Development of a Wolter Optic X-ray Imager on Z

A Wolter optic x-ray imager is being developed for the Z Machine to study the dynamics of warm x-ray sources with energies above 10 keV. The optic is adapted from observational astronomy and uses multilayer-coated, hyperbolic and parabolic x-ray mirrors to form a 2D image with predicted 100-$\mu $m resolution over a 5x5-mm field of view. The imager is expected to have several advantages over a simple pinhole camera. In particular, it can form quasi mono-energetic images due to the inherent band-pass nature of the x-ray mirrors from Bragg diffraction. As well, its larger collection solid angle can lead to an overall increase in efficiency for the x-rays in the desirable energy band. We present the design of the imaging system, which is initially optimized to view Mo K-alpha x-rays (17.5 keV). In addition, we will present preliminary measurements of the point-spread function as well as the spectral sensitivity of the instrument.