ARCONS: a highly multiplexed superconducting UV to near-IR camera

TL;DR

ARCONS is a highly multiplexed superconducting camera utilizing MKID technology to capture photon energy and timing with high precision across UV to near-IR wavelengths, enabling rapid transient phenomena follow-up.

Contribution

It introduces a novel 1024-pixel MKID-based camera with high energy and time resolution for optical to near-IR astronomy.

Findings

Successful commissioning at Palomar Observatory

Photon energy measured with ~10% accuracy

Arrival times recorded with <2 microseconds precision

Abstract

ARCONS, the Array Camera for Optical to Near-infrared Spectrophotometry, was recently commissioned at the Coude focus of the 200-inch Hale Telescope at the Palomar Observatory. At the heart of this unique instrument is a 1024-pixel Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector (MKID), exploiting the Kinetic Inductance effect to measure the energy of the incoming photon to better than several percent. The ground-breaking instrument is lens-coupled with a pixel scale of 0.23"/pixel, with each pixel recording the arrival time (<2 microsec) and energy of a photon (~10%) in the optical to near-IR (0.4-1.1 microns) range. The scientific objectives of the instrument include the rapid follow-up and classification of the transient phenomena.