Enhancing the spectral response of filled bolometer arrays for submillimeter astronomy

Abstract

The future missions for astrophysical studies in the submillimeter region will need detectors with very high sensitivity and large field of view. Bolometer arrays can fulfill these requirements over a very broad band. We describe a technique that enables bolometer arrays that use quarter wave cavities to have a high spectral response over most of the submillimeter band. This technique is based on the addition on the front of the array of an anti-reflecting dielectric layer. The optimum parameters (layer thickness and distance to the array) are determined by a 2D analytic code. This general principle is applied to the case of the Herschel PACS bolometers (optimized for the 60 - 210 micron band). As an example, we demonstrate experimentally that a PACS array covered by a 138 micron thick silicon layer can improve the spectral response by a factor 1.7 in the 450 micron band.

26 pages, 10 Figures. Accepted for publication in Applied Optics

References in corpus (5)

• Herschel Space Observatory - An ESA facility for far-infrared and submillimetre astronomy
• The Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) on the Herschel Space Observatory
• First 450-micron dust continuum mapping of the massive star-forming region NGC 3576 with the P-ArTeMiS bolometer camera
• Evidence of triggered star formation in G327.3-0.6. Dust-continuum mapping of an infrared dark cloud with P-ArTéMiS
• The Herschel/PACS 2560 bolometers imaging camera

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Optical performance of an ultra-sensitive horn-coupled transition-edge-sensor bolometer with hemispherical backshort in the far infrared
• The ArTéMiS wide-field submillimeter camera: preliminary on-sky performances at 350 microns
• Impacts of The Radiation Environment At L2 On Bolometers Onboard The Herschel Space Observatory