Line spread functions of blazed off-plane gratings operated in the Littrow mounting

Casey T. Deroo, Randall L. McEntaffer, Drew M. Miles, Thomas J. Peterson, Hannah Marlowe, James H. Tutt, Benjamin D. Donovan, Benedikt Menz, Vadim Burwitz, Gisela Hartner, Ryan Allured, Randall K. Smith, Ramses Günther, Alex Yanson, Giuseppe Vacanti, Marcelo Ackermann

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

Future soft x-ray (10 to 50) spectroscopy missions require higher effective areas and resolutions to perform critical science that cannot be done by instruments on current missions. An x-ray grating spectrometer employing off-plane reflection gratings would be capable of meeting these performance criteria. Off-plane gratings with blazed groove facets operating in the Littrow mounting can be used to achieve excellent throughput into orders achieving high resolutions. We have fabricated two off-plane gratings with blazed groove profiles via a technique that uses commonly available microfabrication processes, is easily scaled for mass production, and yields gratings customized for a given mission architecture. Both fabricated gratings were tested in the Littrow mounting at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) PANTER x-ray test facility to assess their performance. The line spread functions of diffracted orders were measured, and a maximum resolution of 800±20 is reported. In addition, we also observe evidence of a blaze effect from measurements of relative efficiencies of the diffracted orders.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number025001
JournalJournal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems
Volume2
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1 2016

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Instrumentation
  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Space and Planetary Science

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