X-ray polarimeter with a transmission multilayer.

We fabricated a novel x-ray polarimeter with a transmission multilayer and measured its performance with synchrotron radiation. A self standing multilayer with seven Mo/Si bilayers was installed with an incident angle of 45 degrees in front of a back-illuminated CCD. The multilayer can be rotated around the normal direction of the CCD keeping an incident angle of 45 degrees. This polarimeter can be easily installed along the optical axis of x-ray optics. By using the CCD as a photon counting detector with a moderate energy resolution, the polarization of photons in a designed energy band can be measured along with the image. At high photon energies, where the multilayer is transparent, the polarimeter can be used for imaging and spectroscopic observations. We confirmed a modulation factor of 45% with 45% and 17% transmission for P- and S-polarization, respectively.