Upgrade of CCD Spectroscopy for the MMTO and Steward Observatory

几家公司已经生产出了低噪声、暗电流可以忽略不计和高电荷转移效率的优秀的CCD探测器。除了总量子效率(QE)低和成像面积小之外，这些设备几乎是天文观测的理想设备。在斯图尔德天文台，已经开发了一种制造后的CCD优化工艺，利用该工艺可以对商业生产的设备进行减薄，以便进行背面照明、背面充电和减反射涂层。这一过程现在已经在劳拉航空电子公司制造的几个设备上成功演示。由于这一成功，我们与国家光学天文台(NOAO)开展了一项联合计划，定制设计了两种用于天文光谱学的CCD探测器格式。这两个装置中的每一个都已经制造了88个(费用由国家海洋和大气局支付)，其潜在的天文有用质量为20%。在这项提案中，我们寻求资金用于亚利桑那大学两个最大的望远镜--山上的多镜望远镜(MMT)的光谱仪中的减薄、封装、背面充电、减反射涂层和几个这样的设备的实施。霍普金斯和基特峰上的2.3米望远镜。这些仪器是教职员工、学生和参观者经常使用的主要设备光谱仪，新探测器的光谱覆盖范围更广、效率更高、成像表面更平坦和噪音更低，将使它们受益匪浅。特别是MMT光谱仪将首次拥有可用于蓝色和近紫外线观测的二维探测器。这将开启一种全新的观测类别，可以用这台大口径望远镜有效地进行观测。

Several companies have produced excellent CCD detectors with low noise, negligible dark current, and high charge-transfer efficiency. These devices are nearly ideal for astronomical observations, with the exception of low overall quantum efficiency (QE) and small imaging area. At Steward Observatory a post- manufacture CCD optimizing process has been developed with which commercially produced devices can be thinned for backside illumination, backside charging and antireflection coating. This procedure has now been demonstrated successfully on several devices manufactured at the Loral Aeronautronics Corporation. As a result of this success, we have undertaken a joint program with the National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO) to custom-design two CCD detector formats for use in astronomical spectroscopy. Eighty-eight of each of these two devices have been manufactured (at NOAO's expense) with potentially 20% of astronomically useful quality. In this proposal we seek funding for the thinning, packaging, backside charging, antireflection coating, and implementation of several of these devices in the spectrographs of the two largest telescopes at the University of Arizona; the Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT) on Mt. Hopkins and the 2.3 m telescope on Kitt Peak. These instruments are workhorse facility spectrographs routinely used by faculty, students, and visitors, and will benefit greatly by the improved spectral coverage, higher efficiency, flatter imaging surface, and lower noise of the new detectors. The MMT spectrograph in particular will for the first time have a two-dimensional detector available for blue and near-UV observations. This will open entirely new classes of observations which can be efficiently made with this large aperture telescope.