Reflectivity and scattering measurements of an Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility test coating sample.

Reflectivity and scattering profile measurements were made on a gold-coated witness sample produced to evaluate mirror coatings for the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility program. Reflectivity measurements were made at Al K, Ti K, and Cu K energies as a function of incident graze angle. The results are fit to a model that includes the effects of roughness, particulate and organic contamination layers, and gold-coating density. Reflectivities are close to theoretical, with the difference being well accounted for by 4.1 Å of roughness at spatial frequencies above 4 µm(-1), a gold-coating density equal to 0.98 bulk, and a surface contaminant layer 27 Å thick. Scattering measurements extending to ±35 arcmin of the line center were obtained by the use of Al K x rays and incidence angles from 0.75° to 3°. The scattering profiles imply a power spectral density of surface-scattering frequencies that follows a power law with an index of -1.0 and a total surface roughness for the spatial frequency band between 0.05 µm(-1) and 4 µm(-1) of 3.3 Å Combining the roughnesses derived from both the reflectivity and scattering measurements yields a total roughness of 5.3 Å for scattering frequencies between 0.05 µm(-1) and 15,000 µm(-1).

A high galactic latitude survey of far-ultraviolet excess objects.

Optical spectra have been obtained for a selection of objects included in a catalog of far ultraviolet bright, high galactic latitude objects detected with a balloon-borne survey telescope. The observed objects provide a sample of subdwarf O and B stars, white dwarfs, and binary systems including a hot subluminous member. Model atmospheres analysis of the subdwarf sample is used to determine the temperature, gravity, and helium to hydrogen ratio of the individual objects. A smooth distribution of objects is found on the gravity versus temperature diagram near the theoretical location of the extended horizontal branch. A break between the helium rich and helium poor objects occurs at 40,000 K. Suspected binary objects were found and analyzed to determine the temperature and gravity of the hot subluminous member in each system. The number of subdwarf stars contained in binaries is determined to be from 65% to 100%. The number versus ultraviolet magnitude distribution of the subdwarf B sample is modeled to obtain a midplane density of 3.3 10(-6) pc-3 and a population scale height of 240 pc. The proportion of white dwarfs that experience the subdwarf phase of evolution is found to be 0.94%.