6533b854fe1ef96bd12af4ca

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Temperature effects on the performances of the ATHENA X-IFU thermal filters

Igor PíšMatteo LevantinoMarco BarberaFlavio NuzzoAlfonso ColluraLuisa SciortinoAntonio Jimenez EscobarElena MagnanoAngela CiaravellaUgo Lo Cicero

subject

CryostatMaterials scienceAbsorption spectroscopybusiness.industrythermal filtersATHENA missionShot noise02 engineering and technologyAtmospheric temperature range021001 nanoscience & nanotechnologyATHENA mission thermal filters XANES01 natural sciencesXANESSettore FIS/05 - Astronomia E AstrofisicaOptics0103 physical sciencesRadiative transferCalibration010306 general physics0210 nano-technologybusinessAbsorption (electromagnetic radiation)Polyimide

description

The X-Ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) detector on-board ATHENA is an array of TES micro-calorimeters that will operate at ~50 mK. In the current investigated design, five thermal filters (TF) will be mounted on the cryostat shields to attenuate IR radiative load and avoid energy resolution degradation due to photon shot noise. Each filter consists of a thin polyimide film (~50 nm thick) coated with aluminum (~30 nm thick). Since the TF operate at different temperatures in the range 0.05-300 K, it is relevant to study how temperature affects their mechanical/optical performances (e.g. near edge absorption fine structures of the atomic elements in the filter material). Such results are crucial for the proper design of the filters as well as to establish the calibration program operating temperatures. We report the preliminary results of visual inspections performed on test filters of polyimide/Al at different pressure and temperature conditions, IR transmission measurements (1-15 μm) performed in the temperature range 10- 300 K, and X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy measurements (175-1650 eV) performed in the temperature range 130-300 K.

yearjournalcountryeditionlanguage
2016-07-18SPIE Proceedings
https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232323