Abstract

Both scattering and figure errors in grazing incidence optics are larger in the plane of incidence than out-of-plane by a factor equal to 1/sinθ, where θ is the graze angle. When the full annular aperture of a grazing incidence telescope is stopped down, the point spread function becomes highly elliptical with a width as much as sinθ times narrower than the full image. In practice this means that improvements in resolution of up to 100 times can be achieved, and effective resolution can approach the diffraction limit. Laboratory data demonstrating the effect are presented.

© 1987 Optical Society of America

X-ray optics. 2: A technique for high resolution spectroscopy

Webster C. Cash
Appl. Opt. 30(13) 1749-1759 (1991)

Design, construction, and performance of the ROSAT high-resolution x-ray mirror assembly

Bernd Aschenbach
Appl. Opt. 27(8) 1404-1413 (1988)

EXOSAT x-ray imaging optics

P. A. J. de Korte, R. Giralt, J. N. Coste, C. Ernu, S. Frindel, J. Flamand, and J. J. Contet
Appl. Opt. 20(6) 1080-1088 (1981)

Optical design of diffraction-limited x-ray telescopes

Brandon D. Chalifoux, Ralf K. Heilmann, Herman L. Marshall, and Mark L. Schattenburg
Appl. Opt. 59(16) 4901-4914 (2020)

Electroformed grazing incidence x-ray mirrors for a mirror array telescope

Melville P. Ulmer, Yutaka Matsui, D. K. Bedford, G. M. Simnett, and Peter Z. Takacs
Appl. Opt. 26(18) 3852-3857 (1987)