Related papers: Progress toward a Soft X-ray Polarimeter
Using polarization measurements in remote sensing and optical studies allows retrieving more information. We consider relationship between the reflection coefficients of plane and rough surfaces for linearly polarized waves. Certain…
Photons preferentially Compton scatter perpendicular to the plane of polarisation. This property can be exploited to design instruments to measure the linear polarisation of hard X-rays ($\sim$10 - 100 keV). Photons may undergo two…
A device performing both the polarization-alignment and the wavelength selection is demonstrated by fabricated device. Waveguides incorporating Bragg gratings for polarization rotation and mode conversion having different widths are placed…
The hard X-ray polarimeter POLAR aims to measure the linear polarization of the 50-500 keV photons arriving from the prompt emission of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The position in the sky of the detected GRBs is needed to determine their level…
We have developed a vacuum-ultraviolet spectropolarimeter to measure the linear polarization of spectral lines around the Lyman-$\alpha$ wavelength. The main components for polarimetry are a rotatable MgF$_2$ waveplate and a SiO$_2$/MgF$_2$…
To enhance the reflectivity of X-ray mirrors beyond the critical angle, multilayer coatings are required. Interface imperfections in the multilayer growth process are known to cause non-specular scattering and degrade the mirror optical…
In any polarimetric measurement technique, enhancing the laser polarization change of a laser beam before it reaches the analyzer can help in improving the sensitivity. This can be performed using an optical component having a large linear…
We report the design, nanofabrication, and characterization of high-quality polymer-based micromirror structures employing the 3D two-photon polymerization lithography technique. Compared to conventional microcavity approaches, our…
The concept of a neutron Hybrid Spectrometer (HYSPEC) combines the time-of-flight spectroscopy with the focusing Bragg optics and incorporates a polarized beam option. Here we describe the polarization analysis scheme proposed for HYSPEC…
X-ray polarization should provide new probes of magnetic field geometry and acceleration physics near the base of blazar jets, but near-future missions will have limited sensitivity. We thus use existing lower energy data and X-ray…
In undergraduate optics courses, diffraction gratings are studied extensively, generally within the scalar approximation. When the vector nature of light is taken into account, so-called polarization diffraction gratings have been proposed,…
X-ray polarimetry of solar flares is still a not well established field of observation of our star. Past polarimeters were not able to measure with a high significance the polarization in X-rays from solar flares. Moreover, they had no…
Emission spectra from magnetars in the soft X-ray band likely contain a thermal component emerging directly from the neutron star surface. However, the lack of observed absorption-like features in quiescent spectra makes it difficult to…
A series of thin layers of alternating refractive index is known to make a good optical mirror over certain bands of frequency. Such a device - often termed the Bragg reflector - is usually introduced to students within the first years of…
While the scientific potential of high-energy X-ray and gamma-ray polarimetry has long been recognized, measuring the polarization of high-energy photons is challenging. To date, there has been very few significant detections from an…
Micro-domes based on a combination of metallic and dielectric multilayer mirrors are studied using a fully vectorial numerical basis-expansion method that accurately accounts for the effects of an arbitrary Bragg stack and can efficiently…
Development of multi-layer optics makes feasible the use of X-ray telescope at energy up to 60-80 keV: in this paper we discuss the extension of photoelectric polarimeter based on Micro Pattern Gas Chamber to high energy X-rays. We…
X-ray polarimetry promises to give new information about high-energy astrophysical sources, such as binary black hole systems, micro-quasars, active galactic nuclei, and gamma-ray bursts. We designed, built and tested a hard X-ray…
X-ray polarimetry has the potential to make key-contributions to our understanding of galactic compact objects like binary black hole systems and neutron stars, and extragalactic objects like active galactic nuclei, blazars, and Gamma Ray…
Polarimetric measurements, especially if extended at high energy, are expected to provide important insights into the mechanisms underlying the acceleration of relativistic particles in jets. In a previous work we have shown that the…