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Collimators for X-Ray Astronomical Optics

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Handbook of X-ray and Gamma-ray Astrophysics

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Abstract

An X-ray collimator, or baffle, can be installed in the X-ray optics of an X-ray telescope. This component is placed in front of an X-ray mirror to protect the mirror from severe in-orbit thermal environment or to limit the mirror’s field of view. Although the latter may be a disadvantage in the viewpoint of observational performance, the collimation of incident X-rays allows us to block X-rays with large off-axis angles. Thus, the mount of the X-ray collimator results in the reduction of an extended ghost image in the detector field of view that is created by the X-rays, called stray light, with abnormal paths inside the X-ray mirror. The contamination of the stray light hampers both imaging and spectroscopic observations of dim X-ray emission from a spatially extended source or a faint point source. The improvement of the angular resolution and the effective area is intensively pursued for the next-generation X-ray optics. In parallel, it is a vital issue to reduce the stray light as low as possible to fully achieve the expected performance of these future X-ray optics.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency/Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan

    Hideyuki Mori

  2. Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Garching, Germany

    Peter Friedrich

Authors
  1. Hideyuki Mori
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  2. Peter Friedrich
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hideyuki Mori .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Cosimo Bambi

  2. Inst. for Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

    Andrea Santangelo

Section Editor information

  1. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, USA

    Jessica Gaskin

  2. Brera Astronomical Observatory, INAF - Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Milan, Italy

    Daniele Spiga

  3. Astronomical Institute/CAS, Czechia, Czech Republic

    René Hudec

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Mori, H., Friedrich, P. (2023). Collimators for X-Ray Astronomical Optics. In: Bambi, C., Santangelo, A. (eds) Handbook of X-ray and Gamma-ray Astrophysics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4544-0_10-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4544-0_10-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-981-16-4544-0

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