A Novel Reflectometer for Relative Reflectance Measurements of CCDs

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new reflectometer designed for measuring the relative reflectance of CCDs, enabling detailed wavelength and spatial reflectance analysis to improve understanding of their quantum efficiency.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel, 3D-printed reflectometer with reduced calibration errors, capable of measuring wavelength-dependent and spatial reflectance variations in backside illuminated CCDs.

Findings

Measured reflectance of two CCD types across wavelengths

Identified reflection gradients across CCD surfaces

Demonstrated device suitability for detailed QE analysis

Abstract

The high quantum efficiencies (QE) of backside illuminated charge coupled devices (CCD) has ushered in the age of the large scale astronomical survey. The QE of these devices can be greater than 90 %, and is dependent upon the operating temperature, device thickness, backside charging mechanisms, and anti-reflection (AR) coatings. But at optical wavelengths the QE is well approximated as one minus the reflectance, thus the measurement of the backside reflectivity of these devices provides a second independent measure of their QE. We have designed and constructed a novel instrument to measure the relative specular reflectance of CCD detectors, with a significant portion of this device being constructed using a 3D fused deposition model (FDM) printer. This device implements both a monitor and measurement photodiode to simultaneously collect incident and reflected measurements reducing errors introduced by the relative reflectance calibration process. While most relative reflectometers are highly dependent upon a precisely repeatable target distance for accurate measurements, we have implemented a method of measurement which minimizes these errors. Using the reflectometer we have measured the reflectance of two types of Hamamatsu CCD detectors. The first device is a Hamamatsu 2k x 4k backside illuminated high resistivity p-type silicon detector which has been optimized to operate in the blue from 380 nm - 650 nm. The second detector being a 2k x 4k backside illuminated high resistivity p-type silicon detector optimized for use in the red from 640 nm - 960 nm. We have not only been able to measure the reflectance of these devices as a function of wavelength we have also sampled the reflectance as a function of position on the device, and found a reflection gradient across these devices.