INFRARED FIBER ARRAYS FOR LOW BACKGROUND INFRARED ASTRONOMY

INFRARED TRANSMITTING COHERENT FIBER BUNDLES WILL BE DEVELOPED FOR USE IN ASTRONOMICAL AND AEROSPACE SPECTROSCOPIC SYSTEMS. THESE SYSTEMS COULD BE TELESCOPE COUPLED FOR IN-FLIGHT OR GROUND-BASED USE. APPLICATIONS INCLUDE RE-MAPPING PIXELS TO MATCH THE DETECTOR ELEMENTS OF AN INFRARED FOCAL PLANE ARRAY DETECTOR, CURVED FIELD CORRECTION, MULTI-OBJECT SPECTROSCOPY OR SPECTROSCOPIC MAPPING, IMAGE MAGNIFICATION, AND REMOTE REPLACEMENT OF THE DETECTOR. DURING PHASE I WE WILL CONSTRUCT A 25-FIBER IMAGE-SLICER FOR IMMEDIATE TESTING AT KITT PEAK NATIONAL OBSERVATORY. BUILDING ON THIS EXPERIENCE, WE WILL CONSTRUCTA MASSIVELY PARALLEL BUNDLE TO MAP THE SPECTRAL ELEMENTS FROM A SPECTROMETER SLIT IMAGE ONTO THE ELEMENTS OF A 1-5 MICRON INSB ARRAY DETECTOR. THE FIBERS WILL BE MADE IN-HOUSE FROM ZIRCONIUM FLUORIDE BASED GLASS. WE WILL ALSO PERFORM EXPERIMENTS USING THE RE-DRAW TECHNIQUE WHICH CAN BEUSED TO PRODUCE HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGING BUNDLES. DURING PHASE II, WE WILL DEVELOP THE MASSIVELY PARALLEL BUNDLE AND CONSTRUCT OTHER INFRARED IMAGING BUNDLES USING BOTH CONSTANT DIAMETER AND TAPERED FIBERS.