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| Paper: |
Direct Detection CO J=7 --> 6 Spectroscopy: First Light with SPIFI |
| Volume: |
217, Imaging at Radio Through Submillimeter Wavelengths |
| Page: |
43 |
| Authors: |
Bradford, C. M.; Stacey, G. J.; Swain, M. R.; Nikola, T.; Bolatto, A. D.; Jackson, J. A.; Savage, M. L.; Davidson, J. A.; Allen, C. A. |
| Abstract: |
We present the results from our first observing run on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) obtained with our new submillimeter imaging spectrometer, the South Pole Imaging Fabry-Perot Inteferometer (SPIFI). SPIFI is a direct detection imaging Fabry-Perot that employs a 5 × 5 array of Goddard silicon bolometers in an Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator (ADR) at 60 to 80 mK to attain background limited performance in the submillimeter bands. SPIFI is designed to achieve resolving powers between 500 and 10,000 (velocity resolutions between 600 and 30 km/s-1) in the 350 and 450 micron submillimeter windows. For this, our first run, the array was populated by 13 bolometers, the velocity resolution was held fixed at 70 km/s-1, and we concentrated on the CO(7 --> 6) line. Our run was in late April, 1999, so the results we present here are rather preliminary. However, it is clear that we attained very good receiver temperatures (< 200 K) at the telescope, and despite rather mediocre weather mapped the entire Galactic Center circumnuclear ring in the CO(7 --> 6) line (~ 200 spectra, at 7 arcsec spatial resolution) and also mapped the inner regions of NGC 253 in the CO(7 --> 6) line. We will discuss the scientific implications of the data obtained thus far, near future plans, and the potential for direct detection spectrometers for submillimeter astronomy. |
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