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Register a new userToward volume manufacturing of high-performance soft x-ray critical-angle transmission gratings
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High-resolution ($R = lambda /Delta lambda > 2000$) x-ray absorption and emission line spectroscopy in the soft x-ray band is a crucial diagnostic for the exploration of the properties of ubiquitous warm and hot plasmas and their dynamics in the cosmic web, galaxy clusters, galaxy halos, intragalactic space, and star atmospheres. Soft x-ray grating spectroscopy with $R > 10{,}000$ has been demonstrated with critical-angle transmission (CAT) gratings. CAT gratings combine the relaxed alignment and temperature tolerances and low mass of transmission gratings with high diffraction efficiency blazed in high orders. They are an enabling technology for the proposed Arcus grating explorer and were selected for the Lynx design reference mission grating spectrometer instrument. Both Arcus and Lynx require the manufacture of hundreds to perhaps $approx 2000$ large-area CAT gratings. We are developing new patterning and fabrication process sequences that are conducive to large-format volume processing on state-of-the-art 200 mm wafer tools. Recent x-ray tests on 200 nm-period gratings patterned using e-beam-written masks and 4x projection lithography in conjunction with silicon pore focusing optics demonstrated $R approx 10^4$ at 1.49 keV. Extending the grating depth from 4 $mu$m to 6 $mu$m is predicted to lead to significant improvements in diffraction efficiency and is part of our current efforts using a combination of deep reactive-ion etching and wet etching in KOH solution. We describe our recent progress in grating fabrication and report our latest diffraction efficiency and modeling results.
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Several high priority subjects in astrophysics can be addressed by a state-of-the-art soft x-ray grating spectrometer (XGS). An Explorer-scale, large-area (> 1,000 cm2), high resolving power (R > 3,000) XGS is highly feasible based on Critical-Angle Transmission (CAT) gratings, even for telescopes with angular resolution of 5-10 arcsec. Significantly higher performance can be provided by a CAT XGS on an X-ray-Surveyor-type mission. CAT gratings combine the advantages of blazed reflection gratings (high efficiency, use of higher diffraction orders) with those of transmission gratings (low mass, relaxed alignment and temperature requirements, transparent at high energies) with minimal mission resource demands. They are high-efficiency blazed transmission gratings that consist of freestanding, ultra-high aspect-ratio grating bars made from SOI wafers using anisotropic dry and wet etch techniques. Blazing is achieved through reflection off grating bar sidewalls. Silicon is well matched to the soft x-ray band, and existing silicon CAT gratings exceed 30% absolute diffraction efficiency, with clear paths for improvement. CAT gratings coated with heavier elements allow extension of the CAT grating principle to higher energies and larger angles, enabling higher resolving power at shorter wavelengths. We show x-ray data from CAT gratings coated with platinum using atomic layer deposition, and demonstrate blazing to higher energies and much larger blaze angles than possible with silicon. We measure resolving power of a CAT XGS consisting of a Wolter-I focusing mirror pair from GSFC and CAT gratings, performed at the MSFC SLF. Measurement of the Al Ka doublet in 18th order shows resolving power > 10,000, based on preliminary analysis. This demonstrates that currently fabricated CAT gratings are compatible with the most advanced XGS designs for future soft x-ray spectroscopy missions.
The Visible Integral Field Replicable Unit Spectrograph (VIRUS) is an array of at least 150 copies of a simple, fiber-fed integral field spectrograph that will be deployed on the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) to carry out the HET Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX). Each spectrograph contains a volume phase holographic grating as its dispersing element that is used in first order for 350 nm to 550 nm. We discuss the test methods used to evaluate the performance of the prototype gratings, which have aided in modifying the fabrication prescription for achieving the specified batch diffraction efficiency required for HETDEX. In particular, we discuss tests in which we measure the diffraction efficiency at the nominal grating angle of incidence in VIRUS for all orders accessible to our test bench that are allowed by the grating equation. For select gratings, these tests have allowed us to account for > 90% of the incident light for wavelengths within the spectral coverage of VIRUS. The remaining light that is unaccounted for is likely being diffracted into reflective orders or being absorbed or scattered within the grating layer (for bluer wavelengths especially, the latter term may dominate the others). Finally, we discuss an apparatus that will be used to quickly verify the first order diffraction efficiency specification for the batch of at least 150 VIRUS production gratings.
