STAR: SOFIA terahertz array receiver

We present the concept for KOSMA's 16 element 1.9 THz heterodyne array STAR (SOFIA Terahertz Array Receiver) which is being developed for SOFIA. The instrument will consist of two interleaved sub-arrays of 8 pixels each. Together we will have a 4 × 4 pixel array with a beam spacing on the sky of approximately 1.5 times the beam size of 15 arcsec (FWHM). The receiver is mainly targeted at measuring the fine structure transition of ionized atomic carbon at 1.9 THz (158 microns). STAR's optics setup is modeled after the successful design used in KOSMA's SMART receiver. It will contain a K-mirror type beam rotator, a Martin-Puplett diplexer for LO coupling and an LO multiplexer using imaging Fourier gratings. Complete optical sub-assemblies will be machined monolithically as integrated optics units, to reduce the need for optical alignment. STAR will probably use waveguide mixers with diffusion cooled hot electron bolometers, which are being developed at KOSMA. The receiver backends will be KOSMA Array-AOSs. Local oscillator power will be provided by a backward wave oscillator (BWO), followed by a frequency tripler.