beam. In the case of the W/C sample the data has been also corrected for an initial error in the
sample angular alignment, as inferred by the recorded reflected beam images. The error bars are calculated assuming a
Poissonian statistic N and by a direct sum of the relative error. As it appears looking at Fig. 7, a noise probably
associated to the detector is present, but the contribution is mainly concentrated in a region out of the beam position.
Being the number of counts rather low and the reflectivity enhancement for the available energies small with respect to

Fig. 8: Measurements performed at 1280 eV at the XACT facility. Data for the Pt/C (left) and W/C samples are compared
with simulations of the sample reflectivity with (grey line) and without (black line) a carbon layer with the nominal
thickness value (75 ). Error bars are rather large due to the presence of a detector noise and to the low flux of the
source.
128
the statistical error, we choose to perform the angular scan at the energy of 1280 eV, where the emission is maximum. In
fig. 8 are presented data for the Pt /C and the W/C samples, superimposed to the simulations of the corresponding metal
5. CONCLUSIONS AND FURTHER WORK
To conclude, although preliminary, the analysis of the data of samples coated by a thin carbon layer shows the possibility
to obtain a relevant enhancement of the effective area of several X-ray telescopes. This contribution is the first of a set of
investigations we are performing on samples made with different materials in order to explore reflectivity performances
in the soft X-ray region. However, this first analysis clearly shows a large reflectivity enhancement due to carbon at
energies lower than the C K-edge at ~280 eV. A similar behavior has been observed at higher energies, between the K
and M absorption edges of the underlying reflecting layer. Additional analysis on an extended datasets is in progress and
further experiments are planned.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Part of this research was founded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI). We sincerely acknowledge L. Piro, E. Costa and E.
Pace for many useful discussions and S. Varisco for the technical support at the XACT facility. We are also grateful to
the BSRF TAC for beamtime allocation and the entire BSRF staff for their precious support during the experimental
runs.
REFERENCES
1
G. Pareschi, V. Cotroneo, Soft (0.1-10 keV) and hard (> 10 keV) X-ray multilayer mirrors for the XEUS
astronomical mission, SPIE Proc., 5168, 53, 2004
2
ESA Study preparation activities Status Report #2, SCI-A/2006/188/NR, 2006
3
T. Li et al., HXMT: the hard x-ray modulation telescope mission, SPIE Proc. 6686, in press 2007
4
J.-W. A. den Herder, L. Piro, T. Ohashi, Explorer of diffuse structures and gamma-ray burst explosions: EDGE,
SPIE Proc., 6688-4, in press 2007
5
G. Pareschi, P.Ferrando, The SIMBOL-X hard X-ray mission, Exp. Astr., 34P, 2006
6
W. W. Zhang, et al., Fabrication of mirror segments for the Constellation-X mission, SPIE Proc., 6688, in press
2007
7
M. W. Beijersbergen, M. J. Collon, R. Gnther, S. Kraft, M. Bavdaz, K.Wallace, M. K. Krumrey, M. J. Freyberg,
Silicon pore optics for astrophysical x-ray missions, SPIE Proc 6688, in press 2007
8
V. Cotroneo, G. Pareschi, Global optimization of x-ray astronomical multilayer mirrors with iterated simplex
method, SPIE Proc., 5536, 49, 2004
9
G. Pareschi, V. Cotroneo, D. Spiga, D. Vernani, M.Barbera, M. A. Artale, A. Collura, S. Varisco, G. Grisoni, G.
Valsecchi, B. Negri, Astronomical soft x-ray mirrors reflectivity enhancement by multilayer coatings with carbon
overcoating, SPIE Proc. 5488, 481, 2004
10
D. H. Lumb, F. E. Christensen,C. P. Jensen, M. Krumrey, Influence of a carbon over-coat on the X-ray reflectance
of XEUS mirrors Optics Communications, 2007, in press
11
D. H. Lumb; M. Bavdaz; F. E. Christensen; A. Dariel; P. Hoghoj; C. P. Jensen; M. Krumrey; K. K. Madsen; E.
Ziegler; B. Albertin; S. Hedacq; M. Collon; E.-J. Buis, Multilayer coating development for XEUS, SPIE Proc.6266, 2006
12
CDF Study Report, XEUS, ESA report CDF31(A),
ftp://ftp.rssd.esa.int/pub/XEUS/BROCHURE/XEUS_CDF_Report.pdf
13
E. Costa et al., An x-ray polarimeter for HXMT mission, SPIE Proc. 6686, in press 2007
14
G.Pareschi, O. Citterio, M Ghigo, F. Mazzoleni, A. Mengali, C. Misiano, Nickel replicated multilayer optics for soft
and hard X-ray telescopes, SPIE Proc. 4012, 284 (2000)
15
Fiore et al., Simbol-X: a formation flying mission for hard x-ray astrophysics, SPIE Proc. 6686, in press 2007
16
O. La Marle et al., SIMBOL-X: extending the field of x-rays astrophysics with the help of the formation flight
concept, SPIE Proc. 6686, in press 2007
17
http://www.ihep.ac.cn/bsrf/english/main/main.htm
18
http://www.astropa.unipa.it/XACT/index.html

129
5.4. Second experiment on carbon ovecoating
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
E
n
e
r
g
y

(
k
e
V
)
Angle (deg)
All samples - energy for maximum enhancement as a function of angle
PtC: energy for maximum effect
WC: energy for maximum effect
IrC: energy for maximum effect
AuC: energy for maximum effect
PtC: maximum useful energy
WC: maximum useful energy
IrC: maximum useful energy
AuC: maximum useful energy
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
a
n
g
le

(
d
e
g
)
Energy (keV)
All samples - angle for maximum enhancement as a function of energy
PtC: angle for maximum effect
WC: angle for maximum effect
IrC: angle for maximum effect
AuC: angle for maximum effect
PtC: maximum useful angle
WC: maximum useful angle
IrC: maximum useful angle
AuC: maximum useful angle
Figure 5.3: Left: energy of maximum eect and maximum energy for detecting the eect for
angles of interest for application to X-ray telescopes (for measurements with the TRoPIC detector).
Right: angle of maximum gain and of the maximum angle as a function of energy, calculated for
the energies available at PANTER/MPE (PSPC detector).
5.4 Second experiment on carbon ovecoating
In the second run of experiments about mirror samples with carbon overcoating, we have
measured the reectivity of several samples in the range of applicability to X-ray telescopes.
For this campaign of experiments I have managed the preparation of the tests, partici-
pating to the deposition at the CfA. A rst phase of the preparation was the investigation
of the measurement capabilities. The instrumentation available were:
the BEDE refractometer at OAB in energy dispersive setup (550 keV), using as
source the continuum emission of the W-anode X-ray tube;
the Third Roentgen PANTER Imaging Camera (TRoPIC) at PANTER/MPE, Mu-
nich, DE (0.16 keV), used with the continuum emission of the C-anode X-ray tube;
the PSPC detector at PANTER/MPE, used with line emissions from several materials
in the range 0.188.05 keV. Since the TRoPIC detector needs to be cooled, and this
cannot be done until a good level of vacuum is reached, the PSPC can be used in the
meanwhile.
The maximum angle/energy for which the reectivity of a carbon coated mirror is
higher than for a metal lm alone can be estimated by means of simulations. This allows
also to estimate the angle or energy for which the enhancement is maximum. The situation
is summarized in gure 5.3.
The conclusions are:
Considering an energy of 7 keV for the measurement with the BEDE refractometer
in energy dispersive setup, the incidence angle must be not larger than 0.4
. These
angles are in the angular ranges of Simbol-X or XEUS, but are smaller than the angles
for small monolayer telescopes. If the angle is larger than 0.6 nothing is visible below
5 keV and the reectivity enhancement cannot be observed. In dependence of the
incidence angle :
< 0.3
the eect is observable even above 10 keV;

0.3
< < 0.4
the eect is observable for E < E

0
, with E
0
> 7 keV;
130
0.4
< < 0.6
the eect is observable for almost all materials, but just

above the minimum BEDE detectable energy;
> 0.6
nothing is visible at E > 5 keV;

