Hiroshi Akahori

Greater-than-90% QE in visible spectrum perceptible from UV to near-IR Hamamatsu thinned back-illuminated CCDs

CCDs feature low amplifier noise, high sensitivity and wide dynamic range. Therefore, CCDs have been used in such diverse applications as general purpose imaging, industrial inspection, medical diagnostics and astrophysics. For each application, a suitable image area, optical characteristics, electrical characteristics and even appropriate package must be required. Among these, back illuminated CCDs have enhanced sensitivity for UV light, soft x-rays and electrons. Hamamatsu Photonics KK has developed FFT, MPP mode back illuminated CCDs optimized for spectroscopy. For spectroscopic applications, CCDs should have responsivity from the UV to near-IR as well as having low dark current and wide dynamic range in the binning mode. Stability of the spectral response curve is also important to achieve high precision measurements.

Subaru instrumentation plan and optical instruments

The overall updated plan for constructing 7 scientific instruments and 3 baseline programs for the 8 m Subaru telescope is shown. Somewhat detailed descriptions are given further for projects to develop large format CCDs, faint object camera and spectrograph (FOCAS), high dispersion spectrograph (HDS), Subaru prime focus camera (Suprime-Cam), and Cassegrain adaptive optics system (AO).