Pulsed Laser System for Calibration of High Resolution X-ray Microcalorimeters.

The development of high-resolution X-ray microcalorimeters promises to revolutionize the study of black holes, neutron stars, and diffuse hot gas. The first results from XRISM's Resolve spectrometer demonstrate this with its 5 eV resolution, which is a factor of twenty improvement over the CCDs in current X-ray observatories. Future missions promise even better resolution: 3 eV for Athena, and 3 eV to 0.3 eV for Lynx. At these levels, detector performance is now limited by our ability to calibrate them. Detector gain is extremely sensitive to environmental factors and must be carefully calibrated to prevent energy resolution degradation. Current calibration relies on fluorescent X-ray lines that are broader than the detector resolution. Therefore a large number of counts are needed for the line to be centroided to sufficient accuracy. An even more daunting challenge is determining the detector's resolution profile with great enough precision, such that its deconvolution from an observed profile allows for the measurement of thermal and turbulent broadening of an astrophysical source. To address these challenges, we tested an alternative calibration method utilizing an ultraviolet (UV) laser. Since microcalorimeters respond to total energy deposited, an X-ray photon is indistinguishable from a short burst of UV photons with the same total energy. Poisson fluctuations in the number of UV photons produce a comb of lines with negligible width and 3 eV spacing. We have demonstrated that this works for energies up to 1.7 keV, and that the UV comb energies match X-ray events to within 0.4 eV at 1.5 keV. Here, I propose investigating methods to stabilize the laser to the levels required by future X-ray observatories, where calibration at the 0.1 eV level at energies up to 10 or 12 keV is beneficial. I will also begin the development of a version of the calibrator suitable for flight on an orbital mission.

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