Future far-infrared (FIR) astronomy missions will need large detector arrays with high sensitivity. Low noise detectors with a noise equivalent power (NEP) of 3×10−19 to 1×10−20 W/Hz1/2 for space-based continuum observations are needed, to be photon noise limited. Transition edge sensor (TES) as a type of sensitive low-temperature superconducting detector, has significant advantages in the measurement of broad band electromagnetic radiation, from millimeter waves to X-ray and gamma-rays. We propose a design of low noise TESs for FIR applications, with the NEP of lower than 3×10−19 W/Hz1/2. The key component on TES bolometer island is aluminum-manganese (AlMn) superconducting film, which has been proved that its critical temperature can be adjusted over a wide range by baking after the film deposition. We optimize the NEP of AlMn TESs by reducing the critical temperature to around 60 mK and designing the thermally isolating legs to reduce the thermal conductance effectively. The pixel design will be used as foundation in our future TES array designs and will benefit high-sensitive detector development.
For cosmic microwave background (CMB) telescopes, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) is widely used as reimaging lens material on account of its extremely low loss and excellent mechanical properties. The impedance mismatch between free space and lens can cause non-negligible reflection loss and low image quality. An anti-reflection (AR) coating is essential to reduce such effect. Single or multiple layers porous polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membranes are glued to the HDPE lens surface as AR coatings in many previous CMB experiments. However, it is difficult to get a uniform bonding across a curvature surface for a large-aperture CMB telescope. Due to the mismatch of the thermal expansion of the lens and AR coating materials, the AR coatings have delamination or separation problem during cryogenic cycling. Simulated dielectric AR (SDAR) coatings based on the theory of meta-surface are suitable for low frequency and large aperture CMB telescopes. The effective refractive index of SDAR coating is tunable by cutting holes or grooves into the lens material to form sub-wavelength structure. The SDAR coating is made directly from lens bulk material, which can naturally solve the thermal expansion mismatch problem. In this paper, we present the SDAR coating prototype machined on a 30 mm thick HDPE plate. The measurement results show that the SDAR coating can effectively eliminate standing waves with the performance improvement about -10 dB to -20 dB. And the transmittance exceeds 98% in the 30 GHz to 50 GHz band, which is about 10% higher than that without AR coating.
Publisher’s Note: This paper, originally published on 22 December 2020, was replaced with a corrected/revised version on 12 March 2021. If you downloaded the original PDF but are unable to access the revision, please contact SPIE Digital Library Customer Service for assistance.
AliCPT-1 is the first CMB degree scale polarimeter to be deployed to the Tibetan plateau at 5,250m asl. AliCPT-1 is a 95/150GHz 72cm aperture, two lens refracting telescope cooled down to 4K. Alumina lenses image the CMB on a 636mm wide focal plane. The modularized focal plane consists of dichroic polarization-sensitive Transition-Edge Sensors (TESes). Each module includes 1,704 optically active TESes fabricated on a 6in Silicon wafer. Each TES array is read out with a microwave multiplexing with a multiplexing factor up to 2,000. Such large factor has allowed to consider 10's of thousands of detectors in a practical way, enabling to design a receiver that can operate up to 19 TES arrays for a total of 32,300 TESes. AliCPT-1 leverages the technological advancements of AdvACT and BICEP-3. The cryostat receiver is currently under integration and testing. Here we present the AliCPT-1 receiver, underlying how the optimized design meets the experimental requirements.
As China’s first X-ray astronomical satellite, Insight-HXMT (Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope) successfully launched on Jun 15, 2017. It performs timing and spectral studies of bright sources to determine their physical parameters. HXMT carries three main payloads onboard: the High Energy X-ray telescope (HE, 20-250 keV, NaI(Tl)/CsI(Na)), the Medium Energy X-ray Telescope (ME, 5-30 keV, Si-Pin) and the Low Energy X-ray telescope (LE, 1-15 keV, SCD). In orbit, we have used the radioactive sources, activated lines, the fluorescence line, and Cas A to calibrate the gain and energy resolution of the payloads. The Crab pulsar was adopted as the primary effective area calibrator and an empirical function was found to modify the simulated effective areas. The absolute timing accuracy of HXMT is about 100us from the TOA of Crab Pulsar.
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