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MINERVA is a new X-ray facility under construction at the ALBA synchrotron specially designed to support the development of the ATHENA (Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics) mission. The beamline design is originally based on the monochromatic pencil beam XPBF 2.0 from the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), at BESSY II already in use at this effect. MINERVA will host the necessary metrology equipment to integrate the stacks produced by the cosine company in a mirror module (MM) and characterize their optical performances. From the opto-mechanical point of view, the beamline is made up of three main subsystems. First of all, a water-cooled multilayer toroidal mirror based on a high precision mechanical goniometer, then a sample manipulator constituted by a combination of linear stages and in-vacuum hexapod and finally an X-ray detector which trajectory follows a cylinder of about 12 m radius away from the MM. MINERVA is funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. MINERVA is today under construction and will be completed to operate in 2022., Proceedings of the 11th Mechanical Engineering Design of Synchrotron Radiation Equipment and Instrumentation, MEDSI2020, Chicago, IL, USA

The organic component (methylammonium) of CH3NH3PbI3-xClx-based perovskites shows electronic hybridization with the inorganic framework via H-bonding between N and I sites. Femtosecond dynamics induced by core excitation are shown to strongly influence the measured X-ray emission spectra and the resonant inelastic soft X-ray scattering of the organic components. The N K core excitation leads to a greatly increased N-H bond length that modifies and strengthens the interaction with the inorganic framework compared to that in the ground state. The study indicates that excited-state dynamics must be accounted for in spectroscopic studies of this perovskite solar cell material, and the organic-inorganic hybridization interaction suggests new avenues for probing the electronic structure of this class of materials. It is incidentally shown that beam damage to the methylamine component can be avoided by moving the sample under the soft X-ray beam to minimize exposure and that this procedure is necessary to prevent the creation of experimental artifacts.

In this paper, we present the first results from an investigation performed on nanometric thin pellicles based on carbon nanotubes (CNT) of potential interest for manufacturing large area optical blocking filters to protect soft X-ray detectors in astrophysics space missions. In order to evaluate the effective capability of such materials to block UV/VIS/IR radiation, while being highly transparent in the soft X-rays and strong enough to withstand the severe launch stresses, we have performed a suite of characterization measurements. These include: UV/VIS/IR and X-ray absorption spectroscopy, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy on bare and Al coated small self-standing pellicles; static mechanical tests on small freestanding samples.