Future strategic X-ray satellite telescopes, such as the probe-class Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite (AXIS), will require excellent soft energy response in their imaging detectors to enable maximum discovery potential. In order to characterize Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) and Single Electron Sensitive Read Output (SiSeRO) detectors in the soft X-ray region, the X-ray Astronomy and Observational Cosmology (XOC) group at Stanford has developed, assembled, and commissioned a 2.5-meter-long X-ray beamline test system. The beamline is designed to efficiently produce monoenergetic X-ray fluorescence lines in the 0.3-10 keV energy range and achieve detector temperatures as low as 173 K. We present design and simulation details of the beamline, and discuss the vacuum, cooling, and X-ray fluorescence performance achieved. As a workhorse for future detector characterization at Stanford, the XOC beamline will support detector development for a broad range of X-ray astronomy instruments.
@article{arxiv.2407.16757,
title = {The XOC X-ray Beamline: Probing Colder, Quieter, and Softer},
author = {Haley R. Stueber and Tanmoy Chattopadhyay and Sven C. Herrmann and Peter Orel and Tsion Gebre and Aanand Joshi and Steven W. Allen and Glenn Morris and Artem Poliszczuk},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.16757},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
To appear in SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024 proceedings. 17 pages, 13 figures