This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 12576, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, and Conference Committee information.

I give a short overview of astronomical X-ray optics covering the past, recent, and future developments with an emphasis on grazing incidence optics and on developments in the Czech Republic. There is a long history in the X-ray optics development in the Czech Republic – the first X-ray mirror was produced in 1969. The first Czech X-ray mirror (50 mm Wolter for solar imaging) was flown to space onboard the Vertikal 8 rocket in 1979 as part of a photographic solar X-ray telescope in collaboration with Polish institutes. The recent developments focus on new technologies based on novel lightweight materials such as slumped glass foils and Silicon wafers and also on novel designs and arrangements such as wide-field Lobster Eye X-ray optics.

A new detection system for X-/Gamma-ray broad energy passband detectors for astronomy has been developed. This system is based on Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs) coupled with scintillator bars; the SDDs act as a direct detector of soft (<30 keV) X-ray photons, while hard X-/Gamma-rays are stopped by the scintillator bars and the scintillation light is collected by the SDDs. With this configuration, it is possible to build compact, position sensitive detectors with unprecedented energy passband (2 keV – 10/20 MeV). The X and Gamma-ray Imaging Spectrometer (XGIS) on board the THESEUS mission, selected for Phase 0 study for M7, exploits this innovative detection system. The Wide Field Monitor - Imager and Spectrometer (WFM-IS) of the ASTENA (Advanced Surveyor of Transient Events and Nuclear Astrophysics) mission concept consists of 12 independent detection units, also based on this new technology. For the WFM-IS, a coded mask provides imaging capabilities up to 150 keV, while above this limit the instrument will act as a full sky spectrometer. However, it is possible to extend imaging capabilities above this limit by alternatively exploiting the Compton kinematics reconstruction or by using the information from the relative fluxes measured by the different cameras. In this work, we present the instrument design and results from MEGAlib simulations aimed at evaluating the effective area and the imaging performances of the WFM-IS above 150 keV.

We present very preliminary results the design, assembly, and tests of new Lobster Eye (LE) and Kirkpatrick Baez (KB) modules based on Multi Foil Optics technology (MFO). The LE X-ray optics is a wide field of view (FOV) optics type Lobster Eye (LE) with a short (400 mm) focal length (suitable for CubeSat application) based on Schmidt design. The 2D LE optics consists of two orthogonal sub-modules of flat smooth reflective foils and each sub-modules focuses in one direction. The key parameters (the FWHM, the FOV (Field of view), and angular resolution, effective area) of the 2D LE optic were measured with different detectors. The advantage of MFO LE is that for off-axis points the angular resolution is preserved throughout the FOV, as demonstrated by measuring. There is a combined detector system that includes two detectors - Timepix3 Quad and spectroscope. The benefit of the combined detector system was demonstrated in the real measurement. Moreover, a new generation multiple arrays module of 2D X-ray KB optics with long f (nearly 6 meters) based on multi-foil silicon assembling technology was designed, manufactured, and tested in optical light and in X-rays at the Panter facility and the preliminary results will be also presented and discussed.

Conventional mining might not be sufficient to support the growth of humankind which is heavily dependent upon rare materials in technical applications. Asteroid mining might be an answer, with Near-Earth objects (NEOs) being the first targets. However, the first step in the asteroid mining cascade is to probe reachable asteroids. Moreover, to identify the best candidates for further activities hundreds to thousands of asteroids must be screened. The fast progressing development of CubeSats might allow the space community to do the initial in-situ screening in a minimalistical and economical manner. Additionally, formation flying might enable the miniaturization of optical payloads for asteroid composition analysis in CubeSats. The recent developments in formation flying are summarised in this study and the possibility of utilizing formation flying CubeSats for asteroid surveillance explored.

Reflective coatings for astronomical X-ray optics were developed at the “Aschaffenburg Competence Center for Astronomical and Space Instrumentation” (ACCASI) since several years. As part of a Bavarian-Czech cooperation between the Technical University of Aschaffenburg and the Czech Technical University of Prague, now two mechanically identical telescopes were built. One telescope optic was equipped with conventional gold-coated mirrors, manufactured by the Czech project partners. The 34 X-ray mirrors of the second telescope use an innovative coating system made of chromium and iridium, which was applied at the Aschaffenburg coating laboratory. Both telescopes are designed according to the bionic principle of a reflecting lobster eye. The optics works with two consecutive reflections on mutually perpendicular mirror surfaces. This enables a large field of view with many square degrees in diameter, which, however, comes at the price of a reduced angular resolution. An extensive X-ray characterization of these telescopes was carried out at the PANTER test facility of MPE, which simulates parallel starlight incident on the telescopes. The telescopes have an angular resolution of about 4 arc minutes in X-rays and a focal length of about 2 meters. Furthermore, the used X-ray mirrors reflect and focus visible light as well and this functionality in the optical regime was checked in laboratory tests. Now another test campaign was done to examine the telescope resolution for real objects of the visible sky and the imaging properties for star constellations. Such functional tests by observing astronomical objects of the visible sky may simplify and accelerate the development of X-ray telescopes for satellite applications.

