The MROI fringe tracking system:  camera hardware modifications to integrate the SAPHIRA detector

R. Ligon III; C. Salcido; D. Buscher; M. J. Creech-Eakman; C. Haniff; F. Santoro; C. Jurgenson; T. M. McCracken; L. Schmidt; J. S. Young

doi:10.1117/12.2312673

9 July 2018 The MROI fringe tracking system: camera hardware modifications to integrate the SAPHIRA detector

R. Ligon III, C. Salcido, D. Buscher, M. J. Creech-Eakman, C. Haniff, F. Santoro, C. Jurgenson, T. M. McCracken, L. Schmidt, J. S. Young

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 10701, Optical and Infrared Interferometry and Imaging VI; 107010D (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2312673
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2018, Austin, Texas, United States

Abstract

The ICoNN (Infrared Coherencing Nearest Neighbors) fringe tracker system is the heart of the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer (MROI). It operates in the near-infrared at H or K_s in such a way that the light being used by the fringe tracker can phase up the interferometric array, but not steal photons from the scientific instruments of the interferometer system. It is capable of performing either in group delay tracking or fringe phase tracking modes, depending on the needs of the scientific observations. The spectrograph for the MROI beam combiner was originally designed for the Teledyne PICNIC array. Developments in detector technology have allowed for an alternative to the original choice of infrared array to finally become available – in particular, the SAPHIRA detector made by Selex. Very low read noise and very fast readout rates are significant reasons for adopting these new detectors, traits which also allow relaxation of some of the opto-mechanical requirements that were needed for the PICNIC chip to achieve marginal sensitivity. This paper will discuss the opto-mechanical advantages and challenges of using the SAPHIRA detector with the pre-existing hardware. In addition to a design for supporting the new detector, alignment of optical components and initial testing as a system are reported herein.

Citation Download Citation

R. Ligon III, C. Salcido, D. Buscher, M. J. Creech-Eakman, C. Haniff, F. Santoro, C. Jurgenson, T. M. McCracken, L. Schmidt, and J. S. Young "The MROI fringe tracking system: camera hardware modifications to integrate the SAPHIRA detector", Proc. SPIE 10701, Optical and Infrared Interferometry and Imaging VI, 107010D (9 July 2018); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2312673

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