For angular scan, the most eective energies are 2.98 keV and 4.51 keV. For lower
energies, the gain is low.
The possibilities of observing the enhancement eects depends on the minimum angle
usable. This is related to the beam size and to the sample atness. Indeed, ideally the
sample projection should cover the whole beam, making possible to estimate the reectivity
as the ratio of the intensities I and I
0
of the reected and unobstructed beams.
However, if the sample size is known, the problem can be overcome by the application
of a geometrical correction, resulting in: R =
I
I
0
A
0
Lh sin
, where L and h are the sample
sizes. Indeed this has been done for the measurement at PANTER, where the beam size
was 2 mm 13 mm, always larger than the projected size of the sample.
The sample must still be at, because the surface curvature can determine the minimum
angle for an eective reection. The prole of the silicon wafers used as substrates for the
mirror samples has been characterized by means of a contact prolometer available at CfA.
The results have been published in Cotroneo et al. [2008b], the paper is
reported in the next pages.
131
New developments in light material overcoating for soft x-ray
reectivity enhancement
V. Cotroneo
a,b
, D. Spiga
a
, R. Bruni
c
,W. Burkert
d
, M. Freyberg
d
, G. Hartner
d
, G. Pareschi
a
, S.
Romaine
c
a
Brera Astronomical Observatory, via Bianchi 46, 23807, Merate, LC, Italy;
b
Universita degli Studi, via Celoria 19, 20133, Milano, Italy;
c
Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Garden street 60, 02318, Cambridge, MA,
USA;
d
MPE Panter, Gautinger Str. 45, 82061 Neuried b. Mnchen, Germany;
ABSTRACT
X-ray Wolter focusing telescopes concentrate the light by means of reection on smooth surfaces at small grazing
angle (below a couple of degrees). The traditional coatings for these kind of applications are heavy materials
that, due to their high density, present a high critical energy for total reection. Recent works have shown how a
thin layer of a light material, like carbon, on top of a traditional reecting coating, can enhance the reectivity in
soft x-ray spectral region (below 5 keV), without degrading the performances for higher energies. We presented
at SPIE 2007 some experimental results about the reectivity measurement at very low energies (200 eV) and
rather large angles (1-2 deg). In the present work we extend the former study, by the realization of a new set of
samples with coatings made of dierent materials (Pt, Au, W, Ir) and the measurement of their reectivity for
the typical angles (< 1
) and energies (1-10 keV) employed in astronomical grazing incidence telescopes.

Keywords: X-ray optics, carbon overcoating, soft X-rays, reectance enhancement
1. INTRODUCTION
All present day focusing X-ray telescopes, sensitive up to a maximum energy of 10 keV, are based on the principle
of total reection by a reecting coating. Heavy material are preferred for the realization of this coating, due to
their higher critical energy that allows to extend the energy band. Due to its reduced photoelectric absorption,
the application of a carbon overcoating on high density materials can enhance the eective area in the low energy
spectral region, especially in the correspondence of the absorption edges of high-Z reective layers.
We proposed this solution a few years ago for XEUS (old design: 50 m focal length, 10 m diameter) showing
a strong enhancement of the low energy eective area
1
.
2
Now the solution is being considered for the XEUS
mission
3
and is also being investigated by other groups
4
.
5
In the SPIE 2007 conference, we have prosecuted
the study with some experimental data about the reectivity of carbon overcoated samples at very low energy
(below the 280 eV carbon absorption edge).
6
In this paper we present some new and very recent results about
the reectivity of carbon coated samples made of dierent materials measured at the angles and soft x-ray energy
of interest for future x-ray telescopes.
We performed measurements using three dierent setup:
spectral measurements in the 5-40 keV energy band at xed angles by means of the 3-axis diractometer
available at OAB
angular scans at xed energies in the soft X-ray region below 5 keV, performed at Panter, in monochromatic
(pspc detector) setup
spectral measurements in the soft X-ray region below 5 keV, performed at Panter, in energy dispersive
setup (TRoPIC detector).
The eect of the carbon coating on the reectivity in dependence of the incidence angle has been described in
the last year paper,
6
some remarks are given in section 2. In section 3 we describe the production of the samples
and the adopted experimental setup. Results are presented for the dierent materials in section 4
Corresponding author; E-mail: vincenzo.cotroneo@brera.inaf.it
132
2. SCOPES OF CARBON OVERCOATING APPLICATION
In a nested shell Wolter telescope, the incidence angle on a shell depends only on the ratio between the shell
radius R and the focal length F through the focusing condition =
1
4
arctan(
R
F
). The incidence angle xes the
reectivity dependence from energy, determining the maximum energy eective for the reection.
Many approaches for the production of a Wolter shell foresee a phase of deposition of the reecting coating
on the shell surface. Classical materials for total reection are Au, Ir, materials like W and Pt are of interest in
the case of multilayer optics. The deposition of a further thin layer of carbon is not dicult in principle to be
implemented, and can have a wide range of application. The design can be tuned by optimizing the thickness
of carbon layer on each shell, or applying the overcoating only to a limited range of shells. It must be noticed
also that the adoption of the carbon overcoating implies a strong reduction of the reectivity in correspondence
of the carbon K-
absorption edge at 280 eV. This energy is often lower than the minimum operative range for
the telescope, otherwise the trade-o between the gain in eective area at higher energy and the lost around 280
eV must be considered (e.g. coating just some of the shells).
Table 1. angular and energetical range for some future X-ray telescopes
Telescope focal length (m) Energy range Angular range
(keV) (deg)
Simbol X 20 0.5 - 80 0.1 - 0.23
XEUS 35 0.1 - 50 0.24 - 0.85
Constellation X 20 0.5 - 10 0.34 - 1.6
HXMT 2.1 2 - 8 0.61 -0.88
eROSITA 1.6 0.5 - 10 0.34 - 1.36
The eective area of a Wolter shell is dened as A
eff
= A
coll
R(, E)
2
, where A
coll
is the collecting area of the
shell, and R is the coating reectivity (the square factor accounts for the double reection). As a consequence,
the dierence in R
2
between a reecting coating with and without overcoating indicates the gain in eective area
in terms of collecting area (in a way independent from the geometrical size of the system). Fig. 1 shows as a
grayscale/contour map the value of R
2
over a range of angles and energies of interest for X-ray telescopes. The
possible operative ranges of some future telescope are also plotted as rectangles. The carbon overcoating has a
wide range of applicability, from small, short focal length telescopes, devoted to low energies and to large ones
with small incidence angles and a wide energy band. The increasing of eective area is substantial at low energy,
with small or little lost of performances at the highest energies.
3. REFLECTIVITY MEASUREMENTS ON FLAT SAMPLES
3.1 sample preparation and production
The samples have been realized by magnetron sputtering deposition of the reecting coating and carbon overcoat-
ing in the deposition test chamber at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The substrates are
commercially available 4 inches silicon wafer, cut in two rectangular parts of size 70 mm x 30 mm. Both of these
parts were coated with a layer of the heavy reecting material, while the carbon overcoating has been applied on
only one of them. To allow the reectivity measurement to be conducted at small grazing angles with a constant
reection angle over the sample surface, it is very important to employ samples as at as possible. This has
been achieved by selecting for the deposition, the attest substrates in the available lot, after a characterization
by prolometric measurements. Considering the very low divergence of the sources employed for the reectivity
measurements, the angular resolution is indeed essentially determined by the angular spread due to the surface
slope. The set of substrates employed in this experiment has been selected to have a unimodal convex surface,
with a peak-valley value lower than 4 m on the 7 cm length (with radii of curvature of the order of hundreds
meters), this corresponds, in rst approximation, to 0.0065
, a value much smaller than the minimum angle of

measure, and also smaller enough to not have a large variation of the reectivity.
133
Figure 1. upper panel: theoretical eective area gain, achieved with the application of a 80
A thick layer of carbon, in

terms of collecting area percentage, over a range of angles and energies for a Pt (left) and W (right) monolayer. middle
panel: dierence in square reectivity with and without carbon overcoating for Pt as a function of angle at 4.5 keV (left)
and as a function of energy for an angle of 0.7
; lower panel: the eective area gain in terms of collecting area for the
cases in the middle panel.
The coatings for the silicon wafer substrates are deposited in a single deposition run, with the exception of
the gold coated sample, that has been realized in a two step procedure, putting chromium and gold in a rst
step (the Cr is needed for adhesion reasons), and the carbon after having opened the chamber and replaced
the targets. The Ir+C sample has been realized by ion beam sputtering deposition of a carbon layer over a
superpolished fused silica sample previously coated with iridium by means of magnetron sputtering.
After the deposition the samples reectivity at 8.04 keV (Cu-K
line) has been measured. This allowed us to

