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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2016

Assembly and Integration Process of the First High Density Detector Array for the Atacama Cosmology Telescope

The Advanced ACTPol (AdvACT) upgrade on the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) consists of multichroicTransition Edge Sensor (TES) detector arrays to measure the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization anisotropies in multiple frequency bands. The first AdvACT detector array, sensitive to both 150 and 230 GHz, is fabricated on a 150 mm diameter wafer and read out with a completely different scheme compared to ACTPol. Approximately 2000 TES bolometers are packed into the wafer leading to both a much denser detector density and readout circuitry. The demonstration of the assembly and integration of the AdvACT arrays is important for the next generation CMB experiments, which will continue to increase the pixel number and density. We present the detailed assembly process of the first AdvACT detector array.

Li, Yaqiong↗
NASA NTRS2018

The Primordial Inflation Polarization Explorer (PIPER): Current Status and Performance of the First Flight

The Primordial Inflation Polarization ExploreR (PIPER) is a balloon-borne instrument optimized to measure the polarization of the CMB at large angular scales. It will map 85% of the sky over a series of conventional balloon flights from the Northern and Southern hemispheres, measuring the B-mode polarization power spectrumover a range of multipoles from 2-300 covering both the reionization bump and the recombination peak, with sensitivity to measure the tensor-to-scalar ratio down to r = 0.007. PIPER will observe in four frequency bands centered at 200, 270, 350, and 600 GHz to characterize dust foregrounds. The instrument has background-limited sensitivity provided by fully cryogenic (1.7 K) optics focusing the sky signal onto kilo-pixel arrays of time-domain multiplexed Transition-Edge Sensor (TES) bolometers held at 100 mK. Polarization sensitivity and systematiccontrol are provided by front-end Variable-delay Polarization Modulators (VPMs). PIPER had its engineering flight in October 2017 from Fort Sumner, New Mexico. This papers outlines the major components in the PIPER system discussing the conceptual design as well as specific choices made for PIPER. We also report on the results of the engineering flight, looking at the functionality of the payload systems, particularly VPM, as well as pointing out areas of improvement.

Pawlyk, Samuel↗
NASA NTRS2020

Design and Fabrication of Metamaterial Anti-reflection Coatings for the Simons Observatory

The Simons Observatory (SO) will be a cosmic microwave background (CMB) survey experiment with three small-aperture telescopes and one large-aperture telescope, which will observe from the Atacama Desert in Chile. In total, SO will field over 60,000 transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers in six spectral bands centered between 27 and 280 GHz in order to achieve the sensitivity necessary to measure or constrain numerous cosmological quantities, as outlined in The Simons Observatory Collaboration et al. (2019). These telescopes require 33 highly transparent, large aperture, refracting optics. To this end, we developed mechanically robust, highly efficient, metamaterial anti-reflection (AR) coatings with octave bandwidth coverage for silicon optics up to 46 cm in diameter for the 22-55, 75-165, and 190-310 GHz bands. We detail the design, the manufacturing approach to fabricate the SO lenses, their performance, and possible extensions of metamaterial AR coatings to optical elements made of harder materials such as alumina.

Joseph E. Golec↗
NASA NTRS2021

In Situ Performance of the Low Frequency Array for Advanced ACTPol

The Advanced Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter (AdvACT) is an upgrade for the Atacama Cosmology Telescope using Transition Edge Sensor (TES) detector arrays to measure cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization anisotropies in multiple frequencies. The low frequency (LF) array was deployed early 2020. It consists of 292 TES bolometers observing in two bands centered at 27 GHz and 39 GHz. At these frequencies, it is sensitive to synchrotron radiation from our galaxy as well as to the CMB, and complements the AdvACT arrays operating at 90, 150 and 230 GHz. We present the initial LF array on-site characterization, including the time constant, optical efficiency and array sensitivity.

