The quasi-optical design of the QUaD telescope

We describe the optical design and performance of ’QUEST and DASI’ or ’QUaD’, a ground-based high-resolution experiment designed to measure the polarisation properties of the cosmic microwave background radiation. QUaD uses bolometric detectors at 100 and 150GHz on a 2.6m Cassegrain telescope. The Q...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Infrared physics & technology 2008-03, Vol.51 (4), p.277-286
Main Authors: O’Sullivan, C., Cahill, G., Murphy, J.A., Gear, W.K., Harris, J., Ade, P.A.R., Church, S.E., Thompson, K.L., Pryke, C., Bock, J., Bowden, M., Brown, M.L., Carlstrom, J.E., Castro, P.G., Culverhouse, T., Friedman, R.B., Ganga, K.M., Haynes, V., Hinderks, J.R., Kovak, J., Lange, A.E., Leitch, E.M., Mallie, O.E., Melhuish, S.J., Orlando, A., Piccirillo, L., Pisano, G., Rajguru, N., Rusholme, B.A., Schwarz, R., Taylor, A.N., Wu, E.Y.S., Zemcov, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomy
Astrophysics
Cosmic microwave background
Cosmology and Extra-Galactic Astrophysics
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
Feedhorn design
Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications)
Fundamental astronomy and astrophysics. Instrumentation, techniques, and astronomical observations
Gaussian beam modes
Geometrical optics
Historical astronomy and archaeoastronomy
and other topics in fundamental astronomy and astrophysics
instrumentation, techniques, and astronomical observations
Optical design
Optical system design
Optics
Physics
Quasioptics
Sciences of the Universe
Wave fronts and ray tracing
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We describe the optical design and performance of ’QUEST and DASI’ or ’QUaD’, a ground-based high-resolution experiment designed to measure the polarisation properties of the cosmic microwave background radiation. QUaD uses bolometric detectors at 100 and 150GHz on a 2.6m Cassegrain telescope. The QUaD optics are designed to minimise systematic effects as well as to maximise sensitivity, and we report here on the comprehensive quasi-optical analysis used to achieve this design. We also present initial optical performance measurements achieved in operation, and discuss changes made to the optics to overcome some errors in the mechanical construction of the primary mirror. The QUaD experiment is now fully operational and taking world-leading data at the South Pole.
ISSN:1350-4495
1879-0275
DOI:10.1016/j.infrared.2007.10.001