Progress toward a Soft X-ray Polarimeter
Abstract
We are developing instrumentation for a telescope design capable of measuring linear X-ray polarization over a broad-band using conventional spectroscopic optics. Multilayer-coated mirrors are key to this approach, being used as Bragg reflectors at the Brewster angle. By laterally grading the multilayer mirrors and matching to the dispersion of a spectrometer, one may take advantage of high multilayer reflectivities and achieve modulation factors over 50% over the entire 0.2-0.8 keV band. We present progress on laboratory work to demonstrate the capabilities of an existing laterally graded multilayer coated mirror pair. We also present plans for a suborbital rocket experiment designed to detect a polarization level of 12-17% for an active galactic nucleus in the 0.1-1.0 keV band.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1309.4478,
title = {Progress toward a Soft X-ray Polarimeter},
author = {Herman L. Marshall and Norbert S. Schulz and Brian Remlinger and Eric S. Gentry and David L. Windt and Eric M. Gullikson},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1309.4478},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
11 pages, 12 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the SPIE, volume 8861, on Optics for EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Astronomy