Scientific Research
Aurora provide expertise to research new types of instrumentation for astronomy. The group is at the leading edge of technology and regularly published scientific papers on their results. Jump to the publications list below for those publications where Aurora staff are the main author.
Areas of Expertise
Aurora provides a team of experienced physicists to provide technical assistance to the Research Laboratory at ESTEC. Superconducting Tunnel Junction (STJ) arrays have been under research and development for many years. It is important not only to develop the detector but also to develop if for application. In this respect the SCAM programme is operational which progressively tests state of the art detectors using telescopes. SCAM-3 demonstrated the use of an STJ array at the William Herschel Telescope at La Palma.Distributed Read-Out Imaging Devices(DROIDS) are also under development to utilise the properties of STJs in a more efficient manner for payloads. Aurora also supports the development of monolithic compound semiconductor detectors and large area arrays for future space missions.
Aurora also assisted with the development of the IMPACT payload and EGSE for the STEREO mission.
Publications
| Main Author | Publication |
|---|---|
| Hijmering et al. | Imaging spectroscopy with Ta/Al DROIDs, performance for different Al trapping layer thicknessess, in Journal: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A, 2006 |
| Owens et al. date/(001019) |
Synchroton characterisation of deep depletion epitaxial GaAs detectors (appeared in J.Appl.Phys. Vol 86 (1999), p4341 |
| Owens et al. 99/07/01 |
The X-ray response of epitaxial GaAs, in J. Appl. Phys., 85 (1999) 7522 |
| Owens et al. date/(001019) | X-ray measurements with compound semiconductor arrays (to appear in proc SPIE) |
| Verhoeve et al date/(001016) | Development of Distributed Readout Imaging Detectors based on Superconducting Tunnel Junctions for UV/Optical Astronomy (to appear in SPIE Proceedings) |
| Brammertz et al. date/(000912) | Modelling the energy gap in transition metal/aluminium bilayers (to appear in Proc 6th Twente Workshop on Superconducting Elements) |
| Owens et al. date/(000912) | Development of compound smiconductors for planetary and astrophysics space missions (to appear in SPIE Proceedings 4012) |
| Owens et al. date/(000912) | The hard X-ray response of epitaxial GaAs detectors (to appear in Nuclear Instruments and Methods A) |
| Owens et al. date/(000912) | On the development of compound semi-conductor thallium bromide detectors for astrophysics (to appear in Nuclear Instruments and Methods) |
| Hartog et al. date/(990914) | The lateral proximity effect and long-range energy-gap gradients in Ta/Al and Nb/Al Josephson junctions (to appear in Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Low Temperature Detectors) |
| Hartog et al. date/(990914) | An X-ray photon-counting imaging spectrometer based on a Ta absorber with four superconducting tunnel junctions (to appear in Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Low Temperature Detectors) |
| Hartog et al. date/(000327) | Distributed Read-Out Imaging Devices for X-ray Imaging Spectroscopy(Proc SPIE Vol 4012 2000) |