Marco W. Beijersbergen

Cosine (Netherlands), European Space Research and Technology Centre

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Marco W. Beijersbergen is a specialist in X-ray optics and space telescope instrumentation, with a research focus centered on advancing the capabilities of next-generation astronomical observatories. His most significant contributions lie in the development and refinement of Silicon Pore Optics (SPO), a lightweight, high-performance technology designed to overcome the mass and structural limitations of traditional X-ray mirror fabrication methods such as nickel electro-forming and polished glass surfaces. Beijersbergen's most-cited work, "Production of silicon pore optics" (2006, 22 citations), directly addressed the demanding requirements of missions seeking angular resolutions better than 5 arcseconds and effective areas of up to 5 m² at 1 keV — specifications that conventional technologies could not meet without prohibitive mass penalties. Complementing this, his work on assembling SPO into modular structures demonstrated practical pathways toward scalable telescope architectures. His earlier contributions to the XEUS mission, ESA's ambitious X-ray Evolving Universe Spectroscopy project, helped lay the conceptual and technical groundwork for probing the distant hot universe with unprecedented sensitivity. Across his body of work, Beijersbergen has meaningfully shaped the trajectory of European X-ray astronomy instrumentation.