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Filters and calibration sources for the soft x-ray spectrometer (SXS) instrument on ASTRO-H

2010; SPIE; Volume: 7732; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1117/12.855880

1996-756X

C. P. de Vries, J. W. den Herder, E. Costantini, H. Aarts, P. Lowes, J. S. Kaastra, Richard L. Kelley, Keith C. Gendreau, Zaven Arzoumanian, Richard Koenecke, Daniel Haas, S. Paltani, Kazuhisa Mitsuda, Noriko Y. Yamasaki,

Nuclear Physics and Applications

The SXS instrument is the Soft X-ray micro-calorimeter Spectrometer planned for the Japanese ASTRO-H satellite, scheduled to be launched in 2014. In this paper, the trade off and modelling for the X-ray absorption and optical blocking filters will be described. The X-ray absorption filter will optimize the efficiency for high spectral resolution observations for bright sources at higher energies (notably around the Fe-K line at 6.4 KeV), given the characteristics of the instrument while the optical blocking filter allows X-ray observations of optically bright sources. For this mission a novel type of on-off-switchable X-ray calibration source, using light sensitive photo-cathodes, is being developed, which will be used for gain calibration and contamination monitoring. These sources will be used by both the SXS and SXI (Soft X-ray Imager) instruments and have the capability to be pulsed at millisecond intervals. Details of these sources will also be discussed.