Design, implementation, and performance of the Astro-H soft x-ray spectrometer aperture assembly and blocking filters

Caroline A. Kilbourne; Joseph S. Adams; Petar Arsenovic; Travis Ayers; Meng P. Chiao; Michael J. DiPirro; Megan E. Eckart; Ryuichi Fujimoto; John D. Kazeva; Kari L. Kripps; Bruce M. Lairson; Maurice A. Leutenegger; Heidi C. Lopez; Daniel McCammon; Daniel S. McGuinness; Kazuhisa Mitsuda; Samuel J. Moseley; F. Scott Porter; Andrea N. Schweiss; Yoh Takei; Rosemary S. Thorpe; Tomomi Watanabe; Noriko Y. Yamasaki; Seiji Yoshida

doi:10.1117/1.JATIS.4.1.011215

26 February 2018 Design, implementation, and performance of the Astro-H soft x-ray spectrometer aperture assembly and blocking filters

Caroline A. Kilbourne, Joseph S. Adams, Petar Arsenovic, Travis Ayers, Meng P. Chiao, Michael J. DiPirro, Megan E. Eckart, Ryuichi Fujimoto, John D. Kazeva, Kari L. Kripps, Bruce M. Lairson, Maurice A. Leutenegger, Heidi C. Lopez, Daniel McCammon, Daniel S. McGuinness, Kazuhisa Mitsuda, Samuel J. Moseley, F. Scott Porter, Andrea N. Schweiss, Yoh Takei, Rosemary S. Thorpe, Tomomi Watanabe, Noriko Y. Yamasaki, Seiji Yoshida

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Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, Vol. 4, Issue 1, 011215 (February 2018). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.4.1.011215

Abstract

The calorimeter array of the JAXA Astro-H (renamed Hitomi) soft x-ray spectrometer (SXS) was designed to provide unprecedented spectral resolution of spatially extended cosmic x-ray sources and of all cosmic x-ray sources in the Fe-K band around 6 keV. The properties that made the SXS array a powerful x-ray spectrometer also made it sensitive to photons from the entire electromagnetic band as well as particles. If characterized as a bolometer, it would have had a noise equivalent power of <4 × ^{10 ? 18} W / (Hz)^0.5. Thus, it was imperative to shield the detector from thermal radiation from the instrument and optical and UV photons from the sky. In addition, it was necessary to shield the coldest stages of the instrument from the thermal radiation emanating from the warmer stages. These needs were addressed by a series of five thin-film radiation-blocking filters, anchored to the nested temperature stages, that blocked long-wavelength radiation while minimizing x-ray attenuation. The aperture assembly was a system of barriers, baffles, filter carriers, and filter mounts that supported the filters and inhibited their potential contamination. The three outer filters also had been equipped with thermometers and heaters for decontamination. We present the requirements, design, implementation, and performance of the SXS aperture assembly and blocking filters.

CC BY: © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

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Caroline A. Kilbourne, Joseph S. Adams, Petar Arsenovic, Travis Ayers, Meng P. Chiao, Michael J. DiPirro, Megan E. Eckart, Ryuichi Fujimoto, John D. Kazeva, Kari L. Kripps, Bruce M. Lairson, Maurice A. Leutenegger, Heidi C. Lopez, Daniel McCammon, Daniel S. McGuinness, Kazuhisa Mitsuda, Samuel J. Moseley, F. Scott Porter, Andrea N. Schweiss, Yoh Takei, Rosemary S. Thorpe, Tomomi Watanabe, Noriko Y. Yamasaki, and Seiji Yoshida "Design, implementation, and performance of the Astro-H soft x-ray spectrometer aperture assembly and blocking filters," Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems 4(1), 011215 (26 February 2018). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.4.1.011215

Received: 15 August 2017; Accepted: 22 January 2018; Published: 26 February 2018

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