The Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT) Alfonso Serrano is a 50m-diameter single-dish radio telescope constructed at an altitude of 4600 meters on the summit of Volcan Sierra Negra, an extinct volcano in the Mexican state of Puebla. The LMT is a bi-national scientific collaboration between Mexico and the USA, led by the Instituto Nacional de Astrofisica, Optica y Electronica (INAOE) and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The telescope currently operates at wavelengths from 4mm to 1mm, and during the dry winter months the LMT site provides the highest levels of atmospheric transmission and potential future access to submillimeter observing windows. This paper describes the current status and scientific performance of the LMT, the suite of scientific instrumentation and future engineering upgrades that will optimize the optical efficiency of the telescope and increase its scientific productivity.
The Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT) Alfonso Serrano is a bi-national (Mexico and USA) telescope facility operated by the Instituto Nacional de Astrofisica, Optica y Electronica (INAOE) and the University of Massachusetts. The LMT is designed as a 50-m diameter single-dish millimeter-wavelength telescope that is optimized to conduct scientific observations at frequencies between ~70 and 350 GHz. The LMT is constructed on the summit of Sierra Negra at an altitude of 4600m in the Mexican state of Puebla. The site offers excellent mm-wavelength atmospheric transparency all-year round, and the opportunity to conduct submillimeter wavelength observations during the winter months. Following first-light observations in mid-2011, the LMT began regular scientific operations in 2014 with a shared-risk Early Science observing program using the inner 32-m diameter of the primary reflector with an active surface control system. The LMT has already performed successful VLBI observations at 3mm with the High Sensitivity Array and also at 1.3mm as part of the Event Horizon Telescope. Since early 2018 the LMT has begun full scientific operations as a 50-m diameter telescope, making the LMT 50-m the world´s largest single-dish telescope operating at 1.1mm. I will describe the current status of the telescope project, including the early scientific results from the LMT 50-m, as well the instrumentation development program, the plan to improve the overall performance of the telescope, and the on-going transition towards the formation of the LMT Observatory to support the scientific community in their use of the LMT to study the formation and evolution of structure at all cosmic epochs.
The Large Millimeter Telescope relies on an active primary surface to achieve its specified surface accuracy. The active primary has two functions: (1) it provides a means to correct the surface for gravitational deformations with changing elevation; and (2) it provides a capability to improve the shape of the surface in real time due to transient effects of thermal gradients within the structure. At LMT, our development work has addressed both problems and in this paper we describe the derivation of the gravity deformation model and the schemes developed to measure and improve the antenna surface during regular scientific observations.
This paper introduces the continuously tunable THz radiation through sideband generation of a free running and solidnitrogen- cooled THz quantum cascade laser. The 2.324 THz QCL operating in a single longitudinal mode (SLM) in continuous-wave (cw) was mixed with a swept synthesized microwave signal by a THz Schottky-diode-balanced mixer. Through sideband generation, two frequency branches were observed at low and high frequency, characterized with a Fourier-transform spectrometer. At low frequency, the sideband generates frequencies from -50 GHz to +50 GHz. At high frequency, it generates sideband frequencies from 70 GHz to 115 GHz. The total ±100 GHz tuning range can be further expanded with higher frequency millimeter wave amplifier/multiplier source. The sideband generates total 1 μW of output power at both upper and lower frequency with 200 μW of driven power from the THz QCL, showing a power conversion efficiency of 5 × 10-3. The demonstration of this SM, continuously tunable THz source enables its applications where SM, spatially coherent beam is required.