Superconducting detectors↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Design and Characterization of New 90 GHz Detectors for the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS)

The Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) is a polarization-sensitive telescope array located at an altitude of 5,200 m in the Chilean Atacama Desert. CLASS is designed to measure “E-mode” (even parity) and “B-mode” (odd parity) polarization patterns in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) over large angular scales with the aim of improving our understanding of inflation, reionization, and dark matter. CLASS is currently observing with three telescopes covering four frequency bands: one at 40 GHz (Q); one at 90 GHz (W1); and one dichroic system at 150/220 GHz (G). In these proceedings, we discuss the updated design and in-lab characterization of new 90 GHz detectors. The new detectors include design changes to the transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometer architecture, which aim to improve stability and optical efficiency. We assembled and tested four new detector wafers, to replace four modules of the W1 focal plane. These detectors were installed into the W1 telescope, and will achieve first light in the austral winter of 2022. We present electrothermal parameters and bandpass measurements from in-lab dark and optical testing. From in-lab dark tests, we also measure a median NEP of 12.3 aW √ s across all four wafers about the CLASS signal band, which is below the expected photon NEP of 32 aW √ s from the field. We therefore expect the new detectors to be photon noise limited."

Carolina Nunez↗
NASA NTRS2011

AC Read-Out Circuits for Single Pixel Characterization of TES Microcalorimeters and Bolometers

SRON is developing Frequency Domain Multiplexing (FDM) for the read-out of transition edge sensor (TES) soft x-ray microcalorimeters for the XMS instrument of the International X-ray Observatory and far-infrared bolometers for the SAFARI instrument on the Japanese mission SPICA. In FDM the TESs are AC voltage biased at frequencies from 0.5 to 6 MHz in a superconducting LC resonant circuit and the signal is read-out by low noise and high dynamic range SQUIDs amplifiers. The TES works as an amplitude modulator. We report on several AC bias experiments performed on different detectors. In particular, we discuss the results on the characterization of Goddard Space Flight Center x-ray pixels and SRON bolometers. The paper focuses on the analysis of different read-out configurations developed to optimize the noise and the impedance matching between the detectors and the SQUID amplifier. A novel feedback network electronics has been developed to keep the SQUID in flux locked loop, when coupled to superconducting high Q circuits, and to optimally tune the resonant bias circuit. The achieved detector performances are discussed in view of the instrument requirement for the two space missions.

Gottardi, L.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Fabrication of Feedhorn-Coupled Transition Edge Sensor Arrays for Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization

Characterization of the minute cosmic microwave background polarization signature requires multi-frequency high-throughput precision instrument systems. We have previously described the detector fabrication of a 40 GHz focal plane and now describe the fabrication of the detector modules for measurement of the CMB at 90GHz. The 74-TES based bolometers in each module are coupled to a niobium based planar orthomode transducer with integrated band defining filters implemented in microstrip transmission line. A single crystal silicon dielectric substrate serves as microstrip dielectric and as a thermal link between the membrane isolated MoAu TES operating at 150mK and the heat bath. A short silicon leg between the heat bath and the TES bolometer is designed for ballistic phonon transport and provides improved process control and uniformity of thermal conductance in the presence of phonon scattering on roughened surfaces. Micro-machined structures are used to realize the orthomode transducer backshort, provide out of band signal rejection, and a silicon photonic choke for feedhorn coupling are described. The backshort, choke wafer, and detector wafer are indium bump bonded to create a single 37-element dual-polarization detector module. Fourteen such hexagonally shaped modules each 90 mm in size comprise two focal planes. These, along with the recently delivered 40GHz focal plane, will survey a large fraction of the sky as part of the Johns Hopkins University led ground based CLASS (Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor) telescope.

Characterization↗
NASA NTRS2005

Bolometeric detector arrays for CMB polarimetry

We describe the development of antenna coupled bolometers for CMB polarization experiments. The necessary components of a bolometric CMB polarimeter - a beam forming element, a band defining filter, and detectors - are all fabricated on a silicon chip with photolithography.

