Diving deep into the Milky Way using Anti-Reflection Coatings for Astronomical CCDs

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Aggarwal, Anmol, Mittal, Ashi, Seabroke, George M., Puri, Nitin K.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Aggarwal, Anmol
Mittal, Ashi
Seabroke, George M.
Puri, Nitin K.
author_facet Aggarwal, Anmol
Mittal, Ashi
Seabroke, George M.
Puri, Nitin K.
contents We report two anti-reflection (AR) coatings that give better quantum efficiency (QE) than the existing AR coating on the Gaia astrometric field (AF) CCDs. Light being the core of optical astronomy is extremely important for such missions, therefore, the QE of the devices that are used to capture it should be substantially high. To reduce the losses due to the reflection of light from the surface of the CCDs, AR coatings can be applied. Currently, the main component of the Gaia satellite, the AF CCDs use hafnium dioxide (HfO2) AR coating. In this paper, the ATLAS module of the SILVACO software has been employed for simulating and studying the AF CCD pixel structure and several AR coatings. Our findings evidently suggest that zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) and tantalum pentoxide (Ta2O5) will prove to be better AR coatings for broadband astronomical CCDs in the future and will open new avenues for understanding the evolution of the Milky Way.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_17570
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Diving deep into the Milky Way using Anti-Reflection Coatings for Astronomical CCDs
Aggarwal, Anmol
Mittal, Ashi
Seabroke, George M.
Puri, Nitin K.
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Applied Physics
Instrumentation and Detectors
Optics
We report two anti-reflection (AR) coatings that give better quantum efficiency (QE) than the existing AR coating on the Gaia astrometric field (AF) CCDs. Light being the core of optical astronomy is extremely important for such missions, therefore, the QE of the devices that are used to capture it should be substantially high. To reduce the losses due to the reflection of light from the surface of the CCDs, AR coatings can be applied. Currently, the main component of the Gaia satellite, the AF CCDs use hafnium dioxide (HfO2) AR coating. In this paper, the ATLAS module of the SILVACO software has been employed for simulating and studying the AF CCD pixel structure and several AR coatings. Our findings evidently suggest that zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) and tantalum pentoxide (Ta2O5) will prove to be better AR coatings for broadband astronomical CCDs in the future and will open new avenues for understanding the evolution of the Milky Way.
title Diving deep into the Milky Way using Anti-Reflection Coatings for Astronomical CCDs
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Applied Physics
Instrumentation and Detectors
Optics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.17570