Large-area Reflective Infrared Filters for Millimeter/sub-mm Telescopes

Kavli Affiliate: Chao-Lin Kuo

| First 5 Authors: Z. Ahmed, J. A. Grayson, K. L. Thompson, C. L. Kuo, G. Brooks

| Summary:

Ground-based millimeter and sub-millimeter telescopes are attempting to image the sky with ever-larger cryogenically-cooled bolometer arrays, but face challenges in mitigating the infrared loading accompanying large apertures. Absorptive infrared filters supported by mechanical coolers scale insufficiently with aperture size. Reflective metal-mesh filters placed behind the telescope window provide a scalable solution in principle, but have been limited by photolithography constraints to diameters under 300 mm. We present laser etching as an alternate technique to photolithography for fabrication of large-area reflective filters, and show results from lab tests of 500 mm-diameter filters. Filters with up to 700 mm diameter can be fabricated using laser etching with existing capability.

| Search Query: arXiv Query: search_query=au:”C. L. Kuo”&id_list=&start=0&max_results=3

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