Date: Thursday, April 25, 2024

Time:  12:45 PM - 1:45 PM MST

Location: PAIS, Room 2540 and Zoom

Speaker:

Prof. Brandon Chalifoux

Assistant Professor of Optical Sciences

James C. Wyant College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona

Abstract：

X-ray astronomy has historically been limited by the tradeoff between collecting area and angular resolution. For 25 years, the Chandra Observatory has provided sub-arcsecond half-power diameter (HPD) angular resolution, with <0.1 m² effective area. Upcoming telescopes like Athena will have >1 m² effective area but >10× larger angular resolution than Chandra. The difficulty with high resolution and large area astronomical X-ray optics is that mirrors must reflect at grazing incidence, and must therefore be thin (< 1 mm) for efficient nesting, yet they must maintain slope errors <0.1 arcsec RMS, and they must be manufactured in quantities of tens of thousands. In this talk I will present our research efforts toward advancing the state of the art in X-ray optomechanical assemblies. We investigate the use of ultrafast laser processing to fabricate, weld, and figure thin optical components even after assembly and mounting. Ultrafast lasers are becoming common for industrial processes, and we take advantage of highly nonlinear absorption effects to produce localized melting and nanostructure generation, so we can control sub-mm scale geometry, generate stress, and produce welded joints. I will show our recent optical assemblies, and our efforts toward tuning these structures for future X-ray optical systems.