Description:
Mirrors are an essential component of all synchrotron and Free Electron Laser (FEL) x-ray beamlines. Current and future projected advances in x-ray source performance have led to an enormous increase in source brightness that is in turn driving mirror figure and finish tolerances to significantly lower values than achievable today. The ability of a manufacturer to make a mirror is fundamentally limited by the in-process metrology that is used to measure the mirror slope and height profiles. We are therefore seeking proposals that aim to substantially improve the precision of manufacture of x-ray mirrors through integration of advanced surface metrology into the manufacturing process. Synchrotron and FEL mirrors are typically characterized by lengths up to 1.2 m, with flat, spherical (5 100 m typical radii), sagittal cylinders ( 5-10 cm sagittal radii) or elliptical shape (typically up to 300 mm long with a factor of 2 change in curvature between the ends). We are therefore seeking proposals that demonstrate new technologies in manufacture and metrology of these classes of mirrors that reduce surface slope and height errors to a range well below 100 nrad and 2 nm (rms) respectively.