determine a with a reasonable accuracy, while other parameters ( like the carbon layer parameters, the presence
of thin oxide layers) are not easy to x, being the 8 keV measurement almost insensitive to the variation of them.
134
Table 2. List of the measured samples.
Materials from substrate layer thickness (
A) rms roughness (
A)
Pt 217 2.5
Pt/C 203/90 3
W 348 3.5
W/C 403/90 3.5
Cr/Au 83/367 6
Cr/Au/C 93/450/90 6
Ir/C 300/110 6
3.2 EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AT OAB
Reectance measurements at INAF-OAB onto selected samples have been performed with the BEDE-D1 dirac-
tometer, equipped with a W-anode sealed X-ray tube and with a cryogenic, single Si crystal, energy-sensitive
detector AMPTEK (R) mod. XR-100CR (g. 2). The sensitive area of this detector is 25 mm
2
with a 500 m
thickness, even though the detector was vignetted with a 2 mm diameter collimator to avoid spectrum deforma-
tions due to X-ray incidence at the border of the detector with a consequent loss of charge carriers. The energetic
resolution of the detector is about 200 eV at 6 keV. The thickness of the detector endows the detector with sen-
sitivity also in hard X-rays (2% at 50 keV). A thin (0.001 inch) Be window is placed in front of the detector. The
absorption through the Be window determines the intrinsic lower energy limity of sensitivity of the instrument
(1 keV). Nevertheless, as the detector was operated in air, the observed lower energy limit (5 keV) is dictated
by absorption in the air. X-rays are emitted by the W-anode tube without any ltering/monochromating. The
source has a 40 m width. Then a continuous spectrum is available from 5 to 50 keV. The X-ray beam is narrowly
collimated in the sample plane by means of two thin (10 and 50 m wide, separated by a 30 cm distance) slits
that return a beam 40 m wide at the sample position. This enables to collect all the impinging X-ray beam
with 2 inches-wide samples also at very shallow angles (down to 0.1 deg or less) if samples deformations can be
neglected. Moreover, the beam is also collimated vertically in order to have a reected beam not higher than
the detector window (2 mm). This has also the eect of attenuating the X-ray white beam, that would saturate
the detector otherwise or even break it. The incident ux onto the detector never exceeded 1000 counts/sec.
The samples, aligned and rotated by means of precise stepper motors with a 20 arcsec accuracy, have been
illuminated with the thin X-ray beam and the reected spectra at 0.1, 0.15, 0.2

have been normalized to the
incident beam to return the reectivity in the energy band mentioned above. The integration times have been
of about 1 hour per measurement, even if they might be increased in future campaigns, with a large benet in
terms of measurement accuracy.
3.3 EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AT PANTER
The PANTER beamline is a 130 m long vacuum beamline usually employed for the test and calibration of X-ray
optics and telescopes
78
. The samples are mounted on a common sample holder structure (g. 3), that allows the
selection and alignment of the individual samples and it is placed at a distance of 7.8 m from the detector. The
beam at the exit from the 123 m-long tube passes through a 4 cm diameter hole. This beam is thus collimated
within 33 arcsec, and only a window/sample per time is illuminated with X-rays.
We used two dierent detector/source setup:
TRoPIC (Third Roentgen PANTER Imaging Camera) detector:
9
energy sensitive ccd detector, with better
than 0.2 keV energy resolution at low energies and 75 m pixel size (corresponding to less than a couple
of arcsec, for a sample detector distance of 7.8 m). The detector window side is 19.2 mm (0.137
). This
setup has been used for energetic scan at a xed angle with an unltered C anode source at 7 keV. The
ux has been kept very low, to avoid pile-up.
135
Figure 2. Left: A scheme of the BEDE-D1 diractometer. The X-ray beam emerges from X-ray source on the right and is
collimated by a set of thin slits. After reection on the sample mounted on the goniometer, the reected beam is collected
by the detector. Right: the X-rays could be shaped in a very thin and parallel beam in order to be collected by all the
sample at very shallow angles. The beam has a Gaussian prole with an overall width of 40 m.
Figure 3. Upper panel: the PANTER facility scheme. The very long vacuum tube allows to have an X-ray beam with
a very low divergence; Lower panel: views of the sample holder. The samples are aligned in a vertical array in front of
small windows drilled in an opaque screen. By moving laterally the sample holder in front of the 4 cm collimator at the
exit of the 123 m-long tube dierent sampled can be illuminated with X-rays.
PSPC (Position Sensitive Proportional Counter): monochromatic detector with spatial resolution of about
250 m (6.5 arcsec) and a eld of view around 0.5
, used to record angular scans in monochromatic energy.

The used energy values corresponds to the emission lines of a selected anode (Ag-L
for 2.98 keV and

Ti-K
for 4.51 keV), coupled with a lter to suppress the lower energies.
136
The direct beam ux is measured by imaging the light passing through a 4.25 mm diameter circular hole
(area A
0
= 13.52mm
2
). The samples are always totally illuminated, being the beam (2 mm x 13 mm) larger
than the sample projected area. Knowing the sample size, the reectivity can be calculated (the background is
always negligible) by the formula:
I
I0
A0
Lhsin()
, with L and h, sample dimensions.
Due to the very low divergence of the beam, the main contribution to the angular resolution is given by the
dispersion of incidence angles over the sample, due to the non at surface. It is possible to estimate this angular
dispersion by the reected beam images, to be not larger than 0.02
. This value is larger than expected from

the surface atness values by prolometer (probably due to the surface deformation introduced by the sample
holder), but it is still suciently low to avoid signicant deviations of the incidence angle from the nominal one.
Figure 4. Some images obtained within the detectors elds at PANTER: top panel: TRoPIC images of the beam reected
samples on Si wafer substrate (left) and on superpolished glass (right). The long sample-detector distance of 7.8 m
heighten the eects of surface curvature. Bottom left: PSPC image of the beam reected by a sample on SI wafer
substrate; bottom right: image of the direct beam seen by TRoPIC.
137
4. RESULTS OF MEASUREMENTS
4.1 PtC
The results for the Pt and PtC samples are plotted in g. 5. For this samples, reectivity measurements have
been performed above 5 keV at a xed angle of 0.15
. Also the reectivity below 5 keV for a xed angle of 0.75
and the reectivity at 2.98 keV for angles below 1

have been measured. We notice at once the reectivity gain
at low energies for the C-overcoated sample with respect to the bare Pt, at all incidence angles, and especially
in correspondence of the absorption edge of Pt around 11.5 keV. At lower energies the reectivity od C-coates
samples is close to 100%. The reection enhancement at low energies aects only a little the reectance at higher
energies. All reectivities are perfectly consistent with the theoretical reectivity model assuming the natural
densities of C and Pt (or Ir) and with a roughness rms of 3
A.
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
R
e
f
le
c
t
iv
it
y
Energy (keV)
Pt, Pt+C(80 A) samples at 0.15
Pt data
Pt imd simulation
Pt data
Pt+C imd simulation
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
r
e
f
le
c
t
iv
it
y
angle (deg)
Pt, Pt+C samples at 0.75
Pt data
Pt imd simulation
Pt+C data
Pt+C imd simulation
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
R
e
f
le
c
t
iv
it
y

a
t

2
.
9
8

k
e
V

(
A
g
-
L

lin
e
)
0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0
Grazing incidence angle (deg)
Bare Pt, measured
Pt+ C, measured
300 Pt, Reflectance model
300 Pt + 90 C, Reflectance model
Pt + C, 2.98 keV
Figure 5. Pt and PtC samples measured reectivity: top left: as a function of energy for an angle of 0.15
in the 5-50 keV

spectral region; top right: for an angle of 0.75
for energy lower then 5 keV; bottom left:PtC angular reectivity scan at
2.98 keV.
4.2 IrC
For the Ir/C sample, we have no term of comparison since we had not a bare Ir layer at disposal. Nevertheless,
also in this case the experimental curves t very well the modeled reectivities. In particular we clearly detect
the reectance enhancement at low energies with respect to the modeled reectivity of a bare Ir layer.
4.3 WC
The position of the M absorption edge is slightly dierent in tungsten with respect to the other materials usually
employed for total reection mirrors, being at a lower energy (1.8 keV instead of 2 keV or more). Even if the
138
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
R
e
f
le
c
t
iv
it
y
Energy (keV)
Ir, Ir+C(110 A) samples at 0.1
Ir data
Ir imd simulation
Ir+C imd simulation
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
R
e
f
le
c
t
iv
it
y
Energy (keV)
Ir data
Ir imd simulation
Ir+C imd simulation
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
R
e
f
le
c
t
iv
it
y
Energy (keV)
Ir data
Ir imd simulation
Ir+C imd simulation
Figure 6. IrC reectivity measurements at OAB in energy-dispersive setup, at three dierent grazing incidence angles.
tungsten is not usually employed as a monolayer reector, its behavior is interesting, for the application to
multilayer mirrors. We have performed energetical scans at the energies of 2.98 and 4.51 keV, whose results are
shown in g. 7. The presence of a thin oxide layer (40

A) over the tungsten surface has been accounted for, and
corresponds well to the reectivity data.
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
R
e
f
le
c
t
iv
it
y

a
t

2
.
9
8

k
e
V

(
A
g
-
L

lin
e
)
1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0
Bare W, measured
W + C, measured
300 W + 4 nm oxide, Reflectance model
300 W + 75 C, Reflectance model
W + C, 2.98 keV
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
R
e
f
le
c
t
a
n
c
e

a
t

4
.
5
1

k
e
V

(
T
i
-

K

lin
e
)
1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0
W + C, 4.51 keV
Bare W, measured
W + C, measured
300 W + 4 nm oxide, Reflectance model
300 W + 75 , Reflectance model
Figure 7. Reectivity measurements of the W/C samples in monocromatic light at Panter. Angular scan obtained with
the PSPC.
139
4.4 AuC
The gold is used as a classical monolayer reector in many X-ray focusing missions. In the Nickel electroforming
approach it is usually deposited directly on the mandrel, giving a gold coated shell after the mandrel detachment.
A further deposition of a carbon coating on the inner part of the shell can enhance the soft x-ray reectivity
response. The eect is well visible in g. 8 where the reectivity as a function of energy measured at 0.75
(panter TRoPIC) is shown.

