High-resolution spectroscopy at energies below 1 keV covers the lines of C, N, O, Ne and Fe ions, and is central
to studies of the Interstellar Medium, the Warm Hot Intergalactic Medium, warm absorption and outflows
in Active Galactic Nuclei, coronal emission from stars, etc. The large collecting area, long focal length, and 5
arcsecond half power diameter telescope point-spread function of the International X-ray Observatory will present
unprecedented opportunity for a grating spectrometer to address these areas at the forefront of astronomy and
astrophysics. We present the current status of a transmission grating spectrometer based on recently developed
high-efficiency critical-angle transmission (CAT) gratings that combine the traditional advantages of blazed
reflection and transmission gratings. The optical design places light-weight grating arrays close to the telescope
mirrors, which maximizes dispersion distance and thus spectral resolution and minimizes demands on mirror
performance. It merges features from the Chandra High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer and the
XMM-Newton Reflection Grating Spectrometer, and provides resolving power R = E/ΔE = 3000 - 5000 (full
width half max) and effective area >1000 cm2 in the soft x-ray band. We discuss recent results on ray-tracing
and optimization of the optical design, instrument configuration studies, and grating fabrication.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.