2014/06/10 by Peter W. Sullivan, Bryce Croll, Robert A. Simcoe · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Semiconductor Detectors and Materials #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Superconducting and THz Device Technology #astro-ph.EP #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.1117/12.2056425
Submitted to Proc. SPIE, Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation (2014)
arxiv created 2014/06/10 · openalex publication_date 2014/07/23 · arxiv updated 2015/06/19 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Originally designed for night-vision equipment, InGaAs detectors are beginning to achieve background-limited performance in broadband imaging from the ground. The lower cost of these detectors can enable multi-band instruments, arrays of small telescopes, and large focal planes that would be uneconomical with high-performance HgCdTe detectors. We developed a camera to operate the FLIR AP1121 sensor using deep thermoelectric cooling and up-the-ramp sampling to minimize noise. We measured a dark current of 163 e- s<sup>-1</sup> pix<sup>-1</sup>, a read noise of 87 e- up-the-ramp, and a well depth of 80k e-. Laboratory photometric testing achieved a stability of 230 ppm hr<sup>-1/2</sup>, which would be required for detecting exoplanet transits. InGaAs detectors are also applicable to other branches of near-infrared time-domain astronomy, ranging from brown dwarf weather to gravitational wave follow-up.