The reectivity of the Au coatings has been measured below 5 keV (Panter with TRoPIC setup) in energy
dispersive mode, for an angle of 0.75
. This angle is a quite large one being in the angular range of the softer
X-ray telescopes.
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
r
e
f
l
e
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
angle (deg)
Au, Au+C samples at 0.75
Au data
Au imd simulation
Au+C data
Au+C imd simulation
Figure 8. Reectivity measurements of the Au/C sample in monocromatic light at Panter. Energy scan at 0.75 deg
obtained with TRoPIC.
5. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
We can expect a relevant increase of eective area for many telescopes following the application of carbon
overcoating. The reectivity enhancement due to carbon overcoating is clearly visible with a good match to the
simulations in the range of angles and energy of interest for future X-ray telescopes. The diractometer at OAB,
equipped with a energy dispersive detector can be a useful tool for this kind of investigation in 5-50 keV spectral
region.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The valuable collaboration of R. Valtolina, D. Garegnani (INAF/OAB) is acknowledged for technical support.
The authors gratefully thank P. Gorenstein (CfA, Boston) for useful discussions and suggestions.
REFERENCES
[1] Pareschi, G. and Cotroneo, V., Soft (0.1 - 10 keV) and hard ( 10 keV) x-ray multilayer mirrors for the XEUS
astronomical mission, in [Optics for EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Astronomy. Edited by Citterio, Oberto;
ODell, Stephen L. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 5168, pp. 53-64 (2004). ], Citterio, O. and ODell, S. L.,
140
eds., Presented at the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Conference 5168, 5364
(Feb. 2004).
[2] Pareschi, G., Cotroneo, V., Spiga, D., Vernani, D., Barbera, M., Artale, M. A., Collura, A., Varisco, S.,
Grisoni, G., Valsecchi, G., and Negri, B., Astronomical soft x-ray mirrors reectivity enhancement by
multilayer coatings with carbon overcoating, in [UV and Gamma-Ray Space Telescope Systems. Edited by
Hasinger, G unther; Turner, Martin J. L. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 5488, pp. 481-491 (2004). ],
Hasinger, G. and Turner, M. J. L., eds., Presented at the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers
(SPIE) Conference 5488, 481491 (Oct. 2004).
[3] Study preparation activities status report 2, sci-a/2006/188/nr, tech. rep., ESA (2006).
[4] Lumb, D., Christensen, F., Jensen, C., and Krumrey, M., Inuence of a carbon over-coat on the X-ray
reectance of XEUS mirrors, Optics Communications 279, 101105 (Nov. 2007).
[5] Lumb, D., Jensen, C., Christensen, F., and Collon, M., Carbon overcoating on iridium-coated silicon plates,
in [7011-51], (2008).
[6] Cotroneo, V., Spiga, D., Barbera, M., Bruni, R., Chen, K., Marcelli, C., Pareschi, G., Romaine, S., Zhao,
Y. D., Zheng, L., and Wu, Z. Y., Carbon overcoatings for soft x-ray reectivity enhancement, in [Optics for
EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Astronomy III. Edited by ODell, Stephen L.; Pareschi, Giovanni. Proceedings
of the SPIE, Volume 6688, pp. 66880U (2007). ], Presented at the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation
Engineers (SPIE) Conference 6688 (Sept. 2007).
[7] Br auninger, H., Burkert, W., Hartner, G. D., Citterio, O., Ghigo, M., Mazzoleni, F., Pareschi, G., and
Spiga, D., Calibration of hard x-ray (15 - 50 keV) optics at the MPE test facility PANTER, in [Optics for
EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Astronomy. Edited by Citterio, Oberto; ODell, Stephen L. Proceedings of
the SPIE, Volume 5168, pp. 283-293 (2004). ], Citterio, O. and ODell, S. L., eds., Presented at the Society
of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Conference 5168, 283293 (Feb. 2004).
[8] Freyberg, M. J., Br auninger, H., Burkert, W., Hartner, G. D., Citterio, O., Mazzoleni, F., Pareschi, G., Spiga,
D., Romaine, S., Gorenstein, P., and Ramsey, B. D., The MPE X-ray test facility PANTER: Calibration of
hard X-ray (15 50 kev) optics, Experimental Astronomy 20, 405412 (Dec. 2005).
[9] Predehl, P., Andritschke, R., Bornemann, W., Br auninger, H., Briel, U., Brunner, H., Burkert, W., Dennerl,
K., Eder, J., Freyberg, M., Friedrich, P., F urmetz, M., Hartmann, R., Hartner, G., Hasinger, G., Herrmann,
S., Holl, P., Huber, H., Kendziorra, E., Kink, W., Meidinger, N., M uller, S., Pavlinsky, M., Pfeermann, E.,
Rohe, C., Santangelo, A., Schmitt, J., Schwope, A., Steinmetz, M., Str uder, L., Sunyaev, R., Tiedemann, L.,
Vongehr, M., Wilms, J., Erhard, M., Gutruf, S., Jugler, D., Kampf, D., Graue, R., Citterio, O., Valsecci, G.,
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9 (2007). ], Presented at the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Conference 6686
(Sept. 2007).
141
5.5. Deposition and measurement of multilayer samples for hard X-ray
5.5 Deposition and measurement of multilayer samples for
hard X-ray
In this section the results of high energy measurements of multilayer samples are presented.
The samples have been deposited during my permanence as visiting scientist at the CfA,
by DC magnetron sputtering (see section 5.2.1.1).
The multilayer structures were deposited on thick superpolished fused silica substrates
with a diameter of two inches. The experiment developed through the following phases:
design of the models for the deposition;
realization of calibration samples;
deposition of the samples and verication of the compliance with the model;
measurement of the samples at high energy (40110 keV).
The results of the measures and the notes about them are reported below. The work
of analysis is being conducted on the data, with a paper in preparation for the next SPIE
conference.
5.5.1 Design of the models for the multilayer structures
The aim of the experiment is the study of the structure of real multilayers realized for
hard X-rays. To design the structure of the samples, the actual conditions for deposition,
for the application to the Simbol-X telescope and for the measurement must be taken into
account, in particular:
the sample reectivity should be optimized for the energy band of the shell and for
the incidence angles of photons inside the eld of view;
the beamline X17B1 can perform measurements in the hard-X-rays (40130 keV),
with a partial overlapping with the highest energies in the Simbol-X energy range
(E80 keV), that are reected by the innermost shells: the multilayer must have
measurable reectivity under these conditions;
the minimum angle for the measurement is limited by the atness of the sample and
by the footprint eects;
it is convenient to keep the number of bilayers as low as possible, to reduce the
deposition time and facilitate the analysis of the results. A low number of layers also
helps to contain the surface roughness, that seriously aects the reectivity at higher
energies.
According to the above points, a shell with 3 mrad slope can be chosen as model. This
corresponds to one of the medium shells of the Simbol-X telescope (e.g. the shell number
47 in the design with D
max
= 70 cm, F = 20 m and
=0.15
in section 4.1.2.2 on page 76,

