We present the design, construction, and commissioning results of ARCONS, the
Array Camera for Optical to Near-IR Spectrophotometry. ARCONS is the first
ground-based instrument in the optical through near-IR wavelength range based
on Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs). MKIDs are revolutionary
cryogenic detectors, capable of detecting single photons and measuring their
energy without filters or gratings, similar to an X-ray microcalorimeter. MKIDs
are nearly ideal, noiseless photon detectors, as they do not suffer from read
noise or dark current and have nearly perfect cosmic ray rejection. ARCONS is
an Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS) containing a lens-coupled 2024 pixel MKID
array yielding a 20"x20" field of view, and has been deployed on the Palomar
200" and Lick 120" telescopes for 24 nights of observing. We present initial
results showing that ARCONS and its MKID arrays are now a fully operational and
powerful tool for astronomical observations.
Description
[1306.4674] ARCONS: A 2024 Pixel Optical through Near-IR Cryogenic Imaging Spectrophotometer
%0 Generic
%1 mazin2013arcons
%A Mazin, B. A.
%A Meeker, S. R.
%A Strader, M. J.
%A Bumble, B.
%A O'Brien, K.
%A Szypryt, P.
%A Marsden, D.
%A van Eyken, J. C.
%A Duggan, G. E.
%A Ulbricht, G.
%A Stoughton, C.
%A Johnson, M.
%D 2013
%K detector technology
%T ARCONS: A 2024 Pixel Optical through Near-IR Cryogenic Imaging
Spectrophotometer
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.4674
%X We present the design, construction, and commissioning results of ARCONS, the
Array Camera for Optical to Near-IR Spectrophotometry. ARCONS is the first
ground-based instrument in the optical through near-IR wavelength range based
on Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs). MKIDs are revolutionary
cryogenic detectors, capable of detecting single photons and measuring their
energy without filters or gratings, similar to an X-ray microcalorimeter. MKIDs
are nearly ideal, noiseless photon detectors, as they do not suffer from read
noise or dark current and have nearly perfect cosmic ray rejection. ARCONS is
an Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS) containing a lens-coupled 2024 pixel MKID
array yielding a 20"x20" field of view, and has been deployed on the Palomar
200" and Lick 120" telescopes for 24 nights of observing. We present initial
results showing that ARCONS and its MKID arrays are now a fully operational and
powerful tool for astronomical observations.
@misc{mazin2013arcons,
abstract = {We present the design, construction, and commissioning results of ARCONS, the
Array Camera for Optical to Near-IR Spectrophotometry. ARCONS is the first
ground-based instrument in the optical through near-IR wavelength range based
on Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs). MKIDs are revolutionary
cryogenic detectors, capable of detecting single photons and measuring their
energy without filters or gratings, similar to an X-ray microcalorimeter. MKIDs
are nearly ideal, noiseless photon detectors, as they do not suffer from read
noise or dark current and have nearly perfect cosmic ray rejection. ARCONS is
an Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS) containing a lens-coupled 2024 pixel MKID
array yielding a 20"x20" field of view, and has been deployed on the Palomar
200" and Lick 120" telescopes for 24 nights of observing. We present initial
results showing that ARCONS and its MKID arrays are now a fully operational and
powerful tool for astronomical observations.},
added-at = {2013-06-21T04:07:35.000+0200},
author = {Mazin, B. A. and Meeker, S. R. and Strader, M. J. and Bumble, B. and O'Brien, K. and Szypryt, P. and Marsden, D. and van Eyken, J. C. and Duggan, G. E. and Ulbricht, G. and Stoughton, C. and Johnson, M.},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2338f3dc86d4b70015bc036bc58565743/miki},
description = {[1306.4674] ARCONS: A 2024 Pixel Optical through Near-IR Cryogenic Imaging Spectrophotometer},
interhash = {0abe89ddf792d46e63c5050fe6d08501},
intrahash = {338f3dc86d4b70015bc036bc58565743},
keywords = {detector technology},
note = {cite arxiv:1306.4674Comment: 12 pages, 16 figures, submitted to PASP},
timestamp = {2013-06-21T04:07:35.000+0200},
title = {ARCONS: A 2024 Pixel Optical through Near-IR Cryogenic Imaging
Spectrophotometer},
url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.4674},
year = 2013
}