Updates on experimental grazing angle soft proton scattering

摘要

Astronomical X-ray observatories are exposed to various kinds of orbital radiation that has the potential to compromise observations and to degrade the performance of the instruments. Particularly the soft proton component with energies below 10 MeV poses a major source for observational background and particle-induced damages in solid-state detectors In-orbit experience has proven that soft protons are funneled much more efficient through Wolter-type X-ray optics than expected from simulations. In order to improve and validate simulations and thus to enable a more realistic assessment of the soft proton flux near the focal plane of future X-ray telescopes, a series of grazing angle scattering experiments is being conducted at the University of Tuebingen. In this contribution, the latest improvements of the experimental setup as well as preliminary results for the azimuthal scattering distribution are presented.