TES bolometers↗
NASA NTRS2008

BICEP2/SPUD: Searching for Inflation with Degree Scale Polarimetry from the South Pole

BICEP2/SPUD is the new powerful upgrade of the existing BICEP1 experiment, a bolometric receiver to study the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation, which has been in operation at the South Pole since January 2006. BICEP2 will provide an improvement up to 10 times mapping speed at 150 GHz compared to BICEP1, using the same BICEP telescope mount. SPUD, a series of compact, mechanically-cooled receivers deployed on the DASI mount at the Pole, will provide similar mapping speed in to BICEP2 in three bands, 100, 150, and 220 GHz. The new system will use large TES focal plane arrays to provide unprecedented sensitivity and excellent control of foreground contamination.

polarization↗
NASA NTRS2012

Stray Light Suppression in the Goddard IRAM 2-Millimeter Observer (GISMO)

The Goddard-IRAM Superconducting 2 Millimeter Observer (GISMO) is an 8xl6 Transition Edge Sensor (TES) array of bolometers built as a pathfinder for TES detector development efforts at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. GISMO has been used annually at the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimetrique (IRAM) 30 meter telescope since 2007 under engineering time and was opened in the spring of 2012 to the general astronomical community. The spring deployment provided an opportunity to modify elements of the room temperature optics before moving the instrument to its new permanent position in the telescope receiver cabin. This allowed for the possibility to extend the cryostat, introduce improved cold baffling and thus further optimize the stray light performance for final astronomical use of the instrument, which has been completed and validated. We will demonstrate and discuss several of the methods used to quantify and limit the influence of stray light in the GISMO camera.

Sharp, E. H.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Fabrication of Feedhorn-Coupled Transition Edge Sensor Arrays for Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization

Characterization of the minute cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization signature requires multi-frequency high-throughput precision instrument systems. We have previously described the detector fabrication of a 40 gigahertz focal plane and now describe the fabrication of a 37-element dual-polarization detector module for measurement of the CMB at 90 gigahertz. The 72-TES (Transition Edge Sensor)-based bolometers in each module are coupled to a niobium-based planar orthomode transducer with integrated band defining filters implemented in microstrip transmission line. A single crystal silicon dielectric substrate serves as microstrip dielectric and as a thermal link between the membrane isolated MoAu TES operating at 150 millikelvins and the heat bath. A short silicon leg between the heat bath and the TES bolometer is designed for ballistic phonon transport and provides improved process control and uniformity of thermal conductance in the presence of phonon scattering on roughened surfaces. Micro-machined structures are used to realize the orthomode transducer backshort, provide out of band signal rejection, and a silicon photonic choke for feedhorn coupling are described. The backshort, choke wafer, and detector wafer are indium bump-bonded to create a single 37-element dual-polarization detector module. Fourteen such hexagonally shaped modules each 80 millimeters in size comprise two focal planes. These, along with the recently delivered 40 gigahertz focal plane, will survey a large fraction of the sky as part of the Johns Hopkins University-led ground-based CLASS (Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor) telescope.

Detectors↗
NASA NTRS2012

The Role of Proximity Effects in Transition-Edge Sensor Design and Performance

Transition-edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeters and bolometers are under development by numerous groups worldwide for a variety of applications involving the measurement of particle and photon radiation. Recent experimental and theoretical progress has led to the realization that the fundamental physics of some TES systems involves the longitudinal proximity effect between the electrical bias contacts and the TES. As such, these devices are described as SS'S (or SN'S) weak-links exhibiting Fraunhofer-like magnetic field dependence, and exponential temperature dependence, of the critical current. These discoveries, for the first time, provide a realistic theoretical framework for predicting the resistive transition as a function of temperature, current and magnetic field. In this contribution, we review the latest theoretical and experimental results and investigate how proximity effects play an important role in determining the resistive transition characteristics, which ultimately determines the dynamic range and energy resolution of TES detectors. We investigate how these effects could be utilized in device design to engineer desired transition characteristics for a given application.

