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The Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer: optics design and characterisation 
Paper 7441A-11 of Conference 7441A
Date: Wednesday, 05 August 2009
Time: 5:30 PM

Author(s): Adrian Martindale, George W. Fraser, James F. Pearson, Univ. of Leicester (United Kingdom); James D. Carpenter, European Space Research and Technology Ctr. (Netherlands); Chris Whitford, Univ. of Leicester (United Kingdom); Emile Schyns, Ray Fairbend, Photonis France S.A.S. (France); Richard Willingale, Univ. of Leicester (United Kingdom); Ed Sclater, Ivan Delgado, Magna Parva Ltd. (United Kingdom); Matti Kaipiainen, Oxford Instruments Analytical Oy (Finland); Julien Seguy, Photonis France S.A.S. (France)
 

We report progress in the design, theoretical modelling and experimental characterisation of microchannel plate X-ray optics for the BepiColombo, Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (MIXS). We show that microchannel plate optics technology allows the design of a highly capable imaging telescope with 1m focal length, a 1 degree field of view and approximately 50cm2 of on-axis effective area at 1keV. The total instrument mass budget is 7.3kg, yet this optic performance can be achieved with only 2kg allocated to the optics assembly, telescope tube, support structures and the electron diverter (used to deflect electrons from the focal plane). The instrument science goals dictate a necessary imaging resolution of 9 arcminutes, however, a design goal of 2 arcminutes has been adopted. Recent experimental data, taken from individual optic elements (tandems) is presented to show that MCP quality is in good agreement with the error budgets assumed in theoretical calculations of performance.