having a diameter of 48.0 cm). The range of incidence angles on a Simbol-X shell goes
from
max
to +
max
, where is the shell slope and
max
= 6 arcmin 1 mrad is the
angular radius of the eld of view. The angles of 2, 3 and 4 mrad, corresponding to 0.115
,
0.172
, 0.229
are also angles that are measurable, since the footprint limit is below 0.1
.
The energy-reectivity curves at the angles of 2, 3, 4 mrad have been compared for
dierent models, selecting one design for a Pt/C sample and one for a W/Si sample. The
142
Figure 5.4: Design of sample PtC201: the rst three panels show the comparison between the
reectivity curves of samples with 150 and 200 bilayers and same power-law parameters. The
fourth panel shows the reectivity curves for the sample with 150 bilayers, for the three angles
chosen for the test.
solutions were designed for a high number of layers. The number of layers is then tuned
by removing the lowermost layers that do not participate to the reection and by rescaling
the power-law keeping the same range of thicknesses.
Design of a Pt/C coating for sample PtC201 The model for the multilayer structure
of sample PtC201 has been selected from results of previous optimizations with a high
energy function of merit. The original parameters are: a = 78.4, b = 0.975, c = 0.232,
= 0.4 and N = 200, with an extra-thickness of 30 for the uppermost platinum layer
and an overcoating of carbon with thickness 110 .
Simulations show that the number of bilayers can be reduced to 150, keeping the same
power-law parameters, with an acceptable loss of reectivity (see g. 5.4), further reduc-
tions of the number of layers determine a loss of reectivity at the lowest energies, where
a few layer participate to the reection.
The expected performances for angles at the center and on the border of the eld of
view are plotted in gure 5.4.
Design of a W/Si coating for sample WSi285 The model adopted for the W/Si
sample is the same used for a part of the simulations in chapter 4 on page 67 and called
ML115. The original power-law parameters are a = 115.5, b = 0.9, c = 0.27, = 0.35
143
Figure 5.5: Design of sample WSi285: the rst three panels show the comparison between the
reectivity curves of samples with 100 and 200 bilayers and same power-law parameters. The
fourth panel shows the reectivity curves for the sample with 100 bilayers, for the three angles
chosen for the test.
and N = 200. The model comprises an increase by 50 of the uppermost W layer and an
overcoating of carbon with thickness 100 .
A number of 30 bilayers can be eliminated with a negligible impact on the reectivity.
For a further decrease of the number of bilayers the reectivity drops at the higher energy
and for the larger angles in the eld of view. However it is possible to reduce the number
of layers to 100 keeping constant the maximum and minimum thickness (and hence the
energy range). This lead to new power-law parameters, that are a = 100.52, b = 0.14,
c = 0.27. The performances according to the model, together with a comparison with the
original design are plotted in gure 5.5.
5.5.2 Realization and t of calibration samples
Before the deposition of the Pt/C, two calibration samples have been deposited on silicon
wafers. Their reectivity has been measured at 8.04 keV using the X-ray refractometer
available at CfA and the data have been analyzed, to derive the thickness of the deposited
layers and verify the calibration of the deposition apparatus. This has not been done for
the W/Si sample, since other depositions with the same materials had been performed
immediately before.
The design structures for the samples are:
144
Table 5.2: Average values and standard deviations of thickness values from t, for the calibration
samples. Left (PtC199b): constant d-spacing multilayer with 30 bilayers. Right (PtC200): The
design model was made of two blocks of 20 bilayers.
PtC199b
Material
(from
substrate)
Design
value ()
Fit value
()
Pt 12 17.1 0.4
C 24 22.5 0.5
d-spacing 36 39.6 0.8
PtC200
Material
(from
substrate)
Design
value ()
Fit value
()
Pt 12 12.8 0.4
C 18 18.1 0.5
d-spacing 30 30.9 0.5
Pt 18 17.6 0.3
C 18 19.2 0.3
d-spacing 36 36.8 0.3
PtC199b multilayer with 30 bilayers, constant d-spacing of 36 and = 0.33
(d
Pt
= 12.0, d
C
= 18.0).
PtC200 multilayer with two stacks of 20 bilayers, both with constant d-spacing
blocks. The lowermost has a bilayer thickness of 30 and = 0.4 (d
Pt
= 12,
d
C
= 18), the uppermost has a period of 36 and = 0.5 (d
Pt
= d
C
= 18).
The calibration data have been data have been tted by using the software Pythonic
Programming for Multilayers (PPM). The t has been performed setting as free parameters
the individual thickness of each layer (within a range 2 ) and assuming the natural
density. This is reasonable since the density has a minor impact on the peaks position, as
is possible to prove by means of IMD simulations. The reectivity for the model obtained
from the t is presented in g. 5.6 (top gures), together with the reectivity expected by
the nominal values of thickness (middle gures). The position of the peaks is well tted.
In the bottom gures the layer (left) and bilayer (right) thickness obtained by the t. The
average value and standard deviation are also shown in the right panel.
The average values obtained are also shown on the left side of table 5.2. The t seems to
indicate a drift in the thickness of layers during the deposition, with a platinum thickness
much larger then expected, while the values for carbon are compatible with the design.
This could indicate that the target has not reached a stable condition after the installation,
however the indication is not totally clear, so it was decided to deposit another calibration
sample (the sample PtC200).
The results on sample PtC200 (g. 5.7 and table 5.2, right side) gave a result compatible
with the designed values and with a sharp distribution of thicknesses. It has then been
decided to proceed with the deposition of sample PtC201.
5.5.3 Measurement of the samples at 8.04 keV
To verify the compliance of the samples with the models, they have been characterized af-
ter the deposition by means of reectivity measurements at 8.04 keV. The PtC201 sample
was in a very good agreement with the model, while the test led to reject a rst sample
(WSi284). As a consequence of the tests on sample WSi284 the deposition time for the
silicon layers have been reduced for the deposition of the sample WSi285. The charac-
terization at 8.04 keV of sample WSi285 shown that the sample is not strictly adherent
145
0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
300000
350000
400000
450000
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08
c
o
u
n
t
s

(
n
o
r
m
=
4
3
2
2
0
)
angle (rad)
PtC199b - Comparison with design values
data
design
1
10
100
1000
10000
100000
1e+006
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08
c
o
u
n
t
s

(
n
o
r
m
=
4
3
2
2
0
)
angle (rad)
PtC199b - Comparison with design values
data
design
0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
300000
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08
c
o
u
n
t
s

(
n
o
r
m
=
2
7
7
0
0
0
)
angle (rad)
PtC199b - Comparison with model from fit
data
model
1
10
100
1000
10000
100000
1e+006
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08
c
o
u
n
t
s

(
n
o
r
m
=
2
7
7
0
0
0
)
angle (rad)
PtC199b - Comparison with model from fit
data
model
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
la
y
e
r

t
h
ic
k
n
e
s
s

(
A
)
bilayer number
PtC199b
C C design Pt design Pt
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
la
y
e
r

t
h
ic
k
n
e
s
s

(
A
)
bilayer number
PtC199b
total d-spacing
average thickness
design thickness
Figure 5.6: Results of the 8.04 keV reectivity t for sample PtC199b. The top gures illustrate,
in linear and logaritmic scales, the comparison between the measurement and the design values,
showing a very dierent response. In particular two peaks are present, indicating a non constant
d-spacing. In the middle panel the simulated reectivity for the multilayer structure is compared
with data. The agreement is good, even if some dierence in the peak height is present. In the
bottom panel the sequences of layers (left) or bilayers (right) from the t are shown. The gure on
right side also shows the average value and standard deviation of the thickness distribution. The
values are reported in 5.2.
146
0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
300000
350000
400000
450000
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08
c
o
u
n
t
s

(
n
o
r
m
=
4
2
2
1
0
)
angle (rad)
PtC200
data
model
1
10
100
1000
10000
100000
1e+006
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08
c
o
u
n
t
s

(
n
o
r
m
=
4
2
2
1
0
)
angle (rad)
PtC200
data
model
0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
300000
350000
400000
450000
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08
c
o
u
n
t
s

(
n
o
r
m
=
4
2
2
1
0
)
angle (rad)
PtC200
data
design
1
10
100
1000
10000
100000
1e+006
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08
c
o
u
n
t
s

(
n
o
r
m
=
4
2
2
1
0
)
angle (rad)
PtC200
data
design
10
12
14
16
18
20
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
la
y
e
r

t
h
ic
k
n
e
s
s

(
A
)
bilayer number
PtC200
C Design C Design Pt Pt
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
la
y
e
r

t
h
ic
k
n
e
s
s

(
A
)
bilayer number
PtC200 - bilayer thickness
total d-spacing
average thickness
Design
Figure 5.7: The top panel shows the comparison between design model and data, the middle panel
illustrates the comparison with the t. The sequences of layers (left) or bilayers (right) from the
t are shown in the bottom panel. In this case the agreement with the design is good.
147
Table 5.3: Results of the t of the reectivity at 8.04 for the sample WSi285. The parameters of
two power-law, respectively for the W and Si layers, are assumed as free parameters. The results
are also reported in g. 5.9 on the facing page. The tungsten thickness correspond quite well to the
model. The silicon layers are thinner than expected, with a thickness comparable to the tungsten.
The rst layer of carbon (overcoating), on the opposite, resulted 106 instead of a nominal value
of 100 .
Model a b c Thickness ()
W design 40.2 0.14 0.27 11.638.8
(+50)
W t 44.3 0.11 0.284 12.036.6
(+50)
Si design 60.3 0.14 0.27 17.458.2
Si t 50.9 0.16 0.34 10.548.3
aC (110.00 )/Pt (30.00 )/[Pt (graded)/aC (graded)]x150 on Si
(E=8.040 keV)
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
Grazing Incidence Angle, [deg ]
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
R
e
f
le
c
t
a
n
c
e
,

