Ben Mazin
Caltech
Friday, February 22, 2008
4:00 pm in SPL 57
When Every Photon Matters: Science with Optical/UV Imaging Spectrophotometers
Abstract: Over the last eight years I have been involved in a program at Caltech and JPL to develop Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) for submillimeter, optical/UV, and X-ray astronomy. MKIDs are sensors operating at very low temperatures that can detect the energy and arrival time of incoming photons in the optical/UV/X-ray, or incident power in the millimeter and submillimeter. In the optical/UV/X-ray, they can be thought of as a photon counting integral field unit (IFU) with high quantum efficiency, no read noise or dark current, and near perfect cosmic ray rejection. The principle advantage of MKIDs over other low temperature detectors is that they are easy to multiplex into large arrays and read out with room temperature digital electronics. We have demonstrated functional MKID arrays and digital readouts for the submillimeter, optical/UV, and X-ray and have been funded to build cameras for the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory and the Palomar 200" telescope. In this talk I will discuss MKIDs, our digital microwave readout technology, and the exciting science planned with the optical/UV camera that will be brought to Palomar at the end of 2008.
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