An Electro - Optical Test System for Optimising Operating Conditions of CCD sensors for LSST

We describe the commissioning of a system which has been built to investigate optimal operation of CCDs for the LSST telescope. The test system is designed for low vibration, high stability operation and is capable of illuminating a detector in flat-field, projected spot, projected pattern and Fe-55 configurations. We compare and describe some considerations when choosing a gain calibration method for CCDs which exhibit the brighter-fatter effect. An optimisation study on a prototype device of gain and full well with varying back substrate bias and gate clock levels is presented

Characterizing the Quantum Confined Stark Effect in Semiconductor Quantum Dots and Nanorods for Single-Molecule Electrophysiology

We optimized the performance of quantum confined Stark effect QCSE based voltage nanosensors. A high throughput approach for single particle QCSE characterization was developed and utilized to screen a library of such nanosensors. Type II ZnSe CdS seeded nanorods were found to have the best performance among the different nanosensors evaluated in this work. The degree of correlation between intensity changes and spectral changes of the excitons emission under applied field was characterized. An upper limit for the temporal response of individual ZnSe CdS nanorods to voltage modulation was characterized by high throughput, high temporal resolution intensity measurements using a novel photon counting camera. The measured 3.5 us response time is limited by the voltage modulation electronics and represents about 30 times higher bandwidth than needed for recording an action potential in a neuron.Comment: 36 pages, 6 figure

Spatially coupled inversion of spectro-polarimetric image data I: Method and first results

When inverting solar spectra, image degradation effects that are present in the data are usually approximated or not considered. We develop a data reduction method that takes these issues into account and minimizes the resulting errors. By accounting for the diffraction PSF of the telescope during the inversions, we can produce a self-consistent solution that best fits the observed data, while simultaneously requiring fewer free parameters than conventional approaches. Simulations using realistic MHD data indicate that the method is stable for all resolutions, including those with pixel scales well beyond those that can be resolved with a 0.5m telescope, such as the Hinode SOT. Application of the presented method to reduce full Stokes data from the Hinode spectro-polarimeter results in dramatically increased image contrast and an increase in the resolution of the data to the diffraction limit of the telescope in almost all Stokes and fit parameters. The resulting data allow for detecting and interpreting solar features that have so far only been observed with 1m class ground-based telescopes. The new inversion method allows for accurate fitting of solar spectro-polarimetric imaging data over a large field of view, while simultaneously improving the noise statistics and spatial resolution of the results significantly.Comment: A&A, accepte

Limits on Production of Magnetic Monopoles Utilizing Samples from the DO and CDF Detectors at the Tevatron

We present 90% confidence level limits on magnetic monopole production at the Fermilab Tevatron from three sets of samples obtained from the D0 and CDF detectors each exposed to a proton-antiproton luminosity of $\sim175 {pb}^{-1}$ (experiment E-882). Limits are obtained for the production cross-sections and masses for low-mass accelerator-produced pointlike Dirac monopoles trapped and bound in material surrounding the D0 and CDF collision regions. In the absence of a complete quantum field theory of magnetic charge, we estimate these limits on the basis of a Drell-Yan model. These results (for magnetic charge values of 1, 2, 3, and 6 times the minimum Dirac charge) extend and improve previously published bounds.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures, REVTeX

The Pierre Auger Observatory: Contributions to the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2015)

Contributions of the Pierre Auger Collaboration to the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference, 30 July - 6 August 2015, The Hague, The NetherlandsComment: 24 proceedings, the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference, 30 July - 6 August 2015, The Hague, The Netherlands; will appear in PoS(ICRC2015