Search results for " Thermal filters"
showing 5 items of 5 documents
Thermal Filters for the ATHENA X-IFU: Ongoing Activities Toward the Conceptual Design
2016
ATHENA is the L2 mission selected by ESA to pursue the science theme “Hot and Energetic Universe.” One of the two focal plane instruments is the X-ray Integral Field Unit, an array of TES microcalorimeters operated at T $$<$$ 100 mK. To allow the X-ray photons focused by the telescope to reach the detector, windows have to be opened on the cryostat thermal shields. X-ray transparent filters need to be mounted on these open windows to attenuate the IR radiation from warm surfaces, to attenuate RF electromagnetic interferences on TES sensors and SQUID electronics, and to protect the detector from contamination. This paper reviews the ongoing activities driving the design of the X-IFU thermal …
Synchrotron x-ray transmission measurements and modeling of filters investigated for Athena
2020
International audience; Advanced Telescope for High-Energy Astrophysics is a large-class astrophysics space mission selected by the European Space Agency to study the theme "Hot and Energetic Universe." The mission essentially consists of a large effective area x-ray telescope and two detectors: the X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) and the Wide Field Imager (WFI). Both instruments require filters to shield from out-of-band radiation while providing high transparency to x-rays. The mission is presently in phase B; thus, to consolidate the preliminary design, investigated filter materials need to be properly characterized by experimental test campaigns. We report results from high-resolution…
Filters for X-Ray Detectors on Space Missions
2022
Thin filters and gas-tight windows are used in space to protect sensitive X-ray detectors from out-of-band electromagnetic radiation, low-energy particles, and molecular contamination. Though very thin and made of light materials, filters are not fully transparent to X-rays. For this reason, they ultimately define the detector quantum efficiency at low energies. In this chapter, we initially provide a brief overview of filter materials and specific designs adopted on space experiments with main focus on detectors operating at the focal plane of grazing incidence X-ray telescopes. We then provide a series of inputs driving the design and development of filters for high-energy astrophysics sp…
Surface investigation and aluminum oxide estimation on test filters for the ATHENA X-IFU and WFI detectors
2016
The ATHENA mission provides the demanded capabilities to address the ESA science theme "Hot and Energetic Universe". Two complementary instruments are foreseen: the X-IFU (X-ray Integral Field Unit) and WFI (Wide Field Imager). Both the instruments require filters to avoid that the IR radiation heats the X-IFU cryogenic detector and to protect the WFI detector from UV photons. Previous experience on XMM filters recommends to employ bilayer membrane consisting of aluminum deposited on polyimide. In this work, we use the X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) to quantify the native aluminum oxide thickness that affects the spectral properties of the filter. The estimation of the oxide thickne…
Temperature effects on the performances of the ATHENA X-IFU thermal filters
2016
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 crucia…