Graduate Students Work in Infrared Detector Lab

Meghan Dorn and Mario Cabrera are senior graduate students in the infrared detector lab run by Judy Pipher, Bill Forrest, and Craig McMurtry at the University of Rochester in the Physics and Astronomy Department.

Since 2004, the Infrared Detector (IR) Lab has been affiliated with the proposed space mission NEOCam - Near-Earth Object Camera. The mission is intended to identify the orbit and measure the size of solar system objects that may be potentially hazardous to the Earth. The role of the IR Lab is to test and characterize the performance of long wavelength infrared detector arrays that will be utilized for the mission, as well as to suggest improvements to the vendor where needed.

Objects that are small and do not efficiently reflect light at visible wavelengths are easier to detect in the infrared, because they emit infrared radiation. Since NEOCam will utilize passive cooling, the 10+ micron HgCdTe detector arrays worked on are ideal since they are fully operable at 30-40 K focal plane temperatures which can be achieved in thermally well-designed space missions.

Meghan, who joined the team in 2012, and Mario, who joined in 2014, are responsible for handling the electrostatic sensitive devices, testing the detector arrays in order to characterize the performance to ensure the in-flight specifications are met, and communicating with their NASA counterparts. This work demonstrates the importance of student, university, NASA, and industry collaboration to improve the technology in this wavelength region, in order to meet the needs of current and future space missions.