ON THE DEVELOPMENT STATUS OF HIGH PERFORMANCE SILICON PORE OPTICS FOR FUTURE X-RAY TELESCOPES

Silicon pore optics have been proposed earlier [1] as modular optical X-ray units in large Wolter-I telescopes [2] that would match effective area and resolution requirements imposed by missions such as XEUS [3][4]. Since then the optics have been developed further and the feasibility of the production of high-performance pore optics has been demonstrated [5]. Op timisation of both the p roduction and the assembly process allowed the generation of optics with larger areas with improved imaging performance. Silicon pore optics can now be manufactured with properties required for fut ure X -ray telescopes. A suitable design that allows the implementation of pore optics into X-ray Optical Units in Wolter-I configuration was recently derived including an appropriate telescope mounting structure with interfaces for the individual components. The development status, the achieved performance and the requirements regarding future mirror production, optics assembly and related metrology for its characterisation are presented.