X-Ray Focusing Mirror
Safety Warnings
Warning: Heavy Equipment
Purpose
A Wolter Type I grazing-incidence X-ray reflector. Students learn why conventional optics cannot focus X-rays and how paired paraboloidal-hyperboloidal mirrors at grazing incidence achieve X-ray focusing for space telescopes like Chandra.
Figure 1:
Side view of the Wolter Type I X-ray focusing mirror. The upper ring is a hyperboloidal section and the lower ring is a paraboloidal section.
Figure 2:
View into the aperture showing the nested concentric reflecting surfaces. X-rays reflect at grazing incidence (less than ~2 degrees) off these polished surfaces.