HARD X-RAY (GREATER-THAN-15 KEV) FACILITY FOR CALIBRATION OF SPACE ASTRONOMY EXPERIMENTS

Hard X-ray (>15 keV) experiments for space astronomy require a detaile d energy calibration in order to determine their true response matrix. To this end, we have built an X-ray facility, based on the use of a v ery stable X-ray generator plus an X-ray goniometer for crystal diffra ction, that can provide collimated and monochromatic photons with ener gies in the range from about 15 keV to about 140 keV. We present a des cription of the facility and its performances. The facility has been a lready used to test samples of hard X-ray mirrors for space astronomy and it is being equipped to calibrate the high energy experiment PDS o n board the X-ray astronomy satellite SAX.