Search results for "ray optics"
showing 4 items of 24 documents
B-MINE, the balloon-borne microcalorimeter nuclear line explorer
2001
B-MINE is a concept for a balloon mission designed to probe the deepest regions of a supernova explosion by detecting Ti-44 emission at 68 keV with spatial and spectral resolutions that are sufficient to determine the extent and velocity distribution of the Ti-44 emitting region. The payload introduces the concept of focusing optics and microcalorimeter spectroscopy to nuclear line emission astrophysics. B-MINE has a thin, plastic foil telescope multilayered to maximize the reflectivity in a 20 keV band centered at 68 keV and a microcalorimeter array optimized for the same energy band. This combination provides a reduced background, an energy resolution of 50 eV and a 3sigma sensitivity in …
CONTRIBUTION OF PSEUDO-FOCUSED SOFT PROTONS TO THE BACKGROUND OF ATHENA
2021
This PhD thesis explores the role of low energy protons, the so-called ‘soft protons', as a component of the background in view of the future ESA's X-ray mission Athena. As a matter of fact, a high level of soft proton flux at the focal plane of Athena can adversely affect the scientific goals of the mission. To prevent this, a correct estimate of the soft proton flux expected at the focal plane of the satellite is fundamental. Such an estimate can be achieved only if the reflectivity of soft protons from the optics is well understood, with efforts on both the experimental and the theoretical sides. To this aim, I applied the model of reflectivity of particles at grazing incidence proposed …
Thin plastic foil X-ray optics with spiral geometry
2007
Winding a plastic foil ribbon into spiral cylinder or spiral cones we can design and build single or multiple reflection X-ray grazing incidence focusing optics with potential applications in Astronomy as well as experimental physics. The use of thin plastic foils from common industrial applications and of a mounting technique which does not require the construction of mandrels make these optics very cost effective. A spiral geometry focusing optic produces an annular image of a point source with the angular size of the annulus depending mainly on the pitch of the winding and the focal length. We use a ray-tracing code to evaluate the performances of cylindrical, and double conical spiral g…
Characterization of thin plastic foils for applications in X-ray optics technology
2007
Thin plastic foils are being investigated to build shell optics for X-ray telescopes. Compared to polished glass optics, the advantage is in terms of increased collecting area, light weight and lower cost. Plastic material is also desirable to allow deformation into a complete surface of revolution. We collected plastic materials of common use for industrial applications and also specialty materials developed for the electronic industry. A comparative study was then performed to evaluate the optical quality of the selected plastic films. Surface analysis was carried out with topographic instruments to investigate the microroughness of our samples at different scan lengths. Preliminary resul…