Bending and bonding Si single crystals for high performance Laue Lenses

cosine has developed the technology to bend and directly bond Si mirror plates in order to produce stiff, lightweight Xray optics which are used for large area space based X-ray telescopes. This technology, Silicon Pore Optics (SPO), also allows us to produce other types of high energy optics. Here we present the latest developments in the design and manufacture of a new generation of soft gamma-ray Laue lenses made using SPO technology named Silicon Laue lens Components: SiLC. The bending and bonding of 300 mu m thin Si single crystals allows us to fabricate a single crystal with radially curved crystal planes, which strongly improves the focussing properties of a Laue lens. The size of the focal spot is no longer determined by the size of the individual single crystals, but by the accuracy of the applied curvature, which is as low as a few seconds of arc. Furthermore, a wedge is incorporated in each individual Si crystal to ensure that all crystals are confocal in the radial direction. A secondary curvature in the axial direction can be used to improve the reflectivity of each crystal, and increase the reflected energy bandwidth. We present the first SiLC crystals which will be manufactured in the fall of 2013. These are technology demonstrators designed for 125 keV radiation, 3.4m focal length and 600mm(2) frontal area. The first measurements at synchrotron radiation facilities are planned for November 2013. With these first prototype lenses we want to demonstrate that the SPO stacking technology can be successfully applied to non-ribbed Si wafer plates and subsequently demonstrate the correct focussing in Laue geometry of both the wedges and radial curvature.