Instruments

Reflection Grating Spectrometer (RGS)

Examining the spectra of X-ray objects

Privileged visitors to the ESTEC clean rooms during the final integration of XMM-Newton noticed that after the installation of the flight-model mirror modules, there appeared to be something missing. Only two of the three mirror modules project out of the support platform. The lack of symmetry stems from the fact that only two of the mirror modules are equipped at their exit with reflection grating arrays. With the associated cameras, they are part of the Reflection Grating Spectrometer (RGS) component of the XMM-Newton mission.

Dispersive spectroscopy fans out X-ray photons much as a prism does with visible light. It is a relatively new technique and XMM-Newton is the first ever X-ray space observatory to be equipped with reflection gratings operating in the X-ray band of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Early X-ray missions carried 'Bragg-crystal' spectrometers; later missions like EXOSAT (1983) used 'transmission gratings'. XMM-Newton is the first mission to use the latest technology which makes it possible to produce large 'reflection gratings' plates, giving simultaneously a high spectral resolution and throughput.

Reflection grating

One of the RGS cameras tucked behind its cooling radiator. The opening in the black radiator shows the connection to the cold finger that cools the inside of the camera.

A reflection grating is a mirror with tightly controlled grooves on it, in the case of RGS about 600 grooves per mm, equivalent to 15 grooves in the width of a human hair! X-radiation reflected off the top and the valley of the grooves interfere with each other and cause a 'spectral image' whereby X-radiation of different wavelengths (or energy) are reflected under slightly different angles. The two grating arrays on XMM-Newton are each composed of 182 grating plates. Each plate consists of a silicon carbide substrate coated with a thin (2000 Ångstrom) film of gold. Measuring 10 x 20 cm, they were produced by a replication process from a mechanically ruled master. The plates, with stiffening ribs on their rear side, are integrated onto a beryllium support structure.

One of XMM-Newton's two reflection grating arrays

Once splayed out into a spectrum, the X-rays are focused on the two RGS cameras in the spectral focal plane geometrically offset with regard to the EPIC cameras. The RGS cameras are composed of a strip of nine MOS CCDs developed by the EEV Ltd. Chelmsford (UK), and under the guidance of the Sensor Technology Development group at SRON Utrecht. These back-illuminated CCDs are extremely precise as to where an X-ray photon will fall on them, and also give an indication of the energy of the incoming photon. To reduce background noise, the cameras operate at between -80 and -120 °C. This temperature is provided by the coldness of space captured by two passive radiators on the outside of the spacecraft.

The thermal model of the Dutch ANS X-ray satellite, which started non-solar experimental X-ray astronomy in the Netherlands, and was launched in 1974.

The other partners in the RGS consortium are: the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL), UK, has provided the digital electronics and the on-board data handling software; the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Villigen, Switzerland, responsible for the structure and thermal design of the RGS cameras built by Contraves Space. The RGS reflection grating assemblies and cameras together with all the associated flight-electronics were tested at the Panter long beam X-ray test facility of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics at Garching.

X-ray Spectrography

The spectral data provided by the CCDs of the RGS cameras is typically presented as a plotted curve displaying the presence, seen as peaks or lines, of certain elements (such as iron, oxygen, silicon) in the X-ray source under observation. For astrophysical sources, the positions and sizes of the peaks in the spectrum are measures of the temperature and the relative abundance of the different elements, respectively. The data can also provide clues as to the density of the emitting gas. The main ('first spectral order') curve will be accompanied by a second or third order curve, produced by the reflection grating assembly.

A sample RGS spectrum obtained at the long-beam facility at the Panter test facility. The upper graph displays presence of elements; the lower one shows the first and higher order spectra, separated from one another by the intrinsic resolution of the CCDs.

The wavelength band chosen for RGS (5 - 35 Ångstrom) contains the K-shell transitions of oxygen, neon, magnesium, aluminium, silicon, as well as the L-shell transitions of iron. Each time one of these transitions takes place in the atom, a distinct amount of energy is released, in the form of a photon. So, different atomic transitions generate photons with different energies, which in turn show up as different spectral lines in the X-ray spectrum.

Spectral features

Detailed study of these spectral features allows the physical characteristics (density, temperature, ionisation state, element abundances, mass motions and redshift) of the emitting region and its surrounding environment. XMM-Newton makes it possible to study these spectral features in many types of astrophysical objects like corona of stars, binary star systems, supernova remnants, clusters of galaxies and far away active galactic nuclei.

X- ray spectroscopy can also be useful to astronomers investigating gamma ray bursts, which can also be observed at X-ray wavelengths. Like the 'after-glow' observations made by the BeppoSAX satellite (Italy-Netherlands 1996), XMM-Newton will also be able to contribute to an understanding of these phenomenally powerful and mysterious bursts of gamma rays.

Useful links

RGS Institutes:

Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL), UK
Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Villigen, Switzerland
Columbia University, NY, USA

	European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC)
	Optical Monitor (OM)

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Last Update: 02 Jun 2006