HAXTEL
HAXTEL (HArd X-ray TELescope) was a project funded by ASI devoted to the development of a technique to build broad band Laue lenses for hard X-ray astronomy (> 100 keV). Within the HAXTEL project, a patented technique to build short focal Laue lenses made by flat mosaic crystals of copper (Cu[111]) has been developed and a prototype of a Laue lens was developed.
The set-up for the assembly of the HAXTEL prototype at LARIX-A
The Laue lens prototype consists of a ring (diameter = 36 cm) of 20 mosaic crystal tiles of Cu(111) (mosaic spread about 3 arcmin, cross–section 15×15 mm2, thickness 2 mm). The prototype was tested at LARIX-A: the radiation generated by the polychromatic beam was focussed at 6 m from the lens. The radiation was concentrated in a spot of a size of about 3 arcmin, thus demonstrating the possibility to build focussing X-ray optics based on the Laue lens concept.
The HAXTEL prototype (left) and the X-ray beam concentrated by the prototype, with the simulated concentrated beam superimposed on the image (central black spot)