Delta-doped electron-multiplying charge-coupled device for photon-starved ultraviolet astronomy: modeling, performance, trade-offs, and prospects for future upgrades

Creators: Picouet, Vincent¹; Kyne, Gillian²; Hamden, Erika³; Valls-Gabaud, David⁴; Miles, Drew M.¹; Khan, Aafaque³; Lin, Zeren¹; Nikzad, Shouleh²; Vibert, Didier⁵; Martin, D. Christopher¹

1. California Institute of Technology
2. Jet Propulsion Lab
3. University of Arizona
4. Laboratory for Studies of Radiation and Matter in Astrophysics and Atmospheres
5. Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille

Abstract

In the pursuit of observing fainter astronomical sources and phenomena, a significant challenge in detector development lies in ensuring that these devices can detect each individual photon they receive. By amplifying each incoming photon by several orders of magnitude, electron-multiplying charge-coupled devices (EMCCDs) offer a promising solution to meet this challenge. Although these detectors boast impressive potential, they can be intricate, requiring precise optimization and fine-tuning of their parameters to unlock their full capabilities in the photon-starved regime. The Faint Intergalactic-medium Redshifted Emission Balloon (FIREBall-2) is a stratospheric project that aims to detect and map the low surface brightness environment of galaxies in the ultraviolet (UV) at z ~ 0.7. As a technology demonstrator for photon-starved astronomy and to advance the technology readiness level of UV EMCCDs, the instrument uses a Teledyne-e2v (T-e2v) EMCCD delta-doped by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, combined with a NüVü controller. To analyze the detector data and retrieve the device noise contributions, we developed a comprehensive EMCCD model along with DS9 analysis tools to compare the model with the actual data under diverse operating conditions. This allowed us to examine the current performance and limitations of these devices both on the ground and in the stratospheric environment, to unravel the intricacies of these detectors. In addition, we will discuss the development and implementation of an exposure time calculator designed to optimize the end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio under diverse conditions and analyze the different trade-offs associated with such devices. This will be used to explore some EMCCD-related issues encountered on FIREBall-2 and present some recent and potential future upgrade strategies (controller upgrade, red-blocking filter, over-spill register implementation, etc.) to mitigate them.

Copyright and License

Acknowledgement

The work presented here is the product of a joint venture between NASA and the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES). The US effort was supported by the NASA Astrophysics Research and Analysis Program (Grant Nos. 80NSSC20K0395 and 80NSSC22K1649). Part of this work has benefited from numerous feedbacks from Bruno Milliard and David Schiminovich. We would also like to thank the reviewers for their insightful comments and valuable suggestions, which have contributed to improving our paper.

Data Availability

The data supporting the findings of this study are not publicly available due to proprietary restrictions. However, the data analysis has been performed using the DS9 extension pyds9plugin accessible on GitHub at the following link: https://github.com/vpicouet/pyds9plugin. The EMCCD model is also available in this plugin. The exposure time calculator is also available on GitHub: https://github.com/vpicouet/spectro-imager-etc.

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