We have designed, fabricated, and measured a 5-channel prototype spectrometer pixel operating in the WR10 band to demonstrate a novel moderate-resolution (R=f/{\Delta}f~100), multi-pixel, broadband, spectrometer concept for mm and submm-wave astronomy. Our design implements a transmission line filter bank using waveguide resonant cavities as a series of narrow-band filters, each coupled to an aluminum kinetic inductance detector (KID). This technology has the potential to perform the next generation of spectroscopic observations needed to drastically improve our understanding of the epoch of reionization (EoR), star formation, and large-scale structure of the universe. We present our design concept, results from measurements on our prototype device, and the latest progress on our efforts to develop a 4-pixel demonstrator instrument operating in the 130-250 GHz band.
@article{arxiv.1503.06528,
title = {WSPEC: A Waveguide Filter Bank Spectrometer},
author = {George Che and Sean Bryan and Matthew Underhill and Philip Mauskopf and Christopher Groppi and Glenn Jones and Bradley Johnson and Heather McCarrick and Daniel Flanigan and Peter Day},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1503.06528},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
3 pages, 5 figures, 26th International Symposium on Space Terahertz Technology