Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Physics and Astronomy

Committee Chair

Don A. Gregory

Committee Member

Massimiliamo Bonamente

Committee Member

David M Broadway

Committee Member

Lingze Duan

Committee Member

Brian Ramsey

Subject(s)

X-ray optics, Optical coatings, Coating processes, Magnetron sputtering

Abstract

The design and development of an in-house X-ray optic multilayer coating deposition system and coating test facility has provided a substantial contribution to research and development of reflective X-ray optic coatings at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). An extensive validation study of the system's capabilities to deposit repeatable, multilayer reflective X-ray optic coatings of various complexities is discussed and the deposition of initial broadband multilayer coatings are presented. Additionally, a coating stress study has been conducted where intrinsic coating stress was measured and characterized for both periodic and depth-graded multilayer coatings. Several stress reduction techniques, post-deposition annealing and stress compensation, were investigated for their feasibility in reducing coating-induced substrate deflection. Upcoming astronomical X-ray missions will benefit from these studies because future telescope technologies will require minimally stressed reflective coatings as the optics themselves become more lightweight.

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