Revolutionary Technologies for Optical-Infrared Astronomy

光学红外天文学的革命性技术

• 批准号: PP/D002494/1
• 负责人: Roger Haynes
• 金额: $ 73.72万
• 依托单位: Australian Astronomical Observatory
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2006 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=PP%2FD002494%2F1
• 关键词: Revolutionary; Technologies; Optical; Infrared; Astronomy

Context These are exciting times for cosmology, a field in which the UK has long dominated many aspects of observational and theoretical research. This dominance can continue if the UK continues its tradition of investing wisely in first class facilities. It is a remarkable fact that the night sky is very dark. As we look up, we are able to discern planets, stars and galaxies with the naked eye. The dark sky has allowed mankind to ponder what is 'out there' for thousands of years. But this is only true in the visible spectrum where our eyes are sensitive to light. At infrared wavelengths, the night sky is very bright and an infrared observer is living in perpetual daylight. This is why infrared astronomy from the ground still lags behind optical astronomy. The further back in time we look with our telescopes, the more the light is redshifted to infrared wavelengths, so in order to see back to when galaxies were forming for the first time, we will need to bypass the age-old problem of the bright infrared sky. Aims and objectives The first part of our proposal explores a new technology that promises to render the infrared sky as dark or darker than the optical sky. The second part of our proposal addresses one of the most exciting results in recent years, that the most distant galaxies exhibit a web-like structure across the sky on angular scales of about 30', the size of the full moon. To allow for efficient searches, it will be important to develop concepts that can look at many sources over the widest possible sky field. For both parts, we seek to develop a novel technology and to demonstrate its potential at a major telescope. Scientific benefits The main science goal of the NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in the next decade is to look for the impact of the First Stars at infrared wavelengths. However, our proposed development offers the UK a tremendous opportunity to upstage the JWST. We envisage a 1000x1000 fibre integral field spectrograph operating with an adaptive optics system on an 8m telescope. If each 'pixel' is fully OH-suppressed and dispersed at low resolution (in order to minimize the number of detectors), this instrument has the potential to operate close to the expected performance of JWST. This will allow UK astronomers to push the observational boundaries well beyond the current limits, and maybe to even find evidence of the First Stars in the early universe. Commercial benefits The new MMF-SMF converter allows a wide range of photonic actions to take place within a multimode fibre. This allows for the first time MMF coupling performance with SMF photonic capability, a function which is likely to have enormous application across a wide industrial and science base. Beyond astronomy, the key areas we have identified for further market research are (1) local area networks, (2) medical imaging, (3) passive and active sensors, (4) new enabling technologies for space-based instruments. We highlight only two of these here. The telecommunications industry is founded on action within a SMF in which billions of dollars have been spent on the problem of coupling light efficiently. While it is certainly possible to achieve high coupling efficiency into SMFs, the coupling cost is directly proportional to the precision with which the optical source is positioned relative to the fibre. MMF devices are considerably cheaper because the tolerancing required to achieve adequate coupling is greatly reduced. This is expected to have important applications in local area networks for Tps data transfer rates. Here the competing technology is Wi-Fi communications which are far less secure and unlikely to achieve higher than Gps data rates. Another potential application is space-based instrumentation, i.e. a photonic device where the output of individual MMFs can be photonically switched without any need for mechanical movement.

这是宇宙学的激动人心的时刻，英国长期以来在观测和理论研究的许多方面占据主导地位。如果英国继续明智地投资于一流设施的传统，这种主导地位就可以继续下去。夜空很暗，这是一个值得注意的事实。当我们抬头仰望时，我们能够用肉眼辨别行星、恒星和星系。黑暗的天空让人类思考了数千年的“外面”是什么。但这只在可见光谱中是正确的，我们的眼睛对光敏感。在红外波长下，夜空非常明亮，红外观察者生活在永久的日光中。这就是为什么地面上的红外天文学仍然落后于光学天文学。我们用望远镜看的时间越早，光被红移到红外波长的越多，所以为了看到星系第一次形成的时间，我们需要绕过明亮的红外天空这个古老的问题。我们提案的第一部分探讨了一种新技术，该技术有望使红外天空与光学天空一样暗或更暗。我们的提案的第二部分涉及近年来最令人兴奋的结果之一，即最遥远的星系在天空中呈现出一种网状结构，其角尺度约为30 '，满月的大小。为了进行有效的搜索，重要的是要开发能够在尽可能广泛的天空领域中查看许多源的概念。对于这两个部分，我们寻求开发一种新技术，并在大型望远镜上展示其潜力。美国宇航局詹姆斯韦伯太空望远镜（JWST）在未来十年的主要科学目标是寻找第一颗恒星在红外波长的影响。然而，我们提出的发展为英国提供了一个超越JWST的巨大机会。我们设想在8米望远镜上用自适应光学系统实现1000 × 1000光纤积分场摄谱仪。如果每个“像素”都是完全OH抑制和分散在低分辨率（以尽量减少探测器的数量），该仪器有可能接近预期的JWST性能。这将使英国天文学家将观测边界远远超出目前的限制，甚至可能找到早期宇宙中第一颗恒星的证据。新型MMF-SMF转换器允许在多模光纤中进行各种光子操作。这使得第一次的MMF耦合性能与SMF的光子能力，这是一个功能，这是可能有巨大的应用在广泛的工业和科学基础。除了天文学，我们已经确定的进一步市场研究的关键领域是（1）局域网，（2）医学成像，（3）被动和主动传感器，（4）天基仪器的新技术。我们在这里只强调其中的两个。电信行业是建立在SMF内的行动上的，其中数十亿美元已经花费在有效耦合光的问题上。虽然实现到SMF中的高耦合效率当然是可能的，但是耦合成本与光源相对于光纤定位的精度成正比。磁动势设备相当便宜，因为实现足够耦合所需的公差大大减少。预计这在局域网中具有重要的应用，用于Tps数据传输速率。在这里，竞争技术是Wi-Fi通信，它的安全性要低得多，而且不太可能达到比GPS更高的数据速率。另一个潜在的应用是基于空间的仪器，即光子器件，其中各个MMF的输出可以在不需要任何机械运动的情况下进行光子切换。