The optical blocking filter for the ATHENA wide field imager: ongoing activities towards the conceptual design

[en] ATHENA is the L2 mission selected by ESA to pursue the science theme "Hot and Energetic Universe" (launch scheduled in 2028). One of the key instruments of ATHENA is the Wide Field Imager (WFI) which will provide imaging in the 0.1-15 keV band over a 40'x40' large field of view, together with spectrally and time-resolved photon counting. The WFI camera, based on arrays of DEPFET active pixel sensors, is also sensitive to UV/Vis photons. Optically generated electron-hole pairs may degrade the spectral resolution as well as change the energy scale by introducing a signal offset. For this reason, the use of an X-ray transparent optical blocking filter is needed to allow the observation of all type of X-ray sources that present a UV/Visible bright counterpart. In this paper, we describe the main activities that we are carrying on for the conceptual design of the optical blocking filter, that will be mounted on the filter wheel, in order to satisfy the scientific requirements on optical load from bright UV/Vis astrophysical source, to maximize the X-ray transmission, and to withstand the severe acoustic and vibration loads foreseen during launch.

Research Center/Unit :

LiSRI - Liège Space Research Institute - ULiège

Disciplines :

Aerospace & aeronautics engineering
Space science, astronomy & astrophysics

Author, co-author :

Barbera, M.; Univ. degli Studi di Palermo (Italy)

Branduardi-Raymont, G.; Univ. College London (United Kingdom)

Collura, A.; INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo Giuseppe S. Vaiana (Italy)

Comastri, A.; INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna (Italy)

Eder, J.; Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik (Germany)

Kamisiński, T.; AGH Univ. of Science and Technology (Poland)

Lo Cicero, U.; INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo Giuseppe S. Vaiana (Italy)

Meidinger, N.; Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik (Germany)

Mineo, T.; INAF - Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica di Palermo (Italy)

Molendi, S.; INAF - IASF Milano (Italy)

More authors (8 more)

Language :

English

Title :

The optical blocking filter for the ATHENA wide field imager: ongoing activities towards the conceptual design

Publication date :

01 August 2015

Event name :

UV, X-ray, and Gamma-Ray Space Instrumentation for Astronomy XIX

Event organizer :

Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

Event place :

San Diego, United States

Event date :

from 09-08-2015 to 10-08-2015

Audience :

International

Journal title :

Proceedings of SPIE: The International Society for Optical Engineering

ISSN :

0277-786X

eISSN :

1996-756X

Publisher :

International Society for Optical Engineering, Bellingham, United States - Washington

Peer review/Selection committee :

Editorial Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015SPIE.9601E..09B

Commentary :

ISBN: 9601

Available on ORBi :

since 27 January 2016

Statistics

Number of views

112 (6 by ULiège)

Number of downloads

350 (1 by ULiège)

