CASIMIR: a high resolution far-IR/submm spectrometer for airborne astronomy

Michael L. Edgar; Martin Emprechtinger; Alexandre Karpov; Robert Lin; Sean Lin; Frank Maiwald; Imran Mehdi; David Miller; Simon J. E. Radford; Frank Rice; John Ward; Jonas Zmuidzinas

doi:10.1117/12.857706

15 July 2010 CASIMIR: a high resolution far-IR/submm spectrometer for airborne astronomy

Michael L. Edgar, Martin Emprechtinger, Alexandre Karpov, Robert Lin, Sean Lin, Frank Maiwald, Imran Mehdi, David Miller, Simon J. E. Radford, Frank Rice, John Ward, Jonas Zmuidzinas

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 7735, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy III; 77351V (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.857706
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2010, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

CASIMIR, the Caltech Airborne Submillimeter Interstellar Medium Investigations Receiver, is a far-infrared and submillimeter heterodyne spectrometer, being developed for the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA. CASIMIR will use newly developed superconducting-insulating-superconducting (SIS) mixers. Combined with the 2.5 m mirror of SOFIA, these detectors will allow observations with high sensitivity to be made in the frequency range from 500 GHz up to 1.4 THz. Initially, at least 5 frequency bands in this range are planned, each with a 4-8 GHz IF passband. Up to 4 frequency bands will be available on each flight and bands may be swapped readily between flights. The local oscillators for all bands are synthesized and tuner-less, using solid state multipliers. CASIMIR also uses a novel, commercial, field-programmable gate array (FPGA) based, fast Fourier transform spectrometer, with extremely high resolution, 22000 (268 kHz at 6 GHz), yielding a system resolution > 10⁶. CASIMIR is extremely well suited to observe the warm, ≈ 100K, interstellar medium, particularly hydrides and water lines, in both galactic and extragalactic sources. We present an overview of the instrument, its capabilities and systems. We also describe recent progress in development of the local oscillators and present our first astronomical observations obtained with the new type of spectrometer.

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Michael L. Edgar, Martin Emprechtinger, Alexandre Karpov, Robert Lin, Sean Lin, Frank Maiwald, Imran Mehdi, David Miller, Simon J. E. Radford, Frank Rice, John Ward, and Jonas Zmuidzinas "CASIMIR: a high resolution far-IR/submm spectrometer for airborne astronomy", Proc. SPIE 7735, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy III, 77351V (15 July 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.857706

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KEYWORDS

Terahertz radiation

Spectroscopy

Telescopes

Mirrors

Astronomy

Electronics

Microwave radiation

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