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W. T. Vestrand, K. Albright, D. Casperson, E. Fenimore, C. Ho, W. Priedhorsky, R. Shirey, R. White, J. Wren (LANL)
One of the last frontiers in optical astronomy is the sub-second time domain. The construction of 10-m class telescopes opens up new opportunities to explore rapid astrophysical phenomena with timescales that were previously impossible. However, to fully exploit these opportunities we need photon-counting spectrophotometers with very high temporal resolution. We discuss a new type of photon-counting imaging sensor for astronomy that is under development at Los Alamos National Laboratory. This imaging sensor employs stacked microchannel plates and a crossed delay line readout with a spatial resolution of about 70 microns on a 40mm diameter active area. The sensor tube is connected to electronics that provide absolute timing accuracy for photon arrival times of better than 200 picoseconds. These sensors, when coupled with a simple transmission grating having 300 grooves/mm, can make photon-counting spectroscopic observations with spectral resolution that is an order of magnitude greater and temporal resolution three orders of magnitude greater than the most capable photon-counting imaging detectors that have been used for optical astronomy. We also briefly discuss some of the exciting astrophysical studies that will be enabled by this new technology.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.