No Arabic abstract
Multilayer X-ray mirrors consist of a coating of a large number of alternate layers of high Z and low Z materials with a typical thickness of 10-100 Angstrom, on a suitable substrate. Such coatings play an important role in enhancing the reflectivity of X-ray mirrors by allowing reflections at angles much larger than the critical angle of X-ray reflection for the given materials. Coating with an equal thickness of each bilayer enhances the reflectivity at discrete energies, satisfying Bragg condition. However, by systematically varying the bilayer thickness in the multilayer stack, it is possible to design X-ray mirrors having enhanced reflectivity over a broad energy range. One of the most important applications of such a depth graded multilayer mirror is to realize hard X-ray telescopes for astronomical purposes. Design of such multilayer X-ray mirrors and their characterization with X-ray reflectivity measurements require appropriate software tools. We have initiated the development of hard X-ray optics for future Indian X-ray astronomical missions, and in this context, we have developed a program, DarpanX, to calculate X-ray reflectivity for single and multilayer mirrors. It can be used as a stand-alone tool for designing multilayer mirrors with required characteristics. But more importantly, it has been implemented as a local model for the popular X-ray spectral fitting program, XSPEC, and thus can be used for accurate fitting of the experimentally measured X-ray reflectivity data. DarpanX is implemented as a Python 3 module, and an API is provided to access the underlying algorithms. Here we present details of DarpanX implementation and its validation for different type multilayer structures. We also demonstrate the model fitting capability of DarpanX for experimental X-ray reflectivity measurements of single and multilayer samples.
The LAMP (Lightweight Asymmetry and Magnetism Probe) X-ray telescope is a mission concept to measure the polarization of X-ray astronomical sources at 250 eV via imaging mirrors that reflect at incidence angles near the polarization angle, i.e., 45 deg. Hence, it will require the adoption of multilayer coatings with a few nanometers d-spacing in order to enhance the reflectivity. The nickel electroforming technology has already been successfully used to fabricate the high angular resolution imaging mirrors of the X-ray telescopes SAX, XMM-Newton, and Swift/XRT. We are investigating this consolidated technology as a possible technique to manufacture focusing mirrors for LAMP. Although the very good reflectivity performances of this kind of mirrors were already demonstrated in grazing incidence, the reflectivity and the scattering properties have not been tested directly at the unusually large angle of 45 deg. Other possible substrates are represented by thin glass foils or silicon wafers. In this paper we present the results of the X-ray reflectivity campaign performed at the BEAR beamline of Elettra - Sincrotrone Trieste on multilayer coatings of various composition (Cr/C, Co/C), deposited with different sputtering parameters on nickel, silicon, and glass substrates, using polarized X-rays in the spectral range 240 - 290 eV.
We present the first public version (v0.2) of the open-source and community-developed Python package, Astropy. This package provides core astronomy-related functionality to the community, including support for domain-specific file formats such as Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) files, Virtual Observatory (VO) tables, and common ASCII table formats, unit and physical quantity
High-resolution optical integral field units (IFUs) are rapidly expanding our knowledge of extragalactic emission nebulae in galaxies and galaxy clusters. By studying the spectra of these objects -- which include classic HII regions, supernova remnants, planetary nebulae, and cluster filaments -- we are able to constrain their kinematics (velocity and velocity dispersion). In conjunction with additional tools, such as the BPT diagram, we can further classify emission regions based on strong emission-line flux ratios. LUCI is a simple-to-use python module intended to facilitate the rapid analysis of IFU spectra. LUCI does this by integrating well-developed pre-existing python tools such as astropy and scipy with new machine learning tools for spectral analysis (Rhea et al. 2020). Furthermore, LUCI provides several easy-to-use tools to access and fit SITELLE data cubes.
We describe a new open source package for calculating properties of galaxy clusters, including NFW halo profiles with and without the effects of cluster miscentering. This pure-Python package, cluster-lensing, provides well-documented and easy-to-use classes and functions for calculating cluster scaling relations, including mass-richness and mass-concentration relations from the literature, as well as the surface mass density $Sigma(R)$ and differential surface mass density $DeltaSigma(R)$ profiles, probed by weak lensing magnification and shear. Galaxy cluster miscentering is especially a concern for stacked weak lensing shear studies of galaxy clusters, where offsets between the assumed and the true underlying matter distribution can lead to a significant bias in the mass estimates if not accounted for. This software has been developed and released in a public GitHub repository, and is licensed under the permissive MIT license. The cluster-lensing package is archived on Zenodo (Ford 2016). Full documentation, source code, and installation instructions are available at http://jesford.github.io/cluster-lensing/.
Future hard X-ray telescopes (e.g. SIMBOL-X and Constellation-X) will make use of hard X-ray optics with multilayer coatings, with angular resolutions comparable to the achieved ones in the soft X-rays. One of the crucial points in X-ray optics, indeed, is multilayer interfacial microroughness that causes effective area reduction and X-Ray Scattering (XRS). The latter, in particular, is responsible for image quality degradation. Interfacial smoothness deterioration in multilayer deposition processes is commonly observed as a result of substrate profile replication and intrinsic random deposition noise. For this reason, roughness growth should be carefully investigated by surface topographic analysis, X-ray reflectivity and XRS measurements. It is convenient to express the roughness evolution in terms of interface Power Spectral Densities (PSD), that are directly related to XRS and, in turn, in affecting the optic HEW (Half Energy Width). In order to interpret roughness amplification and to help us to predict the imaging performance of hard X-ray optics, we have implemented a well known kinetic continuum equation model in a IDL language program (MPES, Multilayer PSDs Evolution Simulator), allowing us the determination of characteristic growth parameters in multilayer coatings. In this paper we present some results from analysis we performed on several samples coated with hard X-ray multilayers (W/Si, Pt/C, Mo/Si) using different deposition techniques. We show also the XRS predictions resulting from the obtained modelizations, in comparison to the experimental XRS measurements performed at the energy of 8.05 keV.