X-ray astronomy grazing incidence telescopes use the principle of nested shells to maximize the collecting area. Some of the more recent missions, such as XMM-Newton, have used an electroformed nickel replication process to fabricate the mirror shells. We have been developing coatings to simplify and improve this electroforming process. This paper discusses our most recent results from studies using TiN as a mandrel hardcoat in the electroforming process of fabricating nickel shell optics. The results indicate that nickel replicas separate easily from the TiN coated mandrel, and little (if any) degradation of the mandrel occurs after more than 20 replications. AFM characterization of the mandrel and replica surfaces is shown. Preliminary results are also included from studies which use this same process to replicate multilayer coatings; these results indicate no change in the multilayer stack after separation from the mandrel.

Date Published: 31 August 2009
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 7437, Optics for EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Astronomy IV, 74370Y (31 August 2009); doi: 10.1117/12.829583

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7437:
Optics for EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Astronomy IV
Stephen L. O'Dell; Giovanni Pareschi, Editor(s)