339 research outputs found
Simons Observatory: Broadband Metamaterial Anti-Reflection Cuttings for Large Aperture Alumina Optics
We present the design, fabrication, and measured performance of metamaterial
Anti-Reflection Cuttings (ARCs) for large-format alumina filters operating over
more than an octave of bandwidth to be deployed on the Simons Observatory (SO).
The ARC consists of sub-wavelength features diced into the optic's surface
using a custom dicing saw with near-micron accuracy. The designs achieve
percent-level control over reflections at angles of incidence up to 20.
The ARCs were demonstrated on four 42 cm diameter filters covering the 75-170
GHz band and a 50 mm diameter prototype covering the 200-300 GHz band. The
reflection and transmission of these samples were measured using a broadband
coherent source that covers frequencies from 20 GHz to 1.2 THz. These
measurements demonstrate percent-level control over reflectance across the
targeted pass-bands and a rapid reduction in transmission as the wavelength
approaches the length scale of the metamaterial structure where scattering
dominates the optical response. The latter behavior enables the use of the
metamaterial ARC as a scattering filter in this limit.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Applied Optic
The Primordial Inflation Polarization Explorer (PIPER)
The Primordial Inflation Polarization Explorer (PIPER) is a balloon-borne
cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarimeter designed to search for evidence
of inflation by measuring the large-angular scale CMB polarization signal.
BICEP2 recently reported a detection of B-mode power corresponding to the
tensor-to-scalar ratio r = 0.2 on ~2 degree scales. If the BICEP2 signal is
caused by inflationary gravitational waves (IGWs), then there should be a
corresponding increase in B-mode power on angular scales larger than 18
degrees. PIPER is currently the only suborbital instrument capable of fully
testing and extending the BICEP2 results by measuring the B-mode power spectrum
on angular scales = ~0.6 deg to 90 deg, covering both the reionization
bump and recombination peak, with sensitivity to measure the tensor-to-scalar
ratio down to r = 0.007, and four frequency bands to distinguish foregrounds.
PIPER will accomplish this by mapping 85% of the sky in four frequency bands
(200, 270, 350, 600 GHz) over a series of 8 conventional balloon flights from
the northern and southern hemispheres. The instrument has background-limited
sensitivity provided by fully cryogenic (1.5 K) optics focusing the sky signal
onto four 32x40-pixel arrays of time-domain multiplexed Transition-Edge Sensor
(TES) bolometers held at 140 mK. Polarization sensitivity and systematic
control are provided by front-end Variable-delay Polarization Modulators
(VPMs), which rapidly modulate only the polarized sky signal at 3 Hz and allow
PIPER to instantaneously measure the full Stokes vector (I, Q, U, V) for each
pointing. We describe the PIPER instrument and progress towards its first
flight.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures. To be published in Proceedings of SPIE Volume
9153. Presented at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2014,
conference 915
Precision Epoch of Reionization studies with next-generation CMB experiments
Future arcminute resolution polarization data from ground-based Cosmic
Microwave Background (CMB) observations can be used to estimate the
contribution to the temperature power spectrum from the primary anisotropies
and to uncover the signature of reionization near in the small
angular-scale temperature measurements. Our projections are based on combining
expected small-scale E-mode polarization measurements from Advanced ACTPol in
the range with simulated temperature data from the full Planck
mission in the low and intermediate region, . We show that
the six basic cosmological parameters determined from this combination of data
will predict the underlying primordial temperature spectrum at high multipoles
to better than accuracy. Assuming an efficient cleaning from
multi-frequency channels of most foregrounds in the temperature data, we
investigate the sensitivity to the only residual secondary component, the
kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) term. The CMB polarization is used to break
degeneracies between primordial and secondary terms present in temperature and,
in effect, to remove from the temperature data all but the residual kSZ term.
We estimate a detection of the diffuse homogeneous kSZ signal from
expected AdvACT temperature data at , leading to a measurement of
the amplitude of matter density fluctuations, , at precision.