We describe the in-orbit performance of the soft X-ray imaging system consisting of the Soft X-ray Telescope and the Soft X-ray Imager aboard Hitomi. Verification and calibration of imaging and spectroscopic performance are carried out making the best use of the limited data of less than three weeks. Basic performance including a large field of view of 38x38 is verified with the first light image of the Perseus cluster of galaxies. Amongst the small number of observed targets, the on-minus-off pulse image for the out-of-time events of the Crab pulsar enables us to measure a half power diameter of the telescope as about 1.3. The average energy resolution measured with the onboard calibration source events at 5.89 keV is 179 pm 3 eV in full width at half maximum. Light leak and cross talk issues affected the effective exposure time and the effective area, respectively, because all the observations were performed before optimizing an observation schedule and parameters for the dark level calculation. Screening the data affected by these two issues, we measure the background level to be 5.6x10^{-6} counts s^{-1} arcmin^{-2} cm^{-2} in the energy band of 5-12 keV, which is seven times lower than that of the Suzaku XIS-BI.
The recurrent nova (RN) V3890 Sgr was observed during the 7th day after the onset of its most recent outburst, with the Chandra ACIS-S camera and High Energy Transmission Gratings (HETG). A rich emission line spectrum was detected, due to transitions of Fe-L and K-shell ions ranging from neon to iron. The measured absorbed flux is $approx 10^{-10}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ in the 1.4-15 Angstrom range (0.77-8.86 keV). The line profiles are asymmetric, blue-shifted and skewed towards the blue side, as if the ejecta moving towards us are less absorbed than the receding ones. The full width at half maximum of most emission lines is 1000-1200 km s$^{-1}$, with some extended blue wings. The spectrum is thermal and consistent with a plasma in collisional ionization equilibrium with column density 1.3 $times 10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$ and at least two components at temperatures of about 1 keV and 4 keV, possibly a forward and a reverse shock, or regions with differently mixed ejecta and red giant wind. The spectrum is remarkably similar to the symbiotic RNe V745 Sco and RS Oph, but we cannot distinguish whether the shocks occurred at a distance of few AU from the red giant, or near the giants photosphere, in a high density medium containing only a small mass. The ratios of the flux in lines of aluminum, magnesium and neon relative to the flux in lines of silicon and iron probably indicate a carbon-oxygen white dwarf (CO WD).
In the present work we discuss a possibility to build an instrument with two operation modes - spectral and imaging ones. The key element of such instrument is a dispersive and filtering unit consisting of two narrowband volume-phase holographic gratings. Each of them provides high diffraction efficiency in a relatively narrow spectral range of a few tens of nanometers. Besides, the position of this working band is highly dependent on the angle of incidence. So we propose to use a couple of such gratings to implement the two operational modes. The gratings are mounted in a collimated beam one after another. In the spectroscopic mode the gratings are turned on such angle that the diffraction efficiency curves coincide, thus the beams diffracted on the first grating are diffracted twice on the second one and a high-dispersion spectrum in a narrow range is formed. If the collimating and camera lenses are corrected for a wide field it is possible to use a long slit and register the spectra from its different points separately. In the imaging mode the gratings are turned to such angle that the efficiency curves intersect in a very narrow wavelength range. So the beams diffracted on the first grating are filtered out by the second one except of the spectral component, which forms the image. In this case the instrument works without slit diaphragm on the entrance. We provide an example design to illustrate the proposed concept. This optical scheme works in the region around 656 nm with F/# of 6.3. In the spectroscopic mode it provides a spectrum for the region from 641 to 671 nm with reciprocal linear dispersion of 1.4 nm/mm and the spectral resolving power higher than 14000. In the imaging mode it covers linear 12mm x 12mm field of view with spatial resolution of 15-30 lines/mm.
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