Atomic scattering factor of the ASTRO-H (Hitomi) SXT reflector around the gold's L edges.

The atomic scattering factor in the energy range of 11.2-15.4 keV for the ASTRO-H Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) is reported. The large effective area of the SXT makes use of photon spectra above 10 keV viable, unlike most other X-ray satellites with total-reflection mirror optics. Presence of gold's L-edges in the energy band is a major issue, as it complicates the function of the effective area. In order to model the area, the reflectivity measurements in the 11.2-15.4 keV band with the energy pitch of 0.4 - 0.7 eV were made in the synchrotron beam-line Spring-8 BL01B1. We obtained atomic scattering factors f1 and f2 by the curve fitting to the reflectivities of our witness sample. The edges associated with the L-I, II, and III transitions are identified, of which the depths are found to be roughly 60% shallower than those expected from the Henke's atomic scattering factor.

Demonstration of multilayer reflective optics at photon energies above 0.6 MeV.

Focusing optics operating in the soft gamma-ray photon energy range can advance a range of scientific and technological applications that benefit from the large improvements in sensitivity and resolution that true imaging provides. An enabling technology to this end is multilayer coatings. We show that very short period multilayer coatings deposited on super-polished substrates operate efficiently above 0.6 MeV. These experiments demonstrate that Bragg scattering theory established for multilayer applications as low as 1 eV continues to work well into the gamma-ray band.

X-ray metrology and performance of a 45-cm long x-ray deformable mirror.

We describe experiments with a 45-cm long x-ray deformable mirror (XDM) that have been conducted in End Station 2, Beamline 5.3.1 at the Advanced Light Source. A detailed description of the hardware implementation is provided. We explain our one-dimensional Fresnel propagation code that correctly handles grazing incidence and includes a model of the XDM. This code is used to simulate and verify experimental results. Initial long trace profiler metrology of the XDM at 7.5 keV is presented. The ability to measure a large (150-nm amplitude) height change on the XDM is demonstrated. The results agree well with the simulated experiment at an error level of 1 µrad RMS. Direct imaging of the x-ray beam also shows the expected change in intensity profile at the detector.