Detection of Light

Detection of Light - Fall Semester 2009

Location & Time

The lecture courses take place in the Huygens building #427 on Thursdays from 13:45 - 15:30 hr (unless otherwise noted - see schedule below). The lectures run from 10 September through 10 December, 2009.

In addition there will be exercises in the Huygens building #204 on Wednesdays from 13:45 - 15:30 hr (unless otherwise noted - see schedule below). The exercises run from 23 September through 16 December, 2009.

Lecturer

The lecturer is Dr. Bernhard Brandl, office: #535 (Oort building), phone (071) 527-5830, email. The teaching assistant is Juan Rafael Martinez Galarza, office: #441, email .

Course content

Detectors are the crucial link between the astronomical target and the observer. As astronomers are aiming at fainter and fainter objects the quality and calibration of the detector systems have become increasingly important. The main goal of this course is to provide an overview of the various techniques to detect electromagnetic radiation, from the UV to the sub-millimeter. Course topics are intrinsic and extrinsic photo-conductors, photodiodes and other junction-based detectors, detector arrays, bolometers, coherent receivers, and submillimeter- and millimeterwave heterodyne receivers. The course will not only provide the physical background of the various detector technologies but also cover practical aspects, which are of general interest to the observer, such as cosmetic quality, linearity and dynamical range, spectral response and bandwidth, and quantum efficiency and noise. For more details see schedule below.

Literature

The course will be heavily based on the book Detection of Light - from the Ultraviolet to the Submillimeter, by George Rieke, 2nd Edition, 2003, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-01710-6. It is recommended that students get their own copy of this book. [Chapters taken from that book are labeled `GR' in the table below].

Further reading:

Grading

Exams will be oral, by appointment. Grades will be based on the oral exam (2/3) and two practical exercises involving data reduction/analysis with IDL (1/3). The theoretical exercises on Wednesdays are optional but strongly recommended; the practical exercises are mandatory and also given on Wednesday (see schedule below). Credits for the course: 6 EC points.

Requirements

Preliminary schedule

Date
Location
Lecture topic
Book chapter
10-Sep-09
HL 427
Introduction (motivation, overview), Photography
GR1,8 PL7, IM1
17-Sep-09
HL 427
Basic solid state physics
CK, BS1,3, GR2, MK3,4
23-Sep-09
HL 204
Exercises  
24-Sep-09
HL 427
Intrinsic photoconductors
GR2
30-Sep-09
HL 204
Noise / Extrinsic photoconductors
GR2,3
01-Oct-09
HL 427
Exercises  
07-Oct-09
HL 204
Exercises  
08-Oct-09
HL 204
Stressed and BIB Detectors and Photodiodes
GR3, GR4
14-Oct-09
HL 204
Exercises  
15-Oct-09
HL 427
Photodiodes and their variants
GR4, BS5,6,8
21-Oct-09
HL 204
Exercises  
22-Oct-09
HL 427
Detector Arrays, Artifacts, and Readout Electronics
GR5, GR6, GH1,3, JJ
28-Oct-09
HL421
Practical exercises: IDL_template, image1, image2, image3a, image3b, image3c  
29-Oct-09
HL 427
Multiplexers and Readout schemes, CCDs
GR6, GH1
04-Nov-09
HL 204
Exercises  
05-Nov-09
HL 427
CCDs (part 2)
GR6, GH1
11-Nov-09
HL 204
Bolometers/incoherent receivers
GR9
12-Nov-09
HL427
Exercises
18-Nov-09
HL421
Practical exercises: image1, image2, image3  
19-Nov-09
HL 427
Bolometers/incoherent receivers
GR9
25-Nov-09
HL 204
Exercises  
26-Nov-09
HL 427
Heterodyne/coherent receivers (part I)
GR10,11, JK7, RT7
02-Dec-09
--
No exercises  
3-Dec-09
HL 427
Heterodyne/coherent receivers (part II)
GR10,11
09-Dec-09
HL 204
Exercises  
10-Dec-09
HL 427
Performance comparison, Gunn Oscillators, SIS, HEBs, and MKIDs
GR11,12
16-Dec-09
HL 204
Exercises