Alternatively, by exploring the reionization signal encoded in the patchy kSZ
measurements, we bound the time and duration of the reionization with
and . We find that
these constraints degrade rapidly with large beam sizes, which highlights the
importance of arcminute-scale resolution for future CMB surveys.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure
Design of 280 GHz feedhorn-coupled TES arrays for the balloon-borne polarimeter SPIDER
We describe 280 GHz bolometric detector arrays that instrument the
balloon-borne polarimeter SPIDER. A primary science goal of SPIDER is to
measure the large-scale B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background
in search of the cosmic-inflation, gravitational-wave signature. 280 GHz
channels aid this science goal by constraining the level of B-mode
contamination from galactic dust emission. We present the focal plane unit
design, which consists of a 1616 array of conical, corrugated feedhorns
coupled to a monolithic detector array fabricated on a 150 mm diameter silicon
wafer. Detector arrays are capable of polarimetric sensing via waveguide
probe-coupling to a multiplexed array of transition-edge-sensor (TES)
bolometers. The SPIDER receiver has three focal plane units at 280 GHz, which
in total contains 765 spatial pixels and 1,530 polarization sensitive
bolometers. By fabrication and measurement of single feedhorns, we demonstrate
14.7 FHWM Gaussian-shaped beams with 1% ellipticity in a 30%
fractional bandwidth centered at 280 GHz. We present electromagnetic
simulations of the detection circuit, which show 94% band-averaged,
single-polarization coupling efficiency, 3% reflection and 3% radiative loss.
Lastly, we demonstrate a low thermal conductance bolometer, which is
well-described by a simple TES model and exhibits an electrical noise
equivalent power (NEP) = 2.6 10 W/,
consistent with the phonon noise prediction.Comment: Proceedings of SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 201
The Ritvo Autism Asperger Diagnostic Scale-Revised (RAADS-R): A Scale to Assist the Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Adults: An International Validation Study
The Ritvo Autism Asperger Diagnostic Scale-Revised (RAADS-R) is a valid and reliable instrument to assist the diagnosis of adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The 80-question scale was administered to 779 subjects (201 ASD and 578 comparisons). All ASD subjects met inclusion criteria: DSM-IV-TR, ADI/ADOS diagnoses and standardized IQ testing. Mean scores for each of the questions and total mean ASD vs. the comparison groups’ scores were significantly different (p < .0001). Concurrent validity with Constantino Social Responsiveness Scale-Adult = 95.59%. Sensitivity = 97%, specificity = 100%, test–retest reliability r = .987. Cronbach alpha coefficients for the subscales and 4 derived factors were good. We conclude that the RAADS-R is a useful adjunct diagnostic tool for adults with ASD
Large-aperture Wide-bandwidth Antireflection-coated Silicon Lenses for Millimeter Wavelengths
The increasing scale of cryogenic detector arrays for submillimeter and millimeter wavelength astrophysics has led to the need for large aperture, high index of refraction, low loss, cryogenic refracting optics. Silicon with n 3.4, low loss, and high thermal conductivity is a nearly optimal material for these purposes but requires an antireflection (AR) coating with broad bandwidth, low loss, low reflectance, and a matched coefficient of thermal expansion. We present an AR coating for curved silicon optics comprised of subwavelength features cut into the lens surface with a custom three-axis silicon dicing saw. These features constitute a metamaterial that behaves as a simple dielectric coating.We have fabricated silicon lenses as large as 33.4 cm in diameter with micromachined layers optimized for use between 125 and 165 GHz. Our design reduces average reflections to a few tenths of a percent for angles of incidence up to 30deg with low cross polarization.We describe the design, tolerance, manufacture, and measurements of these coatings and present measurements of the optical properties of silicon at millimeter wavelengths at cryogenic and room temperatures. This coating and lens fabrication approach is applicable from centimeter to submillimeter wavelengths and can be used to fabricate coatings with greater than octave bandwidth
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Two-Season ACTPol Spectra and Parameters
We present the temperature and polarization angular power spectra measured by
the Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter (ACTPol). We analyze night-time
data collected during 2013-14 using two detector arrays at 149 GHz, from 548
deg of sky on the celestial equator. We use these spectra, and the spectra
measured with the MBAC camera on ACT from 2008-10, in combination with Planck
and WMAP data to estimate cosmological parameters from the temperature,
polarization, and temperature-polarization cross-correlations. We find the new
ACTPol data to be consistent with the LCDM model. The ACTPol
temperature-polarization cross-spectrum now provides stronger constraints on
multiple parameters than the ACTPol temperature spectrum, including the baryon
density, the acoustic peak angular scale, and the derived Hubble constant.
Adding the new data to planck temperature data tightens the limits on damping
tail parameters, for example reducing the joint uncertainty on the number of
neutrino species and the primordial helium fraction by 20%.Comment: 23 pages, 25 figure
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