Observing Pulsars with a Phased Array Feed at the Parkes Telescope

During February 2016, CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science and the Max-Planck-Institute for Radio Astronomy installed, commissioned and carried out science observations with a phased array feed (PAF) receiver system on the 64m diameter Parkes radio telescope. Here we demonstrate that the PAF can be used for pulsar observations and we highlight some unique capabilities. We demonstrate that the pulse profiles obtained using the PAF can be calibrated and that multiple pulsars can be simultaneously observed. Significantly, we find that an intrinsic polarisation leakage of -31dB can be achieved with a PAF beam offset from the centre of the field of view. We discuss the possibilities for using a PAF for future pulsar observations and for searching for fast radio bursts with the Parkes and Effelsberg telescopes.