2010/09/10 by G. Skinner, Gerald K. Skinner, Skinner, Gerald K.
Physics and Astronomy · #Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing #Advanced X-ray Imaging Techniques #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1009.2101
46 pages, 15 figures, invited review paper to be published in a special issue on "X-Ray Focusing: Techniques and Applications" of the online journal "X-Ray Optics & Instrumentation"
arxiv created 2010/09/10 · openalex publication_date 2010/09/10 · arxiv updated 2010/09/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Diffractive X-ray telescopes using zone plates, phase Fresnel lenses, or related optical elements have the potential to provide astronomers with true imaging capability with resolution several orders of magnitude better than available in any other waveband. Lenses that would be relatively easy to fabricate could have an angular resolution of the order of micro-arc-seconds or even better, that would allow, for example, imaging of the distorted space- time in the immediate vicinity of the super-massive black holes in the center of active galaxies What then is precluding their immediate adoption? Extremely long focal lengths, very limited bandwidth, and difficulty stabilizing the image are the main problems. The history, and status of the development of such lenses is reviewed here and the prospects for managing the challenges that they present are discussed.