1. Development and validation of a cryogenic far-infrared diffraction grating spectrometer used to post-disperse the output from a Fourier transform spectrometer
- Author
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Anderson, Alicia M., Naylor, David A., Gom, Brad G., Buchan, Matthew A., Christiansen, Adam J., and Veenendaal, Ian T.
- Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors ,Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics - Abstract
Recent advances in far-infrared detector technology have led to increases in raw sensitivity of more than an order of magnitude over previous state-of-the-art detectors. With such sensitivity, photon noise becomes the dominant noise component, even when using cryogenically cooled optics, unless a method of restricting the spectral bandpass is employed. The leading instrument concept features reflecting diffraction gratings which post-disperse the light that has been modulated by a polarizing Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) onto a detector array, thereby reducing the photon noise on each detector. This paper discusses the development of a cryogenic (4 K) diffraction grating spectrometer which operates over the wavelength range from 285 - 500 $\mu$m and was used to post-disperse the output from a room-temperature polarizing FTS. Measurements of the grating spectral response and diffraction efficiency are presented as a function of both wavelength and polarization to characterize the instrumental performance., Comment: 9 pages, 14 figures. The following article has been accepted by Review of Scientific Instruments. It can be found at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0177603
- Published
- 2024
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