Upgrading SCUBA-2 with a newly designed thermal filter stack

Jamie L. Cookson; Dan Bintley; Shaoliang Li; Peter A. R. Ade; Rashmikant Sudiwala; Carole Tucker

doi:10.1117/12.2313018

9 July 2018 Upgrading SCUBA-2 with a newly designed thermal filter stack

Jamie L. Cookson, Dan Bintley, Shaoliang Li, Peter A. R. Ade, Rashmikant Sudiwala, Carole Tucker

Proceedings Volume 10708, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy IX; 1070839 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2313018
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2018, Austin, Texas, United States

Abstract

SCUBA-2 is a world leading wide field submillimeter camera on the JCMT with two, large format background limited TES arrays, which are used to image simultaneously in the 450μm and 850um atmospheric windows. SCUBA-2 has been producing excellent science for over 6 years however, as we reported previously, excess in-band power loading of the arrays is a concern. One possibility that we considered was that the currently installed hot-pressed filters at the 4K stage were being warmed significantly above 4K by incoming infrared radiation. In an attempt to reduce the power loading we cryogenically tested a new 60K filter stack that incorporated a redesigned thermal blocking filter. A direct comparison was then made to the performance of the existing 60K filter stack installed in SCUBA-2. We saw a tremendous improvement in the infrared rejection with the new design and proceeded to install the new filter stack into SCUBA-2.

In this paper, we describe the testing and installation of the new and improved design of thermal blocking filter into the instrument and report the resulting performance change based on data from the first 12 months of science operation with the new filters. We also present the combined filter bandpass profiles as measured in-situ with FTS-2.

Citation Download Citation

Jamie L. Cookson, Dan Bintley, Shaoliang Li, Peter A. R. Ade, Rashmikant Sudiwala, and Carole Tucker "Upgrading SCUBA-2 with a newly designed thermal filter stack", Proc. SPIE 10708, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy IX, 1070839 (9 July 2018); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2313018

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available