Dr. Faouzi Boussaha

Observatoire de Paris, France

Development of near-infrared and visible kinetic inductance detectors at Paris Observatory

Abstract:

Thanks to their unequalled performance, particularly in terms of sensitivity which can approach the quantum limit given by the photon noise, superconducting detectors are the preferred choice when it comes to detecting the primordial light emitted at the beginning of the expansion of the universe, to probe the interstellar medium which is the seat of star formation or when it comes to studying the physico-chemical processes of planetary atmospheres including that of the Earth.

One of the newest and promising superconducting detector technologies is the kinetic inductance detector (KID). KIDs, by their ability to count photons, to measure their individual energies and to acquire images at very high rates, are suitable for many astronomical applications.

At Paris Observatory, we are developing lumped element kinetic inductance detectors (LEKIDs) for the SpectroPhotometric Imaging for Astronomy with Kinetic Inductance Detectors (SPIAKID) project. SPIAKID is a novel near-IR and visible MKIDs-based instrument to be deployed on 4 or 8 m class telescopes. It will be dedicated to primarily observe and study ultra faint dwarf (UFD) galaxies in the Local Group. We aim to build 100×100 pixel arrays with pixel sizes around 84×84 m to match the plate scale of the optical telescope that will house the instrument. To achieve such a small size, we are implementing parallel plate capacitor TiN-based LEKIDs. Compared to the interdigitated capacitor geometry, the use of the parallel-plate capacitor allows to significantly reduce the size of optical LEKIDs which can easily resonate in low frequency bands (<2 GHz). This would also significantly facilitate the implementation of the readout electronics. In this talk, I will present LEKID array designs for SPIAKID instrument and first experimental results.