English

CCAT: A status update on the EoR-Spec instrument module for Prime-Cam

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics 2024-09-11 v1 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics Astrophysics of Galaxies

Abstract

The Epoch of Reionization Spectrometer (EoR-Spec) is an upcoming Line Intensity Mapping (LIM) instrument designed to study the evolution of the early universe (z = 3.5 to 8) by probing the redshifted [CII] 158 μ\mum fine-structure line from aggregates of galaxies. The [CII] emission is an excellent tracer of star formation since it is the dominant cooling line from neutral gas heated by OB star light and thus can be used to probe the reionization of the early Universe due to star formation. EoR-Spec will be deployed on Prime-Cam, a modular direct-detection receiver for the 6-meter Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST), currently under construction by CPI Vertex Antennentechnik GmbH and to be installed near the summit of Cerro Chajnantor in the Atacama Desert. This instrument features an image plane populated with more than 6500 Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) that are illuminated by a 4-lens optical design with a cryogenic, scanning Fabry-Perot Interferometer (FPI) at the pupil of the optical system. The FPI is designed to provide a spectral resolving power of R100R\sim100 over the full spectral range of 210--420 GHz. EoR-Spec will tomographically survey the E-COSMOS and E-CDFS fields with a depth of about 4000 hours over a 5 year period. Here we give an update on EoR-Spec's final mechanical/optical design and the current status of fabrication, characterization and testing towards first light in 2026.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2409.05979,
  title  = {CCAT: A status update on the EoR-Spec instrument module for Prime-Cam},
  author = {Rodrigo Freundt and Yaqiong Li and Doug Henke and Jason Austermann and James R. Burgoyne and Scott Chapman and Steve K. Choi and Cody J. Duell and Zach Huber and Michael Niemack and Thomas Nikola and Lawrence Lin and Dominik A. Riechers and Gordon Stacey and Anna K. Vaskuri and Eve M. Vavagiakis and Jordan Wheeler and Bugao Zou},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.05979},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

Presented at SPIE Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy XII

R2 v1 2026-06-28T18:39:06.676Z