KPS Overview
Overview
We are developing the first miniature passive near-IR imaging
spectrometer built entirely from small-scale integrated photonic
devices. This breadbox-sized instrument will open up the very distant
universe to terrestrial-based instruments and eliminate the size and
cost barriers brought about by extremely large telescopes
(ELTs). During the 1990s, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and two
Keck 10-meter telescopes revolutionized our understanding of the
Universe with their ability to see fine details from space (HST) and
study faint light sources using telescopes with large collecting areas
(Keck). Astronomers are now building a generation of extremely large
telescopes (D=20-40m) that will operate at the diffraction limit,
attempting to achieve an angular resolution now only feasible in
space. Because the size of telescope instruments is roughly
proportional to the volume of the telescope, astronomers are facing
ELT instruments the size of houses (100 m3), costing more than $50
million, and with development times exceeding seven years. An
instrument, however, that uses photonic technology will break this
trend of spiraling costs. Traditional instruments have difficulty
conserving the integrity of a tiny diffraction-limited image as it
passes through a succession of large lenses, mirrors, and
gratings. This project's approach is to build a low-cost
high-performance instrument that couples the telescope's
diffraction-limited beam directly to an optical-fiber-fed integrated
photonic instrument. The instrument will filter unwanted spectral
lines from the atmosphere, and disperse the astronomical spectrum onto
a highly sensitive HgCdTe infrared detector. We will use this
instrument to provide the deepest views of the Universe from an
earth-based telescope revealing its most distant and youngest
galaxies.
This project has been supported in part by grants from the
W. M. Keck Foundation and the National Science Foundation (Astronomy -
Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation).