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In the 50 years since the advent of X-ray astronomy there have been many scientific advances due to the development of new experimental techniques for detecting and characterising X-rays. Observations of X-ray polarisation have, however,…
The Superpressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) is a diffraction-limited, wide-field, 0.5 m, near-infrared to near-ultraviolet observatory designed to exploit the stratosphere's space-like conditions. SuperBIT's 2023 science…
With the advent of microsphere assisted microscopy in 2011, this technique emerged as a simple and easy way to obtain optical super-resolution. Although the possible mechanisms of imaging by microspheres are debated in the literature, most…
Indian Centre for Space Physics has taken a novel strategy to study low energy cosmic rays and astrophysical X-ray sources which involve very light weight payloads up to about five kilograms on board a single or multiple balloons which are…
We present the results of the first high-altitude balloon flight test of a concept for an advanced Compton telescope making use of modern scintillator materials with silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) readouts. There is a need in the fields of…
Rocket technology, originally developed for military applications, has provided a low-cost observing platform to carry critical and rapid-response scientific investigations for over 70 years. Even with the development of launch vehicles…
The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST) is a sub-orbital experiment designed to study the process of star formation in local galaxies (including the Milky Way) and in galaxies at cosmological distances. Using a 2-m…
Targeting faint polarization patterns arising from Primordial Gravitational Waves in the Cosmic Microwave Background requires excellent observational sensitivity. Optical elements in small aperture experiments such as Bicep3 and Keck Array…
Uniform and large area synthesis of bulk insulating ultrathin films is an important subject toward applications of a surface of three dimensional topological insulators (3D-TIs) in various electronic devices. Here we report epitaxial growth…
Bi$_2$Se$_3$ is a widely studied 3D topological insulator having potential applications in optics, electronics, and spintronics. When the thickness of these films decrease to less than approximately 6 nm, the top and bottom surface states…
Balloon-borne astronomy is a unique tool that allows for a level of image stability and significantly reduced atmospheric interference without the often prohibitive cost and long development time-scale that are characteristic of space-borne…
At a fraction the total cost of an equivalent orbital mission, scientific balloon-borne platforms, operating above 99.7% of the Earth's atmosphere, offer attractive, competitive, and effective observational capabilities -- namely space-like…
We report on a combined structural and electronic analysis of niobium ultrathin films (from 2 to 10 nm) deposited in ultra-high vacuum on atomically flat R-plane sapphire wafers. A textured polycrystalline morphology is observed for the…
The protoMIRAX hard X-ray imaging telescope is a balloon-borne experiment developed as a pathfinder for the MIRAX satellite mission. The experiment consists essentially in a coded-aperture hard X-ray (30-200 keV) imager with a square array…
The General Antiparticle Spectrometer (GAPS) experiment is a novel approach for the detection of cosmic ray antiparticles. A prototype GAPS experiment (pGAPS) was successfully flown on a high-altitude balloon in June of 2012. The goals of…
We successfully carried out the first high-altitude balloon flight of a wide-field hard X-ray coded-aperture telescope ProtoEXIST1, which was launched from the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility at Ft. Sumner, New Mexico on October 9,…
Development of novel radiation-absorbent materials and devices for millimetre and submillimetre astronomy instruments is a research area of high interest, and with substantial engineering challenges. Alongside low-profile structure and…
The Faint Intergalactic Medium Redshifted Emission Balloon (FIREBall) is a mission designed to observe faint emission from the circumgalactic medium of moderate redshift (z~0.7) galaxies for the first time. FIREBall observes a component of…
The POEMMA-Balloon with Radio (PBR) is a proposed payload to fly on a NASA Super Pressure Balloon (SPB). It will act as a pathfinder of the Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) detector. PBR will consist of an innovative…
Heliotropes are passive solar hot air balloons that are capable of achieving nearly level flight within the lower stratosphere for several hours. These inexpensive flight platforms enable stratospheric sensing with high-cadence enabled by…