In this paper, we detail recent and current work that is being carried out to fabricate and advance novel SiC UV instrumentation that is aimed at enabling more sensitive measurements across numerous disciplines, with a short discussion of the promise such detectors may hold for the Habitable Worlds Observatory. We discuss SiC instrument development progress that is being carried out under multiple NASA grants, including several PICASSO and SBIR grants, as well as an ECI grant. Testing of pixel design, properties and layout as well as maturation of the integration scheme developed through these efforts provide key technology and engineering advancement for potential HWO detectors. Achieving desired noise characteristics, responsivity, and validating operation of SiC detectors using standard read out techniques offers a compelling platform for operation of denser and higher dimensionality SiC photodiode arrays of interest for use in potential HWO Coronagraph, Spectrograph, and High Resolution Imaging Instruments. We incorporate these SiC detector properties into a simulation of potential NUV exoplanet observations by HWO using SiC detectors and also discuss potential application to HWO.
@article{arxiv.2412.21034,
title = {Innovative SiC ultraviolet instrumentation development with potential applications for the Habitable Worlds Observatory},
author = {Prabal Saxena and Zeynep Dilli and Peter Snapp and Tilak Hewagama and Shahid Aslam and Chullhee Cho and Augustyn Waczynski and Nader Abuhassan and Anh T. La and Bryan K. Place and Allison Youngblood and Thomas F. Hanisco and Ryan Stauffer and Dina Bower and Akin Akturk and Neil Goldsman and Bryce Galey and Ethan Mountfort and Mitchell Gross and Ryan Purcell and Usama Khalid and Yekta Kamali and Chris Darmody and Robert Washington and Tim Livengood and Daniel P. Moriarty and Roser Juanola-Parramon and Carl A. Kotecki and Narasimha S. Prasad and Joseph Wilkins},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2412.21034},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
10 figures, 1 table Modified version published in JATIS special on HWO