Sensitivity



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Sensitivity

  The F-P sensitivity has been characterized in instrument levels tests by doing measurements on a calibrated blackbody source within the test cryostat. It is best to discuss separately the spectral response, relating the incoming astronomical signal to instrumental units, and the noise parameters of the individual detectors considered in the next section.

  
Figure: SWS Fabry-Pérot spectral response. The flux scale corresponds to a point source, diffraction losses at the aperture have been taken into account

Fig. gif shows the SWS Fabry-Pérot spectral response.  The conversion between units applicable to astronomical sources (Flux density of a point source in Jy) and the resulting instrumental signal (V/s) is given as a function of wavelength. Diffraction losses  caused by the fact that the aperture is comparable in size to the ISO diffraction disk have been taken into account; the flux used to derive Fig. gif is the true point source flux. The effect of these diffraction losses is however not large (Fig. gif).

The spectral response curve has structure on various wavelength scales. Large scale trends are determined by the counteracting effects of detector spectral response increasing with wavelength until close to the detector cut-off wavelength, and decreasing transmission of the Fabry-Pérot interferometer. Structures on scales of microns or tenths of microns can be traced to the detector spectral response curves and filter transmission curves. A rapid low-amplitude modulation in the 11.4-16m range (not resolved in Fig. gif) is caused by reflections between the surfaces of the transmission filter used behind slit 1 in the long-wavelength section of SWS. This `parasitic Fabry-Pérot' effect is also observed for grating data using the same slit. The stronger modulation detected at m in the long-wavelength extended range is again caused by a parasitic Fabry-Pérot effect, this time in a reflecting filter. The nearby reststrahlen resonance of causes strong variations with wavelength of the indices of refraction and absorption, leading to the observed modulation pattern. An attempt has been made to characterize these modulations with sufficient accuracy to allow good flux calibration also in the extended wavelength ranges.

  
Figure: Computed ISO diffraction losses for the SWS F-P channels. The fraction of the ISO diffraction disk accepted by the effective SWS F-P aperture is shown as a function of wavelength



next up previous contents index
Next: Noise Up: Fabry-Pérot Section Previous: Spectral Resolution



SWS Consortium
Tue Jul 30 15:56:20 MET DST 1996