This paper describes the current status of the Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT), the near-term plans for the telescope
and the initial suite of instrumentation. The LMT is a bi-national collaboration between Mexico and the USA, led by the
Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica (INAOE) and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, to
construct, commission and operate a 50m-diameter millimeter-wave radio telescope. Construction activities are nearly
complete at the 4600m LMT site on the summit of Volcán Sierra Negra, an extinct volcano in the Mexican state of
Puebla. Full movement of the telescope, under computer control in both azimuth and elevation, has been achieved. The
commissioning and scientific operation of the LMT is divided into two major phases. As part of phase 1, the installation
of precision surface segments for millimeter-wave operation within the inner 32m-diameter of the LMT surface is now
complete. The alignment of these surface segments is underway. The telescope (in its 32-m diameter format) will be
commissioned later this year with first-light scientific observations at 1mm and 3mm expected in early 2011. In phase 2,
we will continue the installation and alignment of the remainder of the reflector surface, following which the final
commissioning of the full 50-m LMT will take place. The LMT antenna, outfitted with its initial complement of
scientific instruments, will be a world-leading scientific research facility for millimeter-wave astronomy.
We report on the first THz balanced mixer/upconverter using a Schottky diode MMIC chip. Using an optically pumped
laser at 1562 GHz as an LO source with a coupled power of about 1 mW, and 1 mW input at an IF frequency of 10 GHz,
we obtained a sideband output power of 23 uW (sum of two sidebands). As a mixer, at an LO of 1621 GHz, we obtain a
conversion loss of 12.4 dB DSB and a noise temperature of 5600 K DSB. Response is believed to be similar over a band
1250-1650 GHz. New diodes have been designed for easier application as mixers up through 3 THz, and a new wafer
run is in process.
The Heterodyne Instrument for Far Infrared (HIFI) on ESA's Herschel Space Observatory utilizes a variety of novel RF components in its five SIS receiver channels covering 480- 1250 GHz and two HEB receiver channels covering 1410-1910 GHz. The local oscillator unit will be passively cooled while the focal plane unit is cooled by superfluid helium and cold helium vapors. HIFI employs W-band GaAs amplifiers, InP HEMT low noise IF amplifiers, fixed tuned broadband planar diode multipliers, high power W-band Isolators, and novel material systems in the SIS mixers. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is managing the development of the highest frequency (1119-1250 GHz) SIS mixers, the local oscillators for the three highest frequency receivers as well as W-band power amplifiers, high power W-band isolators, varactor diode devices for all high frequency multipliers and InP HEMT components for all the receiver channels intermediate frequency amplifiers. The NASA developed components represent a significant advancement in the available performance. This paper presents an update of the performance and the current state of development.
The Heterodyne Instrument for Far Infrared (HIFI) on ESA's Herschel Space Observatory is comprised of five SIS receiver channels covering 480-1250 GHz and two HEB receiver channels covering 1410-1910 GHz. Two fixed tuned local oscillator sub-bands are derived from a common synthesizer to provide the front-end frequency coverage for each channel. The local oscillator unti will be passively cooled while the focal plane unit is cooled by superfluid helium and cold helium vapors. HIFI employs W-band GaAs amplifiers, InP HEMT low noise IF amplifiers, fixed tuned broadband planar diode multipliers, and novel material systems in the SIS mixtures. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is managing the development of the highest frequency (1119-1250 GHz) SIS mixers, the highest frequency (1650-1910 GHz) HEB mixers, local oscillators for the three highest frequency receivers as well as W-band power amplifiers, varactor diode devices for all high frequency multipliers and InP HEMT components for all the receiver channels intermediate frequency amplifiers. The NASA developed components represent a significant advancement in the available performance. The current state of the art for each of these devices is presented along with a programmatic view of the development effort.
We describe the preliminary design of the proposed Heterodyne Instrument for FIRST (HIFI). The instrument will have a continuous frequency coverage over the range from 480 to 1250 GHz in five bands, while a sixth band will provide coverage for 1410 - 1910 GHz and 2400 - 2700 GHz. The first five bands will use SIS mixers and varactor frequency multipliers while in the sixth band a laser photomixer local oscillator will pump HEB mixers. HIFI will have an instantaneous bandwidth of 4 GHz, analyzed in parallel by two types of spectrometers: a pair of wide-band spectrometers (WBS), and a pair of high- resolution spectrometer (HRS). The wide-band spectrometer will use acousto-optic technology with a frequency resolution of 1 MHz and a bandwidth of 4 GHz for each of the two polarizations. The HRS will provide two combinations of bