Design, performance, and calibration of the ALEXIS ultrasoft x-ray telescopes

Conference · Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1990

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1117/12.23248· OSTI ID:6642187

Bloch, J J; Ameduri, F; Priedhorsky, W C; Roussel-Dupre, D; Smith, B W ^[1]; Siegmund, O H.W.; Cully, S; Warren, J; Gaines, G A ^[2]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA)
2. California Univ., Berkeley, CA (USA). Space Sciences Lab.

The Array of Low Energy X-ray Imaging Sensors (ALEXIS) experiment consists of six wide angle EUV/ultrasoft x-ray telescopes utilizing normal incidence multilayer mirrors, flown a miniature satellite to map out the sky in three narrow bandpasses around 66, 71, and 95 eV. The 66 and 71 eV bandpasses are centered on intense Fe emission lines which are characteristic of million degree plasmas such as the one thought to produce the soft x-ray background. The 95 eV bandpass has a higher throughput and is more sensitive to continuum sources. The mission will be launched into orbit on the Pegasus Air Launched Vehicle in mid-1991. We will present the details of the ALEXIS telescope optical design, initial characterizations of the first flight mirrors and detectors, and the current schemes for characterizing and calibrating the completed telescope assemblies. We will also discuss the details of a novel wavetrap'' feature incorporated into the multilayer mirror structure to greatly reduce the mirror's reflectivity at 304 {angstrom}, a major background contamination flux of He II emission from the geocorona. 2 refs., 13 figs.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/DP
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 6642187
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-90-2851; CONF-9007157-1; ON: DE90016483
• Resource Relation: Journal Volume: 1344; Conference: SPIE conforence on EUV x-ray and gamma-ray instrumentation for astronomy, San Diego, CA (USA), 8-13 Jul 1990
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION
TELESCOPES
DESIGN
CALIBRATION
COSMIC X-RAY SOURCES
IRON
MIRRORS
OPTICS
PERFORMANCE
QUANTUM EFFICIENCY
REFLECTIVITY
SATELLITES
X-RAY DETECTION
COSMIC RAY SOURCES
DETECTION
EFFICIENCY
ELEMENTS
METALS
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RADIATION DETECTION
SURFACE PROPERTIES
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
640102* - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Stars & Quasi-Stellar
Radio & X-Ray Sources
440600 - Optical Instrumentation- (1990-)