604 research outputs found
A Cryogenic Infrared Calibration Target
A compact cryogenic calibration target is presented that has a peak diffuse
reflectance, , from m).
Upon expanding the spectral range under consideration to m) the observed performance gracefully degrades to at the band edges. In the implementation described, a
high-thermal-conductivity metallic substrate is textured with a pyramidal
tiling and subsequently coated with a thin lossy dielectric coating that
enables high absorption and thermal uniformity across the target. The resulting
target assembly is lightweight, has a low-geometric profile, and has survived
repeated thermal cycling from room temperature to K. Basic design
considerations, governing equations, and test data for realizing the structure
described are provided. The optical properties of selected absorptive materials
-- Acktar Fractal Black, Aeroglaze Z306, and Stycast 2850 FT epoxy loaded with
stainless steel powder -- are characterized and presented
Impedance Matched Absorptive Thermal Blocking Filters
We have designed, fabricated and characterized absorptive thermal blocking
filters for cryogenic microwave applications. The transmission line filter's
input characteristic impedance is designed to match and its
response has been validated from 0-to-50\,GHz. The observed return loss in the
0-to-20\,GHz design band is greater than dB and shows graceful
degradation with frequency. Design considerations and equations are provided
that enable this approach to be scaled and modified for use in other
applications
Composite Reflective/Absorptive IR-Blocking Filters Embedded in Metamaterial Antireflection Coated Silicon
Infrared (IR) blocking filters are crucial for controlling the radiative
loading on cryogenic systems and for optimizing the sensitivity of bolometric
detectors in the far-IR. We present a new IR filter approach based on a
combination of patterned frequency selective structures on silicon and a thin
(50 thick) absorptive composite based on powdered reststrahlen
absorbing materials. For a 300 K blackbody, this combination reflects
50\% of the incoming light and blocks \textgreater 99.8\% of the total
power with negligible thermal gradients and excellent low frequency
transmission. This allows for a reduction in the IR thermal loading to
negligible levels in a single cold filter. These composite filters are
fabricated on silicon substrates which provide excellent thermal transport
laterally through the filter and ensure that the entire area of the absorptive
filter stays near the bath temperature. A metamaterial antireflection coating
cut into these substrates reduces in-band reflections to below 1\%, and the
in-band absorption of the powder mix is below 1\% for signal bands below 750
GHz. This type of filter can be directly incorporated into silicon refractive
optical elements
A Measurement of the Angular Power Spectrum of the Anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background
We report on a measurement of the angular power spectrum of the anisotropy in
the Cosmic Microwave Background. The anisotropy is measured in 23 different
multipole bands from l=54 (~3 deg) to l=404 (~0.45 deg) and in 6 frequency
bands from 26 GHz to 46 GHz over three observing seasons. The measurements are
consistent from year to year. The frequency spectral index of the fluctuations
(measured at low l) is consistent with that of the CMB and inconsistent with
either dust or Galactic free-free emission. Furthermore, the observations of
the MSAM1-92 experiment (Cheng et al. 1994) are repeated and confirmed. The
angular spectrum shows a distinct rise from dT_l =
\sqrt{l(2l+1)/4pi} = 49(+8,-5) \uK at l=87 to dT_l=85(+10,-8) uK at
l = 237. These values do not include an overall +/-14\% (1sigma) calibration
uncertainty. The analysis and possible systematic errors are discussed.Comment: latex file is called spect.tex. 25 pages with 11 Postscript figures.
Uses aas2pp4.sty (included). Submitted to Ap
The QUIET Instrument
The Q/U Imaging ExperimenT (QUIET) is designed to measure polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background, targeting the imprint of inflationary gravitational waves at large angular scales ( approx 1 deg.) . Between 2008 October and 2010 December, two independent receiver arrays were deployed sequentially on a 1.4 m side-fed Dragonian telescope. The polarimeters which form the focal planes use a highly compact design based on High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) that provides simultaneous measurements of the Stokes parameters Q, U, and I in a single module. The 17-element Q-band polarimeter array, with a central frequency of 43.1 GHz, has the best sensitivity (69 micro Ks(exp 1/2)) and the lowest instrumental systematic errors ever achieved in this band, contributing to the tensor-to-scalar ratio at r < 0.1. The 84-element W-band polarimeter array has a sensitivity of 87 micro Ks(exp 1/2) at a central frequency of 94.5 GHz. It has the lowest systematic errors to date, contributing at r < 0.01 (QUIET Collaboration 2012) The two arrays together cover multipoles in the range l approximately equals 25-975 . These are the largest HEMT-ba.sed arrays deployed to date. This article describes the design, calibration, performance of, and sources of systematic error for the instrument
Superconducting Films for Absorber-Coupled MKID Detectors for Sub-Millimeter and Far-Infrared Astronomy
We describe measurements of the properties, at dc, gigahertz, and terahertz frequencies, of thin (10 nm) aluminum films with 10 ohm/{rm square}$ normal state sheet resistance. Such films can be applied to construct microwave kinetic inductance detector arrays for submillimeter and far-infrared astronomical applications in which incident power excites quasiparticles directly in a superconducting resonator that is configured to present a matched-impedance to the high frequency radiation being detected. For films 10 nm thick, we report normal state sheet resistance, resistance-temperature curves for the superconducting transition, quality factor and kinetic inductance fraction for microwave resonators made from patterned films, and terahertz measurements of sheet impedance measured with a Fourier Transform Spectrometer. We compare properties with similar resonators made from niobium 600 nm thick
Recovery of Large Angular Scale CMB Polarization for Instruments Employing Variable-delay Polarization Modulators
Variable-delay Polarization Modulators (VPMs) are currently being implemented
in experiments designed to measure the polarization of the cosmic microwave
background on large angular scales because of their capability for providing
rapid, front-end polarization modulation and control over systematic errors.
Despite the advantages provided by the VPM, it is important to identify and
mitigate any time-varying effects that leak into the synchronously modulated
component of the signal. In this paper, the effect of emission from a K
VPM on the system performance is considered and addressed. Though instrument
design can greatly reduce the influence of modulated VPM emission, some
residual modulated signal is expected. VPM emission is treated in the presence
of rotational misalignments and temperature variation. Simulations of
time-ordered data are used to evaluate the effect of these residual errors on
the power spectrum. The analysis and modeling in this paper guides
experimentalists on the critical aspects of observations using VPMs as
front-end modulators. By implementing the characterizations and controls as
described, front-end VPM modulation can be very powerful for mitigating
noise in large angular scale polarimetric surveys. None of the systematic
errors studied fundamentally limit the detection and characterization of
B-modes on large scales for a tensor-to-scalar ratio of . Indeed,
is achievable with commensurately improved characterizations and
controls.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, 1 table, matches published versio
Stray Light Suppression in the Goddard IRAM 2-Millimeter Observer (GISMO)
The Goddard-IRAM Superconducting 2 Millimeter Observer (GISMO) is an 8xl6 Transition Edge Sensor (TES) array of bolometers built as a pathfinder for TES detector development efforts at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. GISMO has been used annually at the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimetrique (IRAM) 30 meter telescope since 2007 under engineering time and was opened in the spring of 2012 to the general astronomical community. The spring deployment provided an opportunity to modify elements of the room temperature optics before moving the instrument to its new permanent position in the telescope receiver cabin. This allowed for the possibility to extend the cryostat, introduce improved cold baffling and thus further optimize the stray light performance for final astronomical use of the instrument, which has been completed and validated. We will demonstrate and discuss several of the methods used to quantify and limit the influence of stray light in the GISMO camera
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