High Resolution Multi-Object Fiber-Fed Spectroscopy with Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors

This project seeks to develop a new detector technology, called Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs), that would permit a spectrograph to be built that can take the spectra of many objects at the same time. An MKID detector also allows the color of all arriving light to be determined without the need for additional optics that result in some of the light being lost.

This device has applications across and even beyond astronomy, from detecting life on planets around nearby stars to looking at the chemical compositions of stars in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies.

Spectrographs with spectral resolution R>10,000 are one of the most important tools for nearly every discipline in astronomy, but design has been nearly static for the last several decades. A high-resolution spectrograph usually contains a collimator, echelle grating, cross disperser, and finally a camera and science detector. The 2-d nature of the resulting light (echellogram) makes use of long slits practical but prevents spectral coverage of more than about a single order at the high multiplex factors demanded by modern spectroscopic observations. This means that observations with these instruments are limited to medium or low (R