Optical design and optimization of the small-scale soft X-ray polarization telescope based on multi-constraints

The probe of the X-ray polarization in high-energy astrophysics has been a research focus over the past 40 years, and it has been an efficient way to reveal matters' behaviors under circumstances of extreme magnetic and gravitational fields, and to understand the causation of polarization. The small-scale soft X-ray polarization telescope usually focus soft X-ray into the detection zone, and the surface type of the telescope is paraboloid. The mirror of the telescope is deposed with multilayer, it can reflect soft X-ray with a rather high reflectivity and a high energy resolution, which satisfies the Bragg condition. Here, two kinds of design configurations for a soft X-ray polarimetry mission based on paraboloidal surface shape were presented. Some calculations and analyses were done under the limitation of a specific size of the whole system. The relation was summarized between collected area, the complexity of the fabrication, and other practical application factors. The result of the optimization demonstrates that the optimized choice for the design can guarantee the practical utilization in reality.