Analysis and design of grazing incidence X-ray optics for pulsar navigation

As a promising new technology for deep space exploration due to autonomous capability, pulsar navigation has attracted extensive attentions from academy and engineering domains. The pulsar navigation accuracy is determined by the measurement accuracy of Time of Arrival (TOA) of X-ray photon, which can be enhanced through design of appropriate optics. The energy band of X-ray suitable for pulsar navigation is 0.1-10keV, the effective focusing of which can be primely and effectively realized by the grazing incidence reflective optics. The Wolter-I optics, originally proposed based on a paraboloid mirror and a hyperboloid mirror for X-ray imaging, has long been widely developed and employed in X-ray observatory. Some differences, however, remain in the requirements on optics between astronomical X-ray observation and pulsar navigation. X-ray concentrator, the simplified Wolter-I optics, providing single reflection by a paraboloid mirror, is more suitable for pulsar navigation. In this paper, therefore, the requirements on aperture, effective area and focal length of the grazing incidence reflective optics were firstly analyzed based on the characteristics, such as high time resolution, large effective area and low angular resolution, of the pulsar navigation. Furthermore, the preliminary design of optical system and overall structure, as well as the diaphragm, was implemented for the X-ray concentrator. Through optical and FEA simulation, system engineering analysis on the X-ray concentrator was finally performed to analyze the effects of environmental factors on the performance, providing basis and guidance for fabrication of the X-ray concentrator grazing incidence optics.