Abstract
We describe the deployment and first tests on sky of CONCERTO, a large field-of-view (18.6 arc-min) spectral-imaging instrument. The instrument operates in the range 130–310 GHz from the APEX 12-metres telescope located at 5100 m a.s.l. on the Chajnantor plateau. Spectra with R=\(\nu / \Delta \nu \le 300\) are obtained using a fast (2.5 Hz mechanical frequency) Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS), coupled to a continuous dilution cryostat with a base temperature of 60 mK. Two 2152-pixels arrays of Lumped Element Kinetic Inductance Detectors (LEKID) are installed in the cryostat that also contains the cold optics and the front-end electronics. CONCERTO, installed in April 2021, generates more than 20k spectra per second during observations. We describe the final development phases, the installation and the first results obtained on sky.
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Notes
The Al-Au sandwich is superconducting at the operating temperature of 70 mK. This is demonstrated by the fact that the internal quality factors of the LEKID are not affected by the gold-plating.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the electronics, mechanics, cryogenics and administrative groups at Institut Néel, LPSC and LAM. We thank Florence Picchiottino, Karina Celedon and Lilia Todorov for taking care of the shippings. For the outstanding technological and human support we thank the whole APEX staff and among them, the telescope operators Juan Pablo Perez, Edouard Gonzalez, Mauricio Martinez. Thank you all, it was a unique experience! We acknowledge financial support from the European Research Council (ERC Grant No. 788212), the Aix-Marseille University-A*Midex and the LabEx FOCUS.
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Monfardini, A., Beelen, A., Benoit, A. et al. CONCERTO at APEX: Installation and Technical Commissioning. J Low Temp Phys 209, 751–757 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10909-022-02690-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10909-022-02690-3