An introduction to the Rockets for Extended-source X-ray Spectroscopy

Miles, Drew M.; McEntaffer, Randall L.; Tutt, James H.; Anderson, Tyler; Weiss, Matthew J.; Baker, Logan; Weston, Joseph; O'Meara, Bridget C.; McCurdy, Ross; Myers, Bailey; Grisé, Fabien

doi:10.1117/12.2529567

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…The result serves as experimental evidence for sol-gel resist shrinkage impacting the performance of an x-ray reflection grating in terms of its ability to maximize diffraction efficiency for a specific diffracted angle. Monitoring this effect is particularly relevant for instrument development in astrophysical x-ray spectroscopy that relies on the production of large numbers of identical gratings, where resist shrinkage should be compensated for in the master grating to ensure that the replicas perform as expected [3,9,10]. Although the A SCIL production platform provides an avenue for high-volume production of grating imprints, sputter-coating is limited in its throughput, and moreover, the impact of ion bombardment on the sol-gel network has not been investigated.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, the pattern fidelity of a rigid stamp is gradually degraded as it makes repeated imprints such that in the case of the UV-NIL process described by Miles, et al [2], a single stamp typically can produce tens of quality grating replicas [8]. As a result, the implementation of UV-NIL becomes impractical for future astronomical instruments such as The Rockets for Extended-source X-ray Spectroscopy [9] and The Off-plane Grating Rocket Experiment [10] that each require hundreds of replicated gratings and additionally, the X-ray Grating Spectrometer for the Lynx X-ray Observatory mission concept, which calls for the production of thousands of replicated gratings [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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X-ray verification of sol-gel resist shrinkage in substrate-conformal imprint lithography for a replicated blazed reflection grating

et al. 2020

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Surface-relief gratings fabricated through nanoimprint lithography (NIL) are prone to topographic distortion induced by resist shrinkage. Characterizing the impact of this effect on blazed diffraction efficiency is particularly important for applications in astrophysical spectroscopy at soft x-ray wavelengths (≈ 0.5 − 5 nm) that call for the mass-production of large-area grating replicas with sub-micron, sawtooth surface-relief profiles. A variant of NIL that lends itself well for this task is substrate-conformal imprint lithography (SCIL), which uses a flexible, composite stamp formed from a rigid master template to imprint nanoscale features in an inorganic resist that cures thermodynamically through a silica sol-gel process. While SCIL enables the production of several hundred imprints before stamp degradation and avoids many of the detriments associated with large-area imprinting in NIL, the sol-gel resist suffers shrinkage dependent on the postimprint cure temperature. Through atomic force microscopy and diffraction-efficiency testing at beamline 6.3.2 of the Advanced Light Source, the impact of this effect on blaze response is constrained for a ∼160-nm-period grating replica cured at 90 • C. Results demonstrate a ∼2 • reduction in blaze angle relative to the master grating, which was fabricated by anisotropic wet etching in 311-oriented silicon to yield a facet angle close to 30 • .

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

X-ray verification of sol-gel resist shrinkage in substrate-conformal imprint lithography for a replicated blazed reflection grating

et al. 2020

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“…The WRXR was a technology-driven astrophysics payload that sought to demonstrate the performance of two technologies assigned the highest priority to NASA Astrophysics technology development in the 2019 Astrophysics Biennial Technology Report: 1 x-ray reflection gratings and an x-ray hybrid CMOS detector (HCD). Both technologies were studied or are actively under development for the Lynx flagship mission concept, [2][3][4] explorer and probe mission concepts, [5][6][7][8] and smaller missions, such as suborbital rocket payloads 9,10 and cubesats. 11 The WRXR, along with the Colorado Highresolution Echelle Stellar Spectrograph, 12 also enabled the first successful demonstrations of NASA water recovery technology for astrophysics suborbital rocket payloads.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Recovery X-Ray Rocket grating spectrometer

Miles

Hull

Schultz

et al. 2019

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst.

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The Water Recovery X-Ray Rocket (WRXR) was a suborbital rocket payload that was launched and recovered in April 2018. The WRXR flew two technologies being developed for future large x-ray missions: x-ray reflection gratings and a hybrid CMOS detector (HCD). The large-format replicated gratings on the WRXR were measured in ground calibrations to have absolute single-order diffraction efficiency of ∼60%, ∼50%, and ∼35% at CVI, OVII, and OVIII emission energies, respectively. The HCD was operated with ∼6 e − read noise and ∼88 eV energy resolution at 0.5 keV. The WRXR was also part of a two-payload campaign that successfully demonstrated NASA sounding rocket water recovery technology for science payloads. The primary instrument, a soft x-ray grating spectrometer, targeted diffuse emission from the Vela supernova remnant over a field-of-view >10 deg 2 . The flight data show that the detector was operational during flight and detected x-ray events from an on-board calibration source, but there was no definitive detection of x-ray events from Vela. Flight results are presented along with a discussion of factors that could have contributed to the null detection.

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