Development of Multi-temperature Calibrator for the TES Bolometer Camera: Deployment at ASTE

Abstract

We developed and deployed a simple add-on multi-temperature calibrator for our multicolor transition edge sensor (TES) bolometer camera aimed at simultaneous observation with observing wavelengths of 1.1 and 0.85 mm. To cover the power loading level from the atmospheric emission corresponding to precipitable water vapor (PWV) of 0.5–4 mm, the calibrator consists of spherical mirrors to show the low-temperature stages of the cryostat and filters with moderate opacity to mimic the eight-temperature cold blackbodies. The loading powers introduced by each filter were self-calibrated by measuring the load curves of the TES bolometers when a filter was placed in front of the cryostat window. Each science observation was preceded by the calibration process, which measures the response of the TES bolometers to the atmosphere and filters of various opacities. Then, the responsivities of TES bolometers were derived to convert their output signal to the loading power and correct for the nonlinearity inherent in its response. Furthermore, the loading power falling on the TES bolometers from atmospheric emission measured at various PWV was in good correlation with the PWV measured with the radiometer, which enables the atmospheric extinction correction by fast and sensitive bolometers compared to the available radiometers with the modest sampling speeds.