R aC layer (1), z=110.00 , =4.00 (err. fun.)
Pt layer (2), z=30.00 , =4.00 (err. fun.)
> z=30.79/(0.98+i)
0.23
=75.71 to 9.74
> z=42.52/(0.98+i)
0.23
=104.56 to 13.45
Si substrate
R
R (measured)
aC (110.00 )/Pt (30.00 )/[Pt (graded)/aC (graded)]x150 on Si
(E=8.040 keV)
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
Grazing Incidence Angle, [deg ]
10
6
10
5
10
4
10
3
10
2
10
1
10
0
R
e
f
le
c
t
a
n
c
e
,

R
aC layer (1), z=110.00 , =4.00 (err. fun.)
Pt layer (2), z=30.00 , =4.00 (err. fun.)
> z=30.79/(0.98+i)
0.23
=75.71 to 9.74
> z=42.52/(0.98+i)
0.23
=104.56 to 13.45
Si substrate
R
R (measured)
Figure 5.8: Reectivity of the sample PtC201 at 8.04 keV, compared with the design model,
plotted in linear (left) and logarithmic scale (right). The correspondence with the model is very
accurate.
to the model. A t of the data allowed to derive a simplied model for the structure of
the coating, showing that acceptable performances are expected. Then the sample have
been accepted, and the structure derived from the t assumed as model. The parameter
resulting from the t are reported in table 5.9.
The tungsten thickness correspond quite well to the model. The silicon layers are
thinner than expected (from a factor 1.2, for the deeper layers, to 1.7 for the uppermost),
with a thickness comparable to the tungsten. The result is approximately a multilayer with
= 0.5 instead of 0.4 and a lower value of the parameter a. The simulated reectivity
of this structure for the experimental conditions is acceptable (see simulations compared
with data in sec. 5.5.4), therefore we have accepted the sample for the experimental tests.
5.5.4 Results of measurements at BNL
For the high energy measurements, a set of angular scans at dierent energies has been
performed at the beamline X17B1 at BNL.
Figure 5.10 shows a schematics of BNL beamline, employed for the high energy mea-
surements. Two detectors have been used: a NaI scintillator detector, to measure the
signal, and a Ar ion chamber as monitor detector.
A system of four motorized slits allows the collimation of the beam, whose source is
148
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
R
e
f
le
c
t
iv
it
y

(
n
o
r
m
=
2
7
0
1
0
0
0
)
Angle (deg)
WSi285 - comparison with design
Data
Design
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
R
e
f
le
c
t
iv
it
y

(
n
o
r
m
=
2
7
0
1
0
0
0
)
Angle (deg)
WSi285 - 8.04 keV - comparison with fit model
data
simulation
1e-005
0.0001
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
R
e
f
l
e
c
t
i
v
i
t
y

(
n
o
r
m
=
2
7
0
1
0
0
0
)
Angle (deg)
WSi285 - comparison with design
Data
Design
1e-005
0.0001
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
R
e
f
l
e
c
t
i
v
i
t
y

(
n
o
r
m
=
2
7
0
1
0
0
0
)
Angle (deg)
WSi285 - 8.04 keV - comparison with fit model
data
simulation
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
0 20 40 60 80 100
L
a
y
e
r

t
h
ic
k
n
e
s
s

(
A
)
Bilayer number from substrate
WSi285 - layer thickness
Si design
W design
Si fit model
W fit model
Figure 5.9: On the rst line: reectivity of the sample WSi285 at 8.04 keV in linear scale, compared
with the design model (left) and t with a power-law (right). On second and third lines: same plot
in logarithmic scale. Bottom gure: the corresponding thickness distributions.
149
483
292
482 444
1016
38
monochromator sample
detector
sl1 sl2 sl3 sl4
254
wall
(source at 30 m)
All measures in mm
monitor
Pb
shields
Figure 5.10: Scheme of the beamline X17B1 BNL (description in text).
located at a distance of 30 m from the sample. The sample is placed in horizontal position
and the scan is performed in angle with respect to the horizontal transverse to the beam.
The minimum step for the rotation is 0.005
. The energy resolution of the monochromator

is 1 eV.
The size and position of the slits can be controlled and moved by the control software,
all the positions of the motors is recorder in a log le. Slit 3 and 4 have been left wide
open and are not used, slit 1, dening the size of the beam, is 20 1 mm (vertical
horizontal), while slit 4, placed in front of the detector, has a width of 120 m2 mm.
The data was acquired in the region of high reectivity (visible in the linear plot).
Some scans have also been performed at higher angles, where the reectivity is appreciable
on a logarithmic scale. However, in this region, the signal is not high enough to neglect
the background and a much longer acquisition time is required. It was then preferred to
collect data mainly in the linear region, but for a larger number of energies.
The angular region considered vary in dependence on the energy, with a maximum
angle ranging from 0.15
for 130 keV to 0.45
for 40 keV. The angular step is 0.005
, the
minimum allowed by the goniometer, with a typical acquisition time of 1 sec per point.
Before and after each scan the intensity of the full beam is acquired by shifting the
sample out of the beam and counting for 10 seconds. This also gives a simultaneous count
on the monitor detector. In the rst data reduction, here presented, the number of counts
have been normalized to the counts of the full beam, averaged from the direct acquisition
of the full beam at the beginning at the end of the scan. Usually the variation is not large,
being typically of the order of 510% or less, for a fteen minutes scan.
The background is also measured, at the beginning and at the end of each scan, counting
for ten seconds with the detector placed in o-ray position at 2
. The background is due,

in largest part, to beam photons scattered by air or by the elements of the beamline.
In principle this scattered background can depend on the spatial position of the detector.
The possibility was analyzed by Ivan [2002], for this beamline with a very similar setup,
nding an uniform distribution of the background into a 1% margin. The measurement
for a single angle is indeed sucient to determine the background. The count is repeated
with the beam turned o, to estimate also the intrinsic background, due to components
unrelated to the beam, like e.g. electronic noise, cosmic rays or natural radioactivity. For
example, at 72 keV, with a full beam count of 23 000, the background for the scintillator
detector is 100, with zero counts for the intrinsic background. The monitor counts are
5 400 with beam on, and 400 with beam o (the monitor detector cannot be removed
from the beam). In the data here presented, background is not subtracted, since it is
important only for large angles.
The results of the reectivity scans of sample WSi285 are presented in gure 5.11. The
150
reectivity has been measured for the energies of 40, 60, 66, 72 and 110 keV. The data show
a very good qualitative agreement with the models. Looking at the data of the 8.04 keV
measurements, a small mismatch between the model and the data is visible. This feature
is found also in all the high energy scans, and is probably due to the minimum thickness
being lower than in the model. In particular the data at 72 keV overlap almost perfectly
with the model. Data at 110 keV also exhibit an almost perfect correspondence with the
model, if shifted by 0.0035
. The misalignment can be due to an incorrect alignment of

the sample (compare (e), where the data are not shifted, and (f) in gure 5.11). The
misalignment can be due to the high energy radiation passing through the sample, and can
be probably conrmed by a careful analysis of the logged data. However the correct way
to treat the problem it is still to be determined.
Figure 5.5.4 shows the data collected for the sample PtC201. The correspondence with
the model is impressive. Only a small deviation from the design structure is present (e.g.
see gure 5.5.4(a) at 0.2
). It is interesting to notice how the feature is not apparent in

