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We developed a new seven-beam heterodyne receiver "7BEE" in the 72–116 GHz band for the Nobeyama 45 m telescope to investigate the early stage of star formation by deriving the deuterium fraction of dense cores. The optics for the receiver employs wideband corrugated horns covering the 72–116 GHz band and dielectric lenses to couple the incoming radiation from the antenna on to the feeds. One of the important aspects in the lens design is the anti-reflection (AR) structure to mitigate the reflections on the lens surfaces. Triangular grooves, which gradually change the effective refractive index from air to dielectric, were adopted as a basic AR design since the return loss can be in the order of 20 dB or better. The main goal of this study is to compare the radio frequency (RF) characteristics of the lenses with different patterns and sizes of AR grooving structures. We confirmed that concentric grooves degraded beam symmetry, cross-polarization characteristics, and aperture efficiency due to the birefringence of the grooves, which gave rise to wavefront distortions. Straight grooves of two different gap widths, 1.2 mm and 1.7 mm, were compared and showed similar good performance in terms of beam patterns and noise contribution. However, the latter showed a few percent higher aperture efficiency. Therefore, the straight grooves with 1.7 mm gap width were adopted as the AR structure of our lens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simultaneous multi-band very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations at millimeter wavelengths have huge potential for various science cases. However, there exist difficulties in expanding the scientific targets, as the sensitivity of radio telescopes at millimeter wavelengths is typically lower compared to that at centimeter wavelengths. In order to realize high-sensitivity mm-VLBI observations in the East Asia region, we are promoting the HINOTORI (Hybrid Installation project in NObeyama, Triple-band ORIented) project, which aims to launch the wide-band and simultaneous triple-band (22/43/86 GHz) VLBI system with the Nobeyama 45 m Radio Telescope (NRO45). The simultaneous 22/43 GHz observation mode has already been operated for the open-use program. We have recently completed the performance evaluation of the receiver and observing system at 86 GHz. In addition, a new wide-band VLBI back-end system has been installed on the NRO45 and the performance of this receiving system has been found to be sufficient to meet scientific requirements. Currently, we are performing commissioning observations to establish regular VLBI operation with simultaneous triple-band mode together with the Korean VLBI Network. The participation of the NRO45 is expected to strengthen the mm-VLBI observation network in the East Asia region and to be a very powerful addition with respect to the science of of black hole jets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have designed and experimentally evaluated a series-connected array of superconductor–insulator–superconductor (SIS) junctions in the 100 GHz-band mixer for the multi-beam receiver FOREST on the Nobeyama 45 m millimeter-wave telescope. The construction of the junction chip comprised a waveguide probe antenna, impedance-matching circuit, SIS array junction, and choke filter, which were made from a superconducting niobium planar circuit on a quartz substrate. The multi-stage impedance-matching circuit between the feed point and the SIS junction was designed as a capacitively loaded transmission line, and it comprised two sections with high (∼90 Ω) and low (∼10 Ω) characteristic impedance transmission lines. The structure of this tuning line was simple and easy to fabricate, and the feed impedance matched with the SIS junction in a wide frequency range. The signal coupling efficiency was more than 92% and the expected receiver noise temperature was approximately twice the quantum limit for 75–125 GHz based on quantum theory. The array junction devices with three to six connected junctions were fabricated and we measured their performance in terms of the receiver noise temperature and gain compression in the laboratory. We successfully developed an array junction device with a receiver noise temperature of ∼15–30 K and confirmed that the improvement in the saturation power corresponded to the number of junctions. The newly developed array junction mixer was installed in the FOREST receiver and it successfully detected the 12CO(J = 1–0) molecular line toward IRC +10216 with the Nobeyama 45 m telescope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]