CCAT: Mod-Cam Cryogenic Performance and its Impact on 280 GHz KID Array Noise

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Lin, Lawrence T., Vavagiakis, Eve M., Austermann, Jason E., Burgoyne, James R., Chapman, Scott, Choi, Steve K., Crites, Abigail T., Duell, Cody J., Freundt, Rodrigo G., Gazda, Eliza, Groppi, Christopher, Huber, Anthony I., Huber, Zachary B., Hubmayr, Johannes, Keller, Ben, Mauskopf, Philip, Middleton, Alicia, Niemack, Michael D., Patel, Darshan A., Roberson, Cody, Sinclair, Adrian K., Smith, Ema, Vaskuri, Anna, Vaughan, Benjamin J., Walker, Samantha, Wang, Yi, Wang, Yuhan, Wheeler, Jordan, Ruixuan, Xie
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Lin, Lawrence T.
Vavagiakis, Eve M.
Austermann, Jason E.
Burgoyne, James R.
Chapman, Scott
Choi, Steve K.
Crites, Abigail T.
Duell, Cody J.
Freundt, Rodrigo G.
Gazda, Eliza
Groppi, Christopher
Huber, Anthony I.
Huber, Zachary B.
Hubmayr, Johannes
Keller, Ben
Mauskopf, Philip
Middleton, Alicia
Niemack, Michael D.
Patel, Darshan A.
Roberson, Cody
Sinclair, Adrian K.
Smith, Ema
Vaskuri, Anna
Vaughan, Benjamin J.
Walker, Samantha
Wang, Yi
Wang, Yuhan
Wheeler, Jordan
Ruixuan
Xie
author_facet Lin, Lawrence T.
Vavagiakis, Eve M.
Austermann, Jason E.
Burgoyne, James R.
Chapman, Scott
Choi, Steve K.
Crites, Abigail T.
Duell, Cody J.
Freundt, Rodrigo G.
Gazda, Eliza
Groppi, Christopher
Huber, Anthony I.
Huber, Zachary B.
Hubmayr, Johannes
Keller, Ben
Mauskopf, Philip
Middleton, Alicia
Niemack, Michael D.
Patel, Darshan A.
Roberson, Cody
Sinclair, Adrian K.
Smith, Ema
Vaskuri, Anna
Vaughan, Benjamin J.
Walker, Samantha
Wang, Yi
Wang, Yuhan
Wheeler, Jordan
Ruixuan
Xie
contents The CCAT Observatory's Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST) is designed to observe submillimeter astronomical signals with high precision, using receivers fielding state-of-the-art kinetic inductance detector (KID) arrays. Mod-Cam, a first-light instrument for FYST, serves as a testbed for instrument module characterization, including detailed evaluation of thermal behavior under operating conditions prior to deploying modules in the larger Prime-Cam instrument. Prime-Cam is a first generation multi-band, wide-field camera for FYST, designed to field up to seven instrument modules and provide unprecedented sensitivity across a broad frequency range. We present results from two key laboratory characterizations: an "optically open" cooldown to validate the overall thermal performance of the cryostat, and a "cold load" cooldown to measure the effect of focal plane temperature stability on detector noise. During the optically open test, we achieved stable base temperatures of 1.5 K on the 1 K stage and 85 mK at the detector stage. In the cold load configuration, we measured a detector focal plane RMS temperature stability of 3.2e-5 K. From this stability measurement, we demonstrate that the equivalent power from focal plane thermal fluctuations is only 0.0040% of a 5pW incident photon power for aluminum detectors and 0.0023% for titanium-nitride detectors, a negligible level for CCAT science goals. This highlights the success of the cryogenic system design and thermal management.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_25018
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle CCAT: Mod-Cam Cryogenic Performance and its Impact on 280 GHz KID Array Noise
Lin, Lawrence T.
Vavagiakis, Eve M.
Austermann, Jason E.
Burgoyne, James R.
Chapman, Scott
Choi, Steve K.
Crites, Abigail T.
Duell, Cody J.
Freundt, Rodrigo G.
Gazda, Eliza
Groppi, Christopher
Huber, Anthony I.
Huber, Zachary B.
Hubmayr, Johannes
Keller, Ben
Mauskopf, Philip
Middleton, Alicia
Niemack, Michael D.
Patel, Darshan A.
Roberson, Cody
Sinclair, Adrian K.
Smith, Ema
Vaskuri, Anna
Vaughan, Benjamin J.
Walker, Samantha
Wang, Yi
Wang, Yuhan
Wheeler, Jordan
Ruixuan
Xie
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
The CCAT Observatory's Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST) is designed to observe submillimeter astronomical signals with high precision, using receivers fielding state-of-the-art kinetic inductance detector (KID) arrays. Mod-Cam, a first-light instrument for FYST, serves as a testbed for instrument module characterization, including detailed evaluation of thermal behavior under operating conditions prior to deploying modules in the larger Prime-Cam instrument. Prime-Cam is a first generation multi-band, wide-field camera for FYST, designed to field up to seven instrument modules and provide unprecedented sensitivity across a broad frequency range. We present results from two key laboratory characterizations: an "optically open" cooldown to validate the overall thermal performance of the cryostat, and a "cold load" cooldown to measure the effect of focal plane temperature stability on detector noise. During the optically open test, we achieved stable base temperatures of 1.5 K on the 1 K stage and 85 mK at the detector stage. In the cold load configuration, we measured a detector focal plane RMS temperature stability of 3.2e-5 K. From this stability measurement, we demonstrate that the equivalent power from focal plane thermal fluctuations is only 0.0040% of a 5pW incident photon power for aluminum detectors and 0.0023% for titanium-nitride detectors, a negligible level for CCAT science goals. This highlights the success of the cryogenic system design and thermal management.
title CCAT: Mod-Cam Cryogenic Performance and its Impact on 280 GHz KID Array Noise
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.25018