Low atomic number coating for XEUS silicon pore optics

We describe a set of measurements on coated silicon substrates that are representative of the material to be used for the XEUS High Performance Pore Optics (HPO) technology. X-ray angular reflectance measurements at 2.8 and 8 keV, and energy scans of reflectance at a fixed angle representative of XEUS graze angles are presented.

Reflectance is significantly enhanced for low energies when a low atomic number over-coating is applied. Modeling of the layer thicknesses and roughness is used to investigate the dependence on the layer thicknesses, metal and over coat material choices. We compare the low energy effective area increase that could be achieved with an optimized coating design.