Hard x-ray broad band Laue lenses (80 - 600 keV): building methods and performances

TL;DR

This paper reports on the development of a 20-meter focal length Laue lens for hard X-ray and soft gamma-ray astronomy, utilizing bent crystals to achieve high focusing precision and aiming to significantly enhance observational sensitivity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of bent crystals in Laue lenses for high-energy astronomy, demonstrating preliminary results on crystal fixing and positioning accuracy.

Findings

Successful preliminary crystal fixing techniques

Achieved precise crystal positioning

Potential to extend focusing range down to 20-30 keV

Abstract

We present the status of the laue project devoted to develop a technology for building a 20 meter long focal length Laue lens for hard x-/soft gamma-ray astronomy (80 - 600 keV). The Laue lens is composed of bent crystals of Gallium Arsenide (GaAs, 220) and Germanium (Ge, 111), and, for the first time, the focusing property of bent crystals has been exploited for this field of applications. We show the preliminary results concerning the adhesive employed to fix the crystal tiles over the lens support, the positioning accuracy obtained and possible further improvements. The Laue lens petal that will be completed in a few months has a pass band of 80 - 300 keV and is a fraction of an entire Laue lens capable of focusing X-rays up to 600 keV, possibly extendable down to 20 - 30 keV with suitable low absorption crystal materials and focal length. The final goal is to develop a focusing optics that can improve the sensitivity over current telescopes in this energy band by 2 orders of magnitude.