The process of differential deposition is currently applied at the ESRF in order to correct figure errors of x-ray optics substrates, prior to multilayer deposition. The substrate is moved at a controlled speed in front of a sputtering source to precisely control the deposition profile. This work will describe the concept of differential deposition at the ESRF as well as recent results of its implementation to correct a real mirror substrate surface. Finally, initial studies using a synchrotron beamline characterization technique based on x-ray total reflection are presented.

We present here experimental results and modeling of multilayer gratings developed for the EUV spectro-imager abroad Solar-C mission. Periodic Al/Mo/SiC multilayers were optimized and deposited by magnetron sputtering on high groove density lamellar gratings with various depths. All grating samples were characterized before and after multilayer deposition by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and by grazing incidence x-ray reflectometry (GIXR) at 8.05 keV. AFM measurements reveal the surface prole evolution when the number of deposited layers increases. This effect is confirmed with a transmission electron microscope cross-section analysis. The EUV diffraction efficiency of the multilayer gratings was measured by monochromatic synchrotron radiation on the XUV Metrology beamline at SOLEIL Synchrotron. The results are in good agreement with the model simulated by rigorous coupled-wave analysis and using structural parameters determined by AFM and GIXR. The measured near-normal incidence first-order efficiency reaches a maximum of about 9.27%, 6.54%, and 7.18% at wavelengths of 27.3 nm, 21.4 nm, and 19.4 nm respectively.

A software called LOPSIMUL is presented. The main advantage of LOPSIMUL is very high computational rate. LOPSIMUL is intended for simulation of multi-foil optical systems, particularly Schmidt or Anglel lobster eye. These systems are intended mainly for X-rays. Various systems derivated of lobster eye can be simulated by LOPSIMUL, too. Kirkpatrick-Baez system can be simulated with limitations. LOPSIMUL contains few reflectivity models. Any reflectivity model can be imported to LOPSIMUL in a form of look-up table. Lopsimul draws focal image and x and y profiles. LOPSIMUL calculates FWHM, effective collecting area and other principal results.

In 1895, Professor Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen detected a new type of radiation that was able to penetrate solid materials, which he called X-rays. In 1901 Röntgen received the first Nobel Prize in physics in honour of this ground breaking discovery. The Deutsches Röntgen-Museum (DRM) in Remscheid (Germany) is the institution that uniquely and comprehensively explores and documents the life and work of W. C. Röntgen and the impact of his discovery. The DRM’s location in Remscheid is not coincidental, with Röntgen’s birthplace only a short walk away from the exhibits. Every visit to the museum amounts to a unique expedition through the worlds of medicine, science and technology. The museum’s emphasis on the diversity of Röntgen’s invention by a multilingual, multi-medial approach enables all visitors to make their own personal discoveries. The Deutsches Röntgen-Museum in Remscheid is a must-see for X-ray scientists from anywhere in the world. This contribution provides an insight into the history of X-rays and offers a guided tour of the Deutsches Röntgen-Museum and its exhibits.

Starting in 1951, the 50th anniversary of the award of the first Nobel Prize for physics to Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, the Lord Mayor of the German City of Remscheid has given out Röntgen Medals. The Röntgen Medal annually honours scientists who "in the broadest sense have made a special contribution to the progress and dissemination of X-ray discoveries in the theoretical and applied sciences". The Röntgen Medal has become highly recognized in the scientific world. To date, more than one hundred excellent scientists have received the honour. Through their chronology, this contribution presents a "Who’s Who" of X-ray science and provides selected insights into their scientific work; with the fields of X-ray optics and X-ray astronomy receiving special focus.

