The Reflection Grating Spectrometer on board XMM-Newton
Publication date: 05 January 2001
Authors: den Herder, J.W., et al.
Journal: Astronomy & Astrophysics
Volume: 365
Issue: 1
Page: L7-L17
Year: 2001
Copyright: ESO 2001
The ESA X-ray Multi Mirror mission, XMM-Newton, carries two identical Reflection Grating Spectrometers (RGS) behind two of its three nested sets of Wolter I type mirrors. The instrument allows high-resolution (E/DE 100 to 500) measurements in the soft X-ray range (6 to 38 Å or 2.1 to 0.3 keV) with a maximum effective area of about 140 cm² at 15 Å. Its design is optimized for the detection of the K-shell transitions of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, neon, magnesium, and silicon, as well as the L shell transitions of iron. The present paper gives a full description of the design of the RGS and its operational modes. We also review details of the calibrations and in-orbit performance including the line spread function, the wavelength calibration, the effective area, and the instrumental background.
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