A novel photon counting GaAs detector for sub-millisecond astronomical imaging

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

AST-0352980/Siegmund, U of Cal Berkeley The research will support the development of an extremely sensitive high-speed detection system based on Gallium Arsenide for use in a sealed-tube photon-counting position-sensitive detector. The new type of sensor will be optimized for ultra-high sensitivity in the 4000 - 9000 angstrom wavelength range, to provide an imaging detector capable of registering single optical photons with high quantum efficiency (> 40% up to 8500 angstroms), high time resolution (approximately 1 nanosecond) with high spatial resolution (better than 1000 x 1000 pixels). The detector will be best suited for unprecedented high-speed observations of astronomical objects such as pulsars and cataclysmic variable systems. The advances made in high-speed imaging will be applicable beyond the field of astronomy, and would be useful, for example, in medical imaging applications.