We present first experimental results on wavelength-dispersive soft X-ray spectroscopy of TiO₂ in the vicinity of the Ti Lσ fluorescence line with a central energy of about 452.2 eV, demonstrating the functionality of a newly developed, laboratory-scaled setup. In our instrument, the micron-sized photon emission from an electronexcited source is collected efficiently by a rotationally symmetric, ellipsoidal mirror and subsequently dispersed by a reflection zone plate with inscribed diffractive wavefront correction, to compensate for figure and alignment errors of the ellipsoid to some degree. The measured data, recorded with a CCD camera in one meter from the source, show clearly separated peaks from different Ti L (398.3 eV and 452.2 eV) contributions and O Kα emission (523.1 eV) with an energy resolving power around 38 and a signal-to-noise ratio between 4.4 and 10.7.

Grazing incident Soft X-ray source (SXR) mirrors find applications in astrophysics, space plasma research, hot plasma research and in various imaging and spectroscopy laboratory systems. SXR sources and vacuum optical beamlines are needed for their characterization and testing. A micro focus laboratory Soft X-ray source, which can be used in facilities for SXR optical components metrology, was designed and realized. The source in vacuum consists of an electron gun with stabilized electron beam focused to a 200 um spot on a target from appropriate material. Four different targets allowing generation of SXR with four different energies from four different elements are placed on a rotational turret. Required photon energy can be selected without vacuum interruption.

We present the stitching interferometry system of ALBA. It has been designed for measuring the surface of long X-ray optics (up to 1.5 meters) with sub-nanometer accuracy, thanks to effectively removing the systematic errors introduced by the flat reference. We discuss the main features and measurement routines of our setup, including the aspects related to error removal. The instrument is based on a Fizeau interferometer, Zygo Verifire HD, with a 100 mm aperture, which is used to take different sub-aperture measurements. The interferometer is mounted on top of an in-house built scanning and positioning stage with four degrees of freedom: horizontal displacement, vertical displacement, yaw rotation, and roll rotation. These four degrees of freedom are essential for obtaining sub-nanometer accuracies. Horizontal and vertical displacements are needed to remove ambiguities in the surface reconstruction, and yaw and roll rotations are required to always align the interferometer to each sub-aperture to minimize retracing errors. The relative orientation between the optical bench and the interferometer platform, which comprises all three orientation angles, is measured by an external autocollimator and two inclinometers. Tracking the interferometer trajectory allows us to remove the guidance errors and solve curvature and twist ambiguities. All the stitching acquisition process is automatized. We finally show the first commissioning results and we discuss the factors that limit the current accuracy of our system. In the first results, we have reconstructed the reference flat with a repeatability of 50 picometers rms.

The hard X-/soft gamma-ray band is still not well explored in astrophysics in spite of several unanswered science questions that can only be settled in this energy band, such as the origin of the 511 keV positron annihilation line from the Galactic Center region. The main reason is that this band has been explored so far with non-focusing instruments, that can achieve a limited sensitivity and angular resolution. Our goal is the development of a focusing telescope based on a Laue lens made of bent crystals of Silicon and Germanium, that diffract photons in the 50-700 keV band, with unprecedented angular resolution and sensitivity to continuum spectrum and to lines. Here some result will be reported concerning the elastic bending of the crystals by pressing them on substrates with one of the two main surfaces worked in order to get the same curvature of the lens. This is achieved thanks to accurately anodic bonding them to these substrates, avoiding/without the use of glue, in such a way to satisfy the required angular orientation of the crystals in the lens.

Potential and applicability of composite low-Z materials, such as the solid-state hydrides LiH, BeH₂ and B₁₀H₁₄, are studied for their use in diffractive-refractive, space-based X-ray lenses for astronomy. Regardless technical challenges like their strong chemical reactivity, a low mass density, and the demand for a high elemental purity, the optical properties of the hydrides allow the design and construction of diffraction-limited focusing optics with an efficiency up to ≈ 1m² × keV in the range (6 − 18) keV. If scaled to an aperture size of . 4.9m, an angular resolution . 1×10−3 arcsec is achieved. Three-fold lens stacking reduces the outer aspect ratio of the refractive component to 2.5 or less, at an – if combined with segmentation – focal length of no more than ≈ 5 × 10² km.

Conventional mining might not be sufficient to support the growth of humankind which is heavily dependent upon rare materials in technical applications. Asteroid mining might be an answer, with Near-Earth objects (NEOs) being the first targets. However, the first step in the asteroid mining cascade is to probe reachable asteroids. Moreover, to identify the best candidates for further activities hundreds to thousands of asteroids must be screened. The fast progressing development of CubeSats might allow the space community to do the initial in-situ screening in a minimalistical and economical manner. Additionally, formation flying might enable the miniaturization of optical payloads for asteroid composition analysis in CubeSats. The recent developments in formation flying are summarised in this study and the possibility of utilizing formation flying CubeSats for asteroid surveillance explored.