Technology Maturation for Adjustable X-ray Mirrors

Lightweight, high angular resolution X-ray optics are a foundational technology for addressing major outstanding questions in modern astronomy. From understanding how supermassive black holes co-evolve with their host galaxies at early cosmic epochs, to probing the kinematics and energetics of shocks via spectrally/spatially resolved observations of supernova remnants, to characterizing stellar activity to assess the space weather experienced by exoplanets, an X-ray telescope with subarcsecond angular resolution and large effective area will be needed to address the core science outlined by the 2020 Decadal Survey. We propose to continue to mature a hybridizable approach – adjustable X-ray optics – capable of meeting this technology need. Over the past decade, we have developed a scalable process to produce segmented X-ray optics with independently addressable PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 (PZT) piezoelectric pixels deposited on the back surface which apply localized stresses to the mirror via applying a potential across a thin piezoelectric film. Our team has demonstrated the promise of this approach over the past decade, making these devices on X-ray mirrors with high yields and to enable localized corrections, showing that induced figure changes are deterministic and capable of correcting representative errors, and developing a control scheme that can be scaled to the large number of segments needed for a future X-ray telescope. In the proposed scope of work, we will focus on developing processes and solving remaining technical challenges in order to advance to flight-like adjustable X-ray optics. Our work is divided into three primary objectives: • improving the yield and power draw of adjustable X-ray optics by optimizing the row-column control scheme and PZT thin films; • examining both the requirements for and benefits of silicon mirror substrates in the context of adjustable X-ray optics; and • demonstrating that the thin-film stresses introduced during the fabrication of the actuator stack can be balanced through use of a stress-compensation layer. For all three objectives, we will perform high-resolution optical metrology and characterization on the fabricated parts, giving important feedback on these processes in context. Accomplishing these outlined objectives lays the groundwork for the fabrication and X-ray test of an adjustable optic with subarcsecond resolution, envisioned as the primary objective of a future APRA proposal. Our program is timed to enable adjustable X-ray optics technology to support an X-ray mission entering the Great Observatories Maturation Program (GOMaP) in the latter half of the 2020s as outlined by the Decadal Survey. Moreover, as approaches employed for adjustable X-ray optics can be applied to pace-based optical/infrared telescopes, this effort is primed to cross-fertilize technology efforts across PCOS, thus enhancing the impact of the proposed work.

The Astrophysics Research and Analysis program (APRA) supports suborbital and suborbital-class investigations, development of detectors and supporting technology, laboratory astrophysics, and limited ground-based observing. Basic research proposals in these areas are solicited for investigations that are relevant to NASA's programs in astronomy and astrophysics, including the entire range of photons, gravitational waves, and particle astrophysics. The emphasis of this solicitation is on technologies and investigations that advance NASA astrophysics missions and goals.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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