More statistics

Scopus citations^®

Scopus citations^®
without self-citations

OpenCitations

OpenAlex citations

Bibliography

Barcons, X., Nandra, K., Barret, D., den Herder, J.-W., Fabian, A. C., Piro, L., Watson, M. G., and the Athena team, "Athena: the X-ray observatory to study the hot and energetic Universe", Journal of Physics Conference Series, Volume 610, Issue 1, article id. 012008 (2015).
Nandra, K., Barret, D., Barcons, X., Fabian, A., den Herder, J.-W., Piro, L., Watson, M., Adami, C., Aird, J., Afonso, J. M., and et al., "The Hot and Energetic Universe: A White Paper presenting the science theme motivating the Athena+ mission", eprint arXiv:1306.2307N (2013).
Willingale, R., Pareschi, G., Christensen, F., and den Herder, J.-W., "The Hot and Energetic Universe: The Optical Design of the Athena+ Mirror", eprint arXiv:1307.1709W (2013).
Rau, A., Meidinger, N., Nandra, K., Porro, M., Barret, D., Santangelo, A., Schmid, C., Struder, L., Tenzer, C., Wilms, J., Amoros, C., Andritschke, R., Aschauer, F., Bahr, A., Gunther, B., Furmetz, M., Ott, B., Perinati, E., Rambaud, D., Reiffers, J., Treis, J., von Kienlin, A., Weidenspointner, G., "The Hot and Energetic Universe: The Wide Field Imager (WFI) for Athena+", eprint arXiv:1308.6785 (2013).
Meidinger, N., Nandra, K., Plattner, M., Porro, M., Rau, A., Santangelo, A. E., Tenzer, C., Wilms, J., "The wide field imager instrument for Athena", Proc. SPIE, 9144, id. 91442J 12 pp. (2014).
Barbera M, Austin K, Collura A, Flanagan A, Jelinsky R, Murray S, Serio S, Zombeck M, "Development of the UV/ion shields for the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility high-resolution camera (AXAF HRC)", Proc. SPIE, 2280, 214-228 (1994).
Meehan R, Murray S, Zombeck V, Kraft P, Kobayashi K, Chappell H, Kenter T, Barbera M, Collura A, Serio S, "Calibration of the UV/ion shields for the AXAF High-Resolution Camera", Proc. SPIE, 3114, 74-100 (1997).
Villa GE, Barbera M, Collura A, La Palombara N, Musso C, Serio S, Stillwell R, Tognon P, Turner DC The optical/UV filters for the EPIC experiment. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 45, 921-926 (1998).
Barbera M, Agnello S, Buscarino G, Collura A, Gastaldello F, La Palombara N, Lo Cicero U, Tiengo A, Sciortino L, Varisco S, Venezia A M, "Status of the EPIC thin and medium filters on-board XMM-Newton after more than 10 years of operation: 1) laboratory measurements on back-up filters", Proc. SPIE, 8859, 885914 12 pp. (2013).
Gastaldello F, Barbera M, Collura A, La Palombara N, Lo Cicero U, Sartore N, Tiengo A, Varisco S, "Status of the EPIC thin and medium filters on-board XMM-Newton after more than 10 years of operation: 2) analysis of in-flight data", Proc. SPIE, 8859, 885915 6 pp. (2013).
Zane, S., et al., "The large area detector of LOFT: the large observatory for x-ray timing", Proc. SPIE, 9144, id. 91442W 19 pp. (2014).
Feroci et al., "The Large Observatory for X-ray Timing (LOFT)", Experimental Astronomy, 34, issue 2, 415 (2012).
Feroci M., et al., "The Large Observatory for x-ray timing", Proc. SPIE, 9144, 91442T 20 pp. (2014).
Barbera, M., Winter, B., Coker, J., Feroci, M., Kennedy, T., Walton, D., Zane, S., "Baseline design of the filters for the LAD detector on board LOFT", Proc. SPIE, 9144, 914466 11 pp. (2014).
Barbera M, Austin K, Collura A, Flanagan A, Jelinsky R, Murray S, Serio S, Zombeck M, "Development of the UV/ion shields for the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility high-resolution camera (AXAF HRC)", Proc. SPIE, 2280, 214-228 (1994).
Born M. and Wolf E., "Principles of Optics", 6th edition (1997), Cambridge University Press (UK), ISBN 0521639212.
D.Y. Smith, "The optical properties of metallic aluminum", in Handbook of Optical Constants of Solids, p. 369-406 (1985), Edited by Edward D. Palik, ISBN: 978-0-12-544415-6
Aleksandar D. Rakic., "Algorithm for the determination of intrinsic optical constants of metal films: application to aluminum", Appl. Opt. 34, 4755-4767 (1995).
H.-J. Hagemann et al., "Optical constants from the far infrared to the x-ray region: Mg, Al, Cu, Ag, Au, Bi, C, and Al2O3", J. Opt. Soc. Am. 65, 742-744 (1975).
Cavadi A, Artale A, Barbera M, Collura A, Powell R, Varisco S, "Measurement of optical constants n and k of lexan and polyimide", Proc. SPIE, 3765, 805-815 (1999).
Barbera M, Collura A, Artale A, Varisco S, Peres G, Sciortino S, Serio S, Villa G E., "Monitoring the stability of thin and medium back-up filters of the Newton-XMM EPIC camera", Proc. SPIE, 4851, 264-269 (2003).
Lanz, T., & Hubeny, I., "A Grid of Non-LTE Line-blanketed Model Atmospheres of O-Type Stars", ApJS 146, 417 (2003).
Lanz, T., & Hubeny, I., "A Grid of NLTE Line-blanketed Model Atmospheres of Early B-Type Stars", ApJS 169, 83 (2007).
Martins, F., Schaerer, D., & Hillier, D.J., "A new calibration of stellar parameters of Galactic O stars ", A&A 436, 1049 (2005).
Mathis, J.S., in Allen's Astrophysical Quantities, 4th Edition, ed. A.N. Cox, AIP Press; Springer (New York), 523 (2000).
Sciortino, S., Rauw, G., Audard, M., Argiroffi, C., Chu, Y.-H., De Becker, M., Drake, J., Feigelson, E., Gosset, E., Grosso, N., Güdel, M., Guerrero, M., Hervé, A., Kastner, J., Montez, R., Nazé, Y., Oskinova, L., Stelzer, B., ud-Doula, A., "The Hot and Energetic Universe: Star formation and evolution", eprint arXiv:1306.2333 (2013).