Measuring the optical properties of astrophysical dust analogues: instrumentation and methods.

Dust is found throughout the universe and plays an important role for a wide range of astrophysical phenomena. In recent years, new IR facilities have provided powerful new data for understanding these phenomena. However, interpretation of these data is often complicated by a lack of complementary information about the optical properties of astronomically relevant materials. The Optical Properties of Astronomical Silicates with Infrared Techniques (OPASI-T) program at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is designed to provide new high-quality laboratory data from which we can derive the optical properties of astrophysical dust analogues. This program makes use of multiple instruments, including new equipment designed and built specifically for this purpose. The suite of instruments allows us to derive optical properties over a wide wavelength range, from the near-IR through the millimeter, also providing the capability for exploring how these properties depend upon the temperature of the sample. In this paper, we discuss the overall structure of the research program, describe the new instruments that have been developed to meet the science goals, and demonstrate the efficacy of these tools.

Maturing electron multiplying charge coupled device photon-counting with variable multiplication gain imaging for a coronagraphic instrument.

This is an introduction to a US government program that conducted high-contrast imaging experiments with an electron multiplying charge coupled device (EMCCD) in an interferometric coronagraph. This report will introduce the concepts of "charge blooming" and "starlight saturation" in the context of high-contrast astronomical imaging. These phenomena adversely effect the performance of high-contrast photon-counting instruments that do not use a mask to physically block starlight in the science channel of the coronagraph. The problems will be presented with the help of images taken with a commercial EMCCD camera in the visible nulling coronagraph at the Goddard Space Flight Center. A new clocking scheme for EMCCDs-variable multiplication gain clocking-will be proposed as a means for suppressing horizontal blooming and starlight saturation in an astronomical camera. This opening report will conclude with a discussion of design considerations for a new controller for high-contrast photon-counting with an EMCCD in a coronagraphic instrument. This controller will allow a single frame from an EMCCD to be scanned in multiple modes-photon-counting and digitization-with a variable multiplication gain clock to enable direct imaging of an exoplanet and wavefront control of a coronagraph, simultaneously.

Optical properties of Zitex in the infrared to submillimeter.

The results of measurements of the refractive index and power attenuation coefficient of Zitex at 290, 77, and 4 K in the spectral region from 1 to 1000 microm are presented. Zitex is a porous Teflon sheet with a filling factor of approximately 50% and is manufactured in several varieties as a filter paper. Zitex is found to be an effective IR block, with thin (200-microm) sheets transmitting less than 1% in the 1-50-microm range while attenuating < or = 10% at wavelengths longer than 200 microm. Some variation in the cutoff wavelength is seen, tending to be a shorter-wavelength cutoff for a smaller pore size. In addition, the thermal conductivity of Zitex at cryogenic temperatures has been measured and is found to be roughly one half that of bulk Teflon. Finally, its dielectric constant has been measured in the submillimeter as n = 1.20, resulting in extremely low dielectric reflection losses. As a result, Zitex is particularly useful as an IR blocking filter in low-noise heterodyne receivers; in the millimeter-wave range (lambda > or = 850 microm or nu < or = 350 GHz) the attenuation of alpha < or = 0.01 cm(-1) for a 3.5-mm thickness filter of Zitex G125 would raise receiver noise temperatures by <1 K.