Smith, Stephen J.↗
NASA NTRS2020

Comparing complex impedance and bias step measurements of Simons Observatory transition edge sensors

The Simons Observatory (SO) will perform ground-based observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) with several small and large aperture telescopes, each outfitted with thousands to tens of thousands of superconducting aluminum manganese (AlMn) transition-edge sensor bolometers (TESs). In-situ characterization of TES responsivities and effective time constants will be required multiple times each observing-day for calibrating time-streams during CMB map-making. Effective time constants are typically estimated in the field by briefly applying small amplitude square-waves on top of the TES DC biases, and fitting exponential decays in the bolometer response. These so-called “bias step” measurements can be rapidly implemented across entire arrays and therefore are attractive because they take up little observing time. However, individual detector complex impedance measurements, while too slow to implement during observations, can provide a fuller picture of the TES model and a better understanding of its temporal response. Here, we present the results of dark TES characterization of many prototype SO bolometers and compare the effective thermal time constants measured via bias steps to those derived from complex impedance data.

Nicholas F. Cothard↗
DOE OSTI2024

Optically induced quantum transitions in direct probed mesoscopic NbSe 2 for prototypical bolometers

Superconducting transition-edge sensors (TES) have emerged as fascinating devices to detect broadband electromagnetic radiation with low thermal noise. The advent of metallic transition metal dichalcogenides, such as NbSe 2 , has also created an impetus to understand their low-temperature properties, including superconductivity. Interestingly, NbSe 2 -based sensor within the TES framework remains unexplored. In this work, direct-probed superconducting NbSe 2 absorbers led to a proof-of-concept demonstration for the transduction of incoming light to heat, where a thermodynamic superconducting phase transition in NbSe 2 was evident to switch it to the normal-state, when biased below its superconducting transition temperature. A wavelength-dependent response of its optical absorption properties was observed, based on the incident optical excitation source used. Furthermore, extensive optical characterization studies were conducted using Raman spectroscopy, where the in-plane and out-of-plane thermal conductivity was empirically determined. Our results open new possibilities for the use of NbSe 2 in superconducting radiation detectors, including in a TES framework

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
NASA NTRS2003

MGS/TES-Odyssey/THEMIS-IR Analysis of Localized Low Albedo Regions in Valles Marineris

We are conducting a systematic analysis of small (approximately 10's of km), localized regions in Valles Marineris that display significant albedo differences relative to their surroundings. This analysis is based on a finding that the locations of the hematite deposits identified by [1] in the interior layered deposits of Valles Marineris typically coincide with regions having a low MGS/TES visible bolometric albedo [1,2]. Until recently, it was difficult to identify the morphology or geologic context of the regions containing the hematite deposits. However, with the recent advent of high-resolution (1/128 /pixel) MOLA grided topography and Mars Odyssey s THEMIS-IR instrument, it has been possible to better understand the morphologic context of TES observations. This analysis combines the use of PDS-released data from the MGS/TES visible bolometer and infrared spectrometer, the Odyssey/THEMIS Infrared imager, and MOLA grided topography. First, the TES infrared bolometer is used to identify regions of interesting albedo variability, and is overlaid on Viking controlled photomosaics for context. THEMIS-IR data, in conjunction with MOLA topography, is then used to: 1) identify the context and morphology of the area; and 2) identify spectrally unique regions at the km scale. In preparation for the latter, all the THEMIS planes are coregistered using an autocorrelation routine, the data are converted to brightness temperature and then each plane is normalized to the brightness temperature of the third plane (1261 cm-1). We then perform a 3-band search for color variations and a Principle Components Analysis (PCA) of the 8 unique bands in the THEMIS-IR dataset. Any variability is then investigated using both THEMIS-IR and TES spectra of the same regions. In both cases, the spectra are ratioed to near-simultaneously acquired spectra of adjacent or "average" regions that do not show this albedo variation, therefore allowing us to identify spectral variability unique to the area of interest. This procedure also allows us to account for calibration problems in THEMIS-IR data, and for any atmospheric effects in both the THEMIS-IR and the TES data.

E Z Noe Dobrea↗