the 8.04 keV scan in gure 5.8 on page 148, this probably indicates that the deviation
islimited to a very small number of layers of deep and thin layers. It is interesting to notice
that the curves match almost perfectly in the high angle region, but have some deviation
close to the total reection region (e.g. see cases 60 keV (a), 66 keV (b), 90 keV (d)). The
trivial explanation could be a footprint problem, however it is an interesting aspect to be
investigated, especially by a methodological point of view.
5.5.4.1 Conclusions and future work
The high energy data have conrmed the exceptional quality of the depositions. The
PtC201 sample has a very small deviation from the model, conrming the very good
stability of the deposition process. The deviations can be probably ascribed to a few deep
and thin layers.
The WSi285 sample seems also to be very compliant with the design model, once
kept into account the misleading recalibration of the silicon thicknesses due to the sample
WSi284.
The measurements made available useful data that can be completed. The extension
of the X-ray machine available at OAB can be used to integrate the high-energy data to
give a broad-band characterization of the lms.
Regarding the data collected at the BNL, the aim of the work in progress is to infer
information about the structure of the lms by the reectivity scans. In the past, my
research group at OAB, has used data at the energies of 8.04 keV and 17.4 keV to determine
the structure of multilayers up to 20 bilayers. We plan to extend the study, using this higher
energy data, that allow to probe the multilayer structure down to the deepest layers.
5.6 Chapter conclusions
The results of three run of reectivity measurements in soft and hard X-ray has been
presented.
In the rst one the reectivity of W, Au, Ir and Pt coating with a thin (75100 )
carbon overcoating have been measured at 200 eV at the BSRF, to verify the expected
enhancement of reectivity with respect to the metal coating only. In this spectral region
the eect is strongly enhanced, since the energy is below the K absorption edge of carbon.
Measurements have also been performed at 1280 eV on Pt+C and Ir+C coatings. However
151
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
r
e
f
le
c
t
iv
it
y
theta angle (deg)
WSi285 at 40 keV
BNL data
imd model 3.4 A
(a) 40keV
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3
r
e
f
le
c
t
iv
it
y
angle (deg)
WSi285 60 keV
WSi285_60keV.dat u 1:($10/(215324/20))
imd model 3.4 A
(b) 60keV
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25
R
e
f
le
c
t
iv
it
y
Angle (deg)
WSi285 - 66 keV - constant normalization - no background subtraction
BNL data
IMD simulation
(c) 66keV
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25
R
e
f
le
c
t
iv
it
y
angle (deg)
BNL data
IMD simulation
(d) 72keV
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16
R
e
f
le
c
t
iv
it
y
angle (deg)
BNL data
BNL data
IMD simulation
(e) 110keV
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16
R
e
f
le
c
t
iv
it
y
angle (deg)
WSi285 - 110 keV - constant normalization - no background subtraction - shifted by 0.0035
BNL data
BNL data
IMD simulation
(f) 110keV with correction for misalignment
Figure 5.11: sample WSi285, high-energy reectivity at 40, 60, 66, 72 and 110 keV.
152
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
R
e
f
le
c
t
iv
it
y
angle (deg)
PtC201 - 60 keV - constant normalization - no background subtraction
BNL data
IMD simulation
(a) 60keV
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25
R
e
f
le
c
t
iv
it
y
angle (deg)
PtC201 - constant normalization to average value, no background subtraction
BNL data
BNL data
IMD model
(b) 66keV
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25
R
e
f
le
c
t
iv
it
y
angle (deg)
BNL data
IMD simulation
(c) 72keV
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25
R
e
f
le
c
t
iv
it
y
angle (deg)
BNL data
IMD simulation
(d) 90keV
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25
R
e
f
le
c
t
iv
it
y
angle (deg)
BNL data
IMD simulation
(e) 100keV
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16
R
e
f
le
c
t
iv
it
y
angle (deg)
PtC201 - 110 keV - constant normalization to average value - no background subtraction
BNL data
IMD simulation
(f) 110keV
Figure 5.12: sample PtC201, high-energy reectivity at 60, 66, 72, 90, 100 and 110 keV.
153
the choice of 200 eV as energy for the measurement was forced by the instrumental limit,
and it is outside of the eld of application of the largest part of X-ray telescopes.
A second campaign of experiment was aimed to test the reectivity gain at the typical
energy and angles in use in soft X-ray telescopes. Sample of metal and metal+carbon
coatings have been deposited in the same run and measured to compare the results. The
gain in reectivity is apparent, and corresponds quite well with the one expected by theory.
In the third test, the design, realization and measurements of multilayers per hard X-
ray is then described. Two samples of depth graded multilayers for hard X-ray and have
been realized on high-quality optical substrates and measured at high energy. The sample
PtC201 shows an exceptional agreement with the design model at all energies. The sample
WSi285 is less complying with the model, but it shows however a high reectivity and a
good correspondence with the model achieved from t. A set of reectivity data with very
good quality has been collected.
154
Chapter 6
Conclusions
In this thesis I have treated the optimization of X-ray Wolter telescopes. The problematic
is introduced in the rst chapter. I have outlined the history of X-ray instruments, focusing
on the innovations that led to improvements in the observing power of telescopes. A few
topics that hopefully can be solved with by future telescopes, and particularly by the ones
considered in chapter 4, are illustrated. I think that this is useful to dene the directions
for the improvements of the technology, that can be achieved by the combination of on-
the-shelf technology applied to restricted topics and of larger eorts in the development of
new technologies, to open new windows.
The working principles of reecting coatings employed in X-ray telescopes are reviewed
in chapter 2: In particular I have focused on the properties of the power-law design for
broad band multilayers, expressing some original considerations about the parameter space
dening this kind of coating in relation with the optimization of layer thicknesses.
Chapter 3 deals with the issue of the geometrical properties of Wolter-like telescopes, in
relation with the design merit parameters. In addition to formulas and considerations, well
known by the experts in the eld, but not always formalized, others are originally developed.
These relations are useful in the optimization of geometry and can be a starting point for
a further extension. In particular a relation between the sequence of shell diameters and
the design parameters have been derived.
I have presented a ray-tracing software to study the problem of X-ray Wolter optics
performances in terms of the eective area performances and of their trade-o with the
constructive parameters by a general point of view. In its nal version, the software can
perform the ray-tracing of nested-shell Wolter-like telescopes with arbitrary polynomial
prole and dierent coatings on each shell. The software can be used to study separately
the geometrical eects and the reectivity one. The conguration setting are provided by
a versatile interface based on text les. Visualization tools and scripts for plotting have
also been realized to process the output.
In chapter 4, I have applied these tools to the design of specic telescopes to be imple-
mented in the near future. The largest part of the work was about the Simbol-X mission.
This mission will allow the extension of the focusing capabilities of current X-ray telescopes
to the hard X-ray spectral region, by means of broad-band multilayer coatings and long
focal length. I have studied several designs for the telescope, contributing to the denition
of the baseline for the phase B, now ready to start. The work can be divided in three
phases:
Evaluate the possibilities of extending to higher energies the capabilities of the pre-
155
liminary design, based on monolayer coatings. The simulation of performances for
dierent combinations of geometrical parameters and with W/Si multilayer or Ir
monolayer coating is performed, with the aim of dening a baseline for the phase-A.
The extension, as well as the extension of the eld of view, can be achieved by using
multilayer coatings. The resulting baseline conguration has a focal length of 20 m,
diameters in the range 700 mm, and a mass of 280 kg (including a 30% surplus for
the supporting structures and spiders). The eective area is 1200 cm
2
below 10 keV,
and 400 cm
2
at 30 keV. The eective area at high energy is limited by tungsten K-
edge at 69.5 keV. The eld of view below 30 keV is 12 arcseconds (section 4.1.2.1).
The simulations described in the previous point are updated, by considering a redef-
inition of the geometry. Indeed updates on the technology of shell production (nickel
electroforming replica) led to a redenition of the thickness for shell walls.
The possibilities of enhancement of the high-energy eective area are considered.
These can be realized in a simpler way by means of Pt/C multilayer coating, that
allow us to extend the energy band up to the platinum K edges at 78.4 keV. A
choice of other dierent couples of materials (W/Si, Pt/C and Ni/C) on dierent
shell intervals could allow to extend the telescope capabilities over 90 keV.
The possibilities of enhancement of the soft X-ray eective area by means of a car-
bon overcoating. The solution allows to enhance the eective area below 20 keV of
about 10%, and it is naturally implemented if platinum and carbon are used for the
multilayer coatings.
The eects of surface roughness on the eective area of the phase-A baseline are
estimated, showing that a low roughness is required to maintain high performance in
the high energy spectral region (above 50 keV). A surface rms roughness of 2 can
keep the eective area substantially unchanged with respect to the ideal case of at
surfaces, a roughness of 4 leads to a reduction of about 40%. This is however a
conservative estimation, furthermore there are reasons to believe that the reduction
eects are lower for congurtaions with smaller diameters (and consequently smaller
incidence angles).
Five congurations were selected as alternative baselines, keeping into account the
update values for shell wall thickness. In particular the resulting mass for the phase-A
baseline is 442 kg. A conguration with same focal length and a maximum diameter
of 65 cm, Pt/C coatings (with the carbon on top acting as soft x-ray overcoating)
is proposed as phase-B baseline. The mass of this conguration is 374 kg (including
structure) with a eld of view of 12 arcsec and an eective area of 420 cm
2
at 30 keV.
The eective area below 10 keV is around 1000 cm
2
.
The eects of small oscillations on the eective area of the telescope are studied.
The situation is studied by simulating radiation impinging on the telescope with
small o-axis angles. The eective area decreases due: 1) to reectivity eects,
because the distribution of impinging angles change with the telescope inclination;
2) to geometrical eects, because a part of the photons miss the second surface of the
mirror. The former depletes the high energy eective area only, while the latter aects
the eective area over the whole spectral band. Solutions are proposed to reduce the
eective area loss: the reectivity eects can be reduced by an optimization of the
coatings. The possibility is demonstrated by simulations with improved coatings. The
geometrical eects can be eliminated by making the second surface longer, recovering
the area at low energy. A compromise between the higher shell mass and the loss of
156
CHAPTER 6. CONCLUSIONS
area is suggested: by making the shells 3 cm longer is possible to recover the whole
area for oscillations up to 40 arcsec, and 98% for 1 arcmin, with a mass overhead of
about 5%.
Two other missions have also been considered, contributing to the denition of the
optical design at proposal level: the WFI telescope, aboard the EDGE satellite, is a tele-
scope based on a polynomial prole for the optics, for wide eld observations. The HXMT
telescope is a small telescope for X-ray polarimetry, a eld of research that has been prac-
tically frozen for more then thirty years and could be reopened by the developement of gas
micropixel detectors. For these telescope I have estimated the possible eective areas with
dierent coatings in relation to the mass and allocation budget.
In the experimental part of the work, I have performed an experimental about new
reecting coatings for X-ray telescopes. Two experiments were devoted to the study of the
properties of thin carbon lms used as overcoating to improve the reectivity of a heavy
material layer in the soft X-ray region. The working principles were presented in chapter 2,
in chapter ve, several consideration about the application of carbon overcoated mirror to
X-ray telescope and an experimental verication of the eect are given.
For the experimental part of the work (chapter 5), three experiments are performed:
a rst campaign of measurements is devoted to the verication of an enhancement in
reectivity achievable by applying a carbon overcoating on traditional total reection
mirrors. The possibilities of the experiment were constrained by the instrumental
limits. However, for several materials (Au, W, Ir, Pt) a relevant enhancement is
demonstrated, by comparing the experimental data with the theoretical expectations
for bare metal, even if for a very low energy (200 eV) and larger angles (several
degrees) than the ones usually employed in X-ray telescopes. The enhancement is
measured also at higher energy (1280 eV) on two samples (Pt and W).
in the second campaign a new set of samples is realized on particularly at substrates.
For each of the above material two samples are produced, one is made of the reecting
metal only, the second has also the carbon overcoating applied on. A set of measure-
ments is then performed for the dierent materials for the typical angles and energy
of interest for soft X-ray telescopes. The data shows a good correspondence with the
expectations, with the unambiguous detection of the reectivity enhancement.
in the third experiment two multilayers are designed, keeping in mind the real appli-
cation case of the Simbol-Xtelescope. The samples are made of couples of materials
traditional employed for X-ray multilayers and also foreseen for the coatings of the
Simbol-X mirrors (Pt/C and W/Si). The multilayer structure is based on a power-law
design. A preliminary characterization is performed at 8.04 keV, then the samples
are measured at high energy. The rst results show a very good compliance with the
model, demonstrating the high accuracy of the deposition process. The collection of
this data oers a good opportunity for further analysis.
The work of this thesis has contributed to the following publications and technical reports:
Cotroneo, V. et al. Eects of small oscillations on the eective area AIP Conference
Proceedings: Simbol-X second international symposium, in press, (2009)
Cotroneo, V. et al. New developments in light material overcoating for soft x-ray
reectivity enhancement Proceedings of the SPIE, 7011, (2008)
157
Cotroneo, V. et al. Simbol-X mirror module design scientic optimization Memorie
della Societa Astronomica Italiana, 79, (2008)
Cotroneo, V. et al, Carbon overcoatings for soft x-ray reectivity enhancement Pro-
ceedings of the SPIE, 6688, (2007)
Cotroneo, V. Shell dimensioning for the Polar X experiment aboard the HXMT mis-
sion OAB/INAF Tech. rep., (2006)
Cotroneo, V. Eective area evaluation for dierent Simbol-X optics congurations
OAB/INAF Tech. rep., (2006)
Basso, S. et al. The relation between the weight and the quality image in a X-ray
telescope, with a particular regard to Simbol-X Memorie della Societa Astronomica
Italiana, 79, (2008)
Pareschi, G. et al. Design and development of the SIMBOL-X hard x-ray optics
Proceedings of the SPIE, 7011, (2008)
Spiga, D. et al. Estimation of the X-ray scattering impact in imaging degradation for
the SIMBOL-X telescope Memorie della Societa Astronomica Italiana, (2008)
Spiga, D. et al. Estimation of the X-ray scattering impact in imaging degradation for
the SIMBOL-X telescope Memorie della Societa Astronomica Italiana, 79, (2008)
Mereghetti, S. et al. XIAO: a soft X-ray telescope for the SVOM Mission ArXiv
e-prints, (2008)
Cusumano, G. et al. Simbol-X: x-ray bae for stray-light reduction Proceedings of
the SPIE, 6688, (2007)
Spiga, D. et al. Multilayer coatings for x-ray mirrors: extraction of stack parameters
from x-ray reectivity scans and comparison with transmission electron microscopy
results Optical Engineering, 46, (2007)
Costa, E. et al. An x-ray polarimeter for HXMT mission Proceedings of the SPIE,
6686, (2007)
Romaine, S. et al. Development of a prototype nickel optic for the Constellation-X
hard x-ray telescope Proceedings of the SPIE, 6688, (2007)
den Herder, J. W. et al. EDGE: explorer of diuse emission and gamma-ray burst
explosions Proceedings of the SPIE, 6688, (2007)
Spiga, D. et al. Characterization of multilayer stack parameters from x-ray reectiv-
ity data using the PPM program: measurements and comparison with TEM results
Proceedings of the SPIE, 6266, (2006)
Costa, E. et al. POLARIX: a small mission of x-ray polarimetry Proceedings of the
SPIE, 6266, (2006)
Costa, E. et al. X-ray polarimeter for HXMT IASF Bo Tech. rep., (2006)
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HEW Half Energy Width. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
HXMT Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
HRC High Resolution Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
HRI High Resolution Imager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
HST Hubble Space Telescope
ICM Intra Cluster Medium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
INAF Istituto Nazionale di Astrosica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
IPC Imaging Proportional Counter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
IR InfraRed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
ISOXM Iterated Simplex Optimization for X-ray Multilayers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
LED Low Energy Detector
LETG Low-Energy Transmission Grating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
LSF Line Spread Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
HETG High-Energy Transmission Grating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
MDP Minimum Detectable Polarization
MOS Metal Oxide Semiconductor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
MSC Mirror SpaceCraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
NLR Narrow Line Region. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
OAB Brera Astronomical Observatory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
173
Bibliography
OSO Orbiting Solar Observatory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
PPM Pythonic Programming for Multilayers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
PSD Power Spectral Density. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
PSF Point Spread Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
PSPC Position Sensitive Proportional Counter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
PVD Physical Vapor Deposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
RGS Reection Grating Spectrometer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
RGA Reection Grating Array. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
RGA Residual Gas Analyzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
rms root mean square
SED Spectral Energy Distribution
SN SuperNova
TE Transverse Electric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
TEM Transmission Electron Microscopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
TM Transverse Magnetic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
TRoPIC Third Roentgen PANTER Imaging Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
UV UltraViolet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
WFI Wide Field Imager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
WFM Wide Field Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
174
BIBLIOGRAPHY
WFS Wide Field Spectrometer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
WFXT Wide Field X-ray Telescope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
WHIM Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
XACT X-ray Astronomy Calibration and Testing facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
XLF X-ray Luminosity Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
XMM X-ray Multi Mirror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
XUV eXtreme Ultra Violet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
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Abstract

