Manufacturing of advanced bent crystals for Laue Optics for Gamma ObservationS (LOGOS)

X- and c-ray detection is currently a hot topic for a wide scientific community, spanning from astrophysics to nuclear medicine. However, lack of optics capable of focusing photons of energies in the energy range 0.1–1 MeV leaves the photon detection to a direct-view approach, resulting in a limited efficiency and resolution. The main scope of the INFN-LOGOS project is the development of technologies that enable manufacturing highly performing optical elements to be employed in the realization of hard X-ray lenses. Such lenses, typically named Laue lenses, consist of an ensemble of crystals disposed in concentric rings in order to diffract the incident radiation towards the focus of the lens, where a detector is placed. In particular, the INFN-LOGOS project aims at the realization of intrinsically bent silicon and germanium crystals exploiting the quasi-mosaic effect for focusing hard X-rays. Crystal manufacturing relies on a proper revisitation of techniques typically employed in silicon micromachining, such as thin film deposition and patterning or ion implantation.