We have used Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE)-based delta doping technology to demonstrate near 100% internal quantum efficiency (QE) on silicon electron-multiplied Charge Coupled Devices (EMCCDs) for single photon counting detection applications. Furthermore, we have used precision techniques for depositing antireflection (AR) coatings by employing Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) and demonstrated over 50% external QE in the far and near-ultraviolet in megapixel arrays. We have demonstrated that other device parameters such as dark current are unchanged after these processes. In this paper, we report on these results and briefly discuss the techniques and processes employed.
The large-scale deep underwater Cherenkov neutrino telescopes like Baikal-GVD, ANTARES or KM3NeT, require calibration and testing methods of their optical modules. These methods usually include laser-based systems which allow to check the telescope responses to the light and for real-time monitoring of the optical parameters of water such as absorption and scattering lengths, which show seasonal changes in natural reservoirs of water. We will present a testing method of a laser calibration system and a set of dedicated tools developed for Baikal- GVD, which includes a specially designed and built, compact, portable, and reconfigurable scanning station. This station is adapted to perform fast quality tests of the underwater laser sets just before their deployment in the telescope structure, even on ice, without darkroom. The testing procedure includes the energy stability test of the laser device, 3D scan of the light emission from the diffuser and attenuation test of the optical elements of the laser calibration system. The test bench consists primarily of an automatic mechanical scanner with a movable Si detector, beam splitter with a reference Si detector and, optionally, Q-switched diode-pumped solid-state laser used for laboratory scans of the diffusers. The presented test bench enables a three-dimensional scan of the light emission from diffusers, which are designed to obtain the isotropic distribution of photons around the point of emission. The results of the measurement can be easily shown on a 3D plot immediately after the test and may be also implemented to a dedicated program simulating photons propagation in water, which allows to check the quality of the diffuser in the scale of the Baikal-GVD telescope geometry.
We present the single event effect (SEE) tolerance of a mixed-signal application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) developed for a charge-coupled device camera onboard a future X-ray astronomical mission. We adopted proton and heavy ion beams at HIMAC/NIRS in Japan. The particles with high linear energy transfer (LET) of 57.9 MeV cm^{2}/mg is used to measure the single event latch-up (SEL) tolerance, which results in a sufficiently low cross-section of sigma_{SEL} < 4.2x10^{-11} cm^{2}/(IonxASIC). The single event upset (SEU) tolerance is estimated with various kinds of species with wide range of energy. Taking into account that a part of the protons creates recoiled heavy ions that has higher LET than that of the incident protons, we derived the probability of SEU event as a function of LET. Then the SEE event rate in a low-earth orbit is estimated considering a simulation result of LET spectrum. SEL rate is below once per 49 years, which satisfies the required latch-up tolerance. The upper limit of the SEU rate is derived to be 1.3x10^{-3}events/sec. Although the SEU events cannot be distinguished from the signals of X-ray photons from astronomical objects, the derived SEU rate is below 1.3% of expected non-X-ray background rate of the detector and hence these events should not be a major component of the instrumental background.
We designed, fabricated, and characterized four arrays of horn--coupled, lumped element kinetic inductance detectors (LEKIDs), optimized to work in the spectral bands of the balloon-borne OLIMPO experiment. OLIMPO is a 2.6 m aperture telescope, aimed at spectroscopic measurements of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect. OLIMPO will also validate the LEKID technology in a representative space environment. The corrected focal plane is filled with diffraction limited horn-coupled KID arrays, with 19, 37, 23, 41 active pixels respectively at 150, 250, 350, and 460$:$GHz. Here we report on the full electrical and optical characterization performed on these detector arrays before the flight. In a dark laboratory cryostat, we measured the resonator electrical parameters, such as the quality factors and the electrical responsivities, at a base temperature of 300$:$mK. The measured average resonator $Q$s are 1.7$times{10^4}$, 7.0$times{10^4}$, 1.0$times{10^4}$, and 1.0$times{10^4}$ for the 150, 250, 350, and 460$:$GHz arrays, respectively. The average electrical phase responsivities on resonance are 1.4$:$rad/pW, 1.5$:$rad/pW, 2.1$:$rad/pW, and 2.1$:$rad/pW; the electrical noise equivalent powers are 45$:rm{aW/sqrt{Hz}}$, 160$:rm{aW/sqrt{Hz}}$, 80$:rm{aW/sqrt{Hz}}$, and 140$:rm{aW/sqrt{Hz}}$, at 12 Hz. In the OLIMPO cryostat, we measured the optical properties, such as the noise equivalent temperatures (NET) and the spectral responses. The measured NET$_{rm RJ}$s are $200:murm{Ksqrt{s}}$, $240:murm{Ksqrt{s}}$, $240:murm{Ksqrt{s}}$, and $:340murm{Ksqrt{s}}$, at 12 Hz; under 78, 88, 92, and 90 mK Rayleigh-Jeans blackbody load changes respectively for the 150, 250, 350, and 460 GHz arrays. The spectral responses were characterized with the OLIMPO differential Fourier transform spectrometer (DFTS) up to THz frequencies, with a resolution of 1.8 GHz.