at about 30 keV. Below

, the penetration depth is about

, while the Bragg

is the surface slope at the intersection plane. The value of

. Since this spacing is constant,

, for constant thickness t

length (m) min max height (m) min max (deg)

Ratio between secondary and primary mirror height (h2/h1)

= 0) for on-axis radiation. In this conguration, when the radiation

, the angular separation between the edge of a given

) (cm) (kg) (arcmin) (-10% structure)

) (cm) (kg) (arcmin) (-10% structure)

) (cm) (kg) (arcmin) (-10% structure)

and maximum diameter has been evaluated positively by the scientic

) (cm) (kg) (arcmin) (-10% structure)

) (cm) (kg) (arcmin) (-10% structure)

) (m) (cm) (kg) (arcmin) (-10% spider)

) Focal Length (m) D

). The requirement over the eective area

1 degree. The feasibility of the concept is

. The abandoning of rotating vehicle, that was still a requirement for

the eect is observable even above 10 keV;

< < 0.4

the eect is observable for E < E

< < 0.6

the eect is observable for almost all materials, but just

nothing is visible at E > 5 keV;

) and energies (1-10 keV) employed in astronomical grazing incidence telescopes.

, a value much smaller than the minimum angle of

A thick layer of carbon, in

line) has been measured. This allowed us to

, used to record angular scans in monochromatic energy.

for 2.98 keV and

. This value is larger than expected from

. Also the reectivity below 5 keV for a xed angle of 0.75

and the reectivity at 2.98 keV for angles below 1

in the 5-50 keV

(panter TRoPIC) is shown.

in section 4.1.2.2 on page 76,

. The energy resolution of the monochromator

for 130 keV to 0.45

for 40 keV. The angular step is 0.005

. The background is due,

. The misalignment can be due to an incorrect alignment of

). It is interesting to notice how the feature is not apparent in

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