DARKNESS: A Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector Integral Field Spectrograph for High-contrast Astronomy
- Creators
- Meeker, Seth R.
- Mazin, Benjamin A.
- Walter, Alex B.
- Strader, Paschal
- Fruitwala, Neelay
- Bockstiegel, Clint
- Szypryt, Paul
- Ulbricht, Gerhard
- Coiffard, Grégoire
- Bumble, Bruce
- Cancelo, Gustavo
- Zmuda, Ted
- Treptow, Ken
- Wilcer, Neal
- Collura, Giulia
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Dodkins, Rupert
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Lipartito, Isabel
- Zobrist, Nicholas
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Bottom, Michael
- Shelton, J. Chris
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Mawet, Dimitri
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van Eyken, Julian C.
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Vasisht, Gautam
- Serabyn, Eugene
Abstract
We present DARKNESS (the DARK-speckle Near-infrared Energy-resolving Superconducting Spectrophotometer), the first of several planned integral field spectrographs to use optical/near-infrared Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) for high-contrast imaging. The photon counting and simultaneous low-resolution spectroscopy provided by MKIDs will enable real-time speckle control techniques and post-processing speckle suppression at frame rates capable of resolving the atmospheric speckles that currently limit high-contrast imaging from the ground. DARKNESS is now operational behind the PALM-3000 extreme adaptive optics system and the Stellar Double Coronagraph at Palomar Observatory. Here, we describe the motivation, design, and characterization of the instrument, early on-sky results, and future prospects.
Additional Information
© 2018 The Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Received 2017 October 24; accepted 2018 March 8; published 2018 April 16. The authors would like to thank the anonymous referee for the thorough and helpful comments. We also extend a special thanks to the amazing staff of Palomar Observatory. Their patience, knowledge, and support have been vital to the successful design and operation of DARKNESS. DARKNESS was funded by an NSF ATI grant AST-1308556. S.R.M., P.S., and N.Z. were supported throughout this work by NASA Office of the Chief Technologist's Space Technology Research Fellowships (NSTRF). The research was carried out in part at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This work was performed in part by Fermi Research Alliance, LLC under contract No. DE-AC02-07CH11359 with the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics. This work is based on observations obtained at the Hale Telescope, Palomar Observatory as part of a continuing collaboration between the California Institute of Technology, NASA/JPL, Yale University, and the National Astronomical Observatories of China. Facilities: Hale (PALM-3000 - , Stellar Double Coronagraph).Attached Files
Accepted Version - 1803.10420.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 85881
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20180416-141508782
- NSF
- AST-1308556
- NASA/JPL/Caltech
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- DE-AC02-07CH11359
- Created
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2018-04-16Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-15Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), Astronomy Department