InGaAs focal plane array for transient astronomy in the NIR

Marcus Birch*, Jamie Soon, Tony Travouillon, Trevor Mendel, Brian Taylor, Blaise C.Kuo Tiong

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

An indium-gallium-arsenide (InGaAs) detector is tested for use on the new Dynamic REd All-sky Monitoring Survey (DREAMS) 0.5-m telescope. DREAMS is novel for its use of InGaAs as a higher-noise and lower-cost alternative to mercury-cadmium-telluride. The Princeton Infrared Technologies 1280SCICAM, which has one of the smallest pitches and largest focal planes of any commercially available InGaAs detector, is extensively characterized to determine the viability of InGaAs detectors for astronomy. We find the 1280SCICAM to have the one of the lowest dark currents (67e-/s) of any commercially available InGaAs focal plane array, and also confirm no fringing or non-linearity is present. Given its low noise, we conclude that DREAMS will be sufficiently background limited with InGaAs, and by extension, InGaAs is well-suited for application on low-angular-resolution NIR instruments.

Original languageEnglish
Article number016001
JournalJournal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems
Volume8
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2022

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