Thermal Forming of Glass Foils for X-ray Space Telescopes

Presenter: Martina Landová

The work is focused on glass gravity forming by viscous flow above the glass deformation temperature with the main field of interest on understanding the effects of the forming process parameters, such as a glass composition, thickness, temperature and time of heat-treatment process. We observed a final glass geometry depending on the process conditions. In this technology the heated glass is placed on the frame and shaped due to its own weight. This arrangement of thermal forming has two main advantages. The first one is that it is not necessary to prepare a very precise mould and second is the preservation of very fine microroughness of glass surface due to saving the surface without of contact with any material during forming. Therefore, shaped glass foils for optic application should be prepared with good results by this technology. We try to find out if the final geometry is convenient for X-ray optics, especially for Wolter I geometry.

Martin Mika, Libor Sveda, Veronika Marsikova, Ladislav Pina, Rene Hudec