TY - CHAP A1 - Rivolta, Giacomo A1 - Basso, Stefano A1 - Civitani, Marta Maria A1 - Cotroneo, Vincenzo A1 - Döhring, Thorsten A1 - Michler, Willy-Leopold A1 - Pareschi, Giovanni A1 - Spiga, Daniele A1 - Stollenwerk, Manfred T1 - Upgrade of a laboratory X-ray diffractometer to extend its operating range towards soft energies T2 - Proceedings of SPIE N2 - The optical properties of X-ray mirror samples are commonly measured using diffractometers based on laboratory sources; like the Bede D1 diffractometer operating at INAF-OAB. This instrument can generate a collimated X-ray beam up to 60 keV, even though the most interesting energy region for x-ray astronomy applications is usually below 10 keV. In the softest part of this range (below 6 keV), high X-ray absorption in air hinders a full and precise characterization of optical components. In this work, we present an upgrade of the Bede D1 diffractometer that extends the operative range of the instrument below 6 keV; this is done by maximizing the flux at lowest energies and by reducing absorption by means of a helium-rich atmosphere. The upgraded instrument will be used for the tests of X-ray mirrors with innovative soft X-ray coatings, with potential application to the next generation X-ray telescopes (such as ATHENA and eXTP). KW - X-ray KW - mirror KW - reflectivity KW - refractometer KW - ATHENA KW - Röntgenspiegel KW - Diffraktometer Y1 - 2022 UR - https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/12181/121814S/Upgrade-of-a-laboratory-x-ray-diffractometer-to-extend-its/10.1117/12.2629940.short U6 - https://doi.org/doi: 10.1117/12.2629940 SN - 0277-786X VL - 2022 IS - 12181 SP - 121814S-1 EP - 121814s-7 PB - SPIE ER -