Presidential Young Investigator (PYI) Award: Development of Superconducting Detectors for Use in Submillimeter Spectroscopy

这项总统青年研究员奖下的研究将有三个主要推动力。第一个是改进的亚毫米接收器组件的开发。首席研究员对探索超导薄膜和隧道结技术以开发新型亚毫米电路特别感兴趣。SIS混频器、二维成像阵列、亚毫米约瑟夫森振荡器、SQUID和参数放大器、低损耗传输线、无源组件(如滤波器、耦合器)，甚至可能是集成接收器，都可以使用这项技术。第二个推力是在加州理工学院亚毫米天文台和南极望远镜以及机载望远镜上建造实用的天文接收器系统，最终用于空间飞行任务。这项工作将与第一项工作并行进行，在必要时使用现有组件，但在开发新组件时利用新组件。第三个推力是利用这些接收器来解决天体物理问题。目前的主要兴趣是分子云的结构和物理、光解离区、分子流出和恒星形成区。亚毫米光谱学是研究这些地区典型的温暖和密集气体的最佳方法。

Research under this Presidential Young Investigator Award will have three main thrusts. The first is the development of improved submillimeter receiver components. The Principal Investigator is particularly interested in expoiting superconducting thin film and tunnel junction technology to develop novel submillimeter circuits. Devices such as SIS mixers, 2-dimensional imaging arrays, submillimeter Josephson oscillators, SQUID and parametric amplifiers, low-loss transmission lines, passive components such as filters couplers, and perhaps even integrated receivers are all feasible with this technology. The second thrust is the construction of practical receiver systems for astronomical use at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory and the Antarctic Telescope and also on airborne telescopes, and eventually for space missions. This effort will be pursued in parallel with the first, using existing components when necessary but taking advantage of new components as they are developed. The third thrust is the employment of these receivers to attack astrophysical problems. Principal interests at present are the structure and physics of molecular clouds, photodissociation regions, molecular outflows, and star-forming regions. Submillimeter spectroscopy is the optimal method for studying the warm and dencse gas typically found in these regions.