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Richer, Michael G.

Publications and source records attributed to Richer, Michael G..

Performance and Calibration of H2RG Detectors and SIDECAR ASICs for the RATIR Camera

The Reionization And Transient Infra-Red (RATIR) camera has been built for rapid Gamma-Ray Burst (GRE) followup and will provide simultaneous optical and infrared photometric capabilities. The infrared portion of this camera incorporates two Teledyne HgCdTe HAWAII-2RG detectors, controlled by Teledyne's SIDECAR ASICs. While other ground-based systems have used the SIDECAR before, this system also utilizes Teledyne's JADE2 interface card and IDE development environment. Together, this setup comprises Teledyne's Development Kit, which is a bundled solution that can be efficiently integrated into future ground-based systems. In this presentation, we characterize the system's read noise, dark current, and conversion gain.

Fox, Ori D.↗

Polarization in the Lagoon nebula

A V-band polarimetric survey of stars associated with the Lagoon nebula was conducted. The data were combined with existing photometric and spectroscopic observations in order to investigate the alignment of magnetic field lines with identifiable symmetry axes and to evaluate the nature of dust in the immediate vicinity. Although stars are not in general highly polarized, electric vectors align with the minor axis of the Lagoon nebula, perpendicular to the major axis of the spatial distribution of massive stars. The observations indicate that the collapse of the molecular cloud progenitor was inhibited along directions perpendicular to magnetic field lines. Considering the low polarization efficiency and the high ratio of total to selective extinction, smaller grains of intranebular dust appear to have been destroyed.

Mccall, Marshall L.↗