Soft X-Ray (1-7 nm) Solar Spectrometer based on novel Nanowriter Electron-Beam Nanofabrication Technology

Abstract:

A new soft X-ray (SXR) spectrometer combines proven detector technology demonstrated on the SOHO Solar EUV Monitor (SOHO/SEM) and SDO EUV SpectroPhotometer (SDO/EVE/ESP) instruments with novel technology for X-ray optics nanofabrication developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The new spectrometer will provide solar SXR measurements of absolute irradiance in the 1.0 to 7.0 nm range spectrally resolved into bands narrower than 1 nm – measurements that are not available from existing solar-observing instruments but are important for studying and modeling coronal dynamics and the Sun-Earth’s connection, e.g. the Earth’s Ionosphere.

For the proposed SXR spectrometer we will introduce a transmission grating based on novel Nanowriter Electron-Beam Nanofabrication technology developed at the Center for X-ray Optics (CXRO) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The CXRO technology has been used in the fabrication of X-ray zone plates with feature sizes as small as 25 nm in optical elements with overall sizes on the order of 1 cm. The CXRO technology has significant flexibility in terms of pattern geometry, and is thus capable of producing linear transmission gratings with aperture sizes similar to SEM and ESP but with four times the dispersion. With such dispersion, reasonable spectral resolution (< 1nm) can be obtained using commercial off-the shelf (COTS) X-ray sensitive AXUV type silicon photodiodes from the Optodiode Corp. in an instrument with overall size and mass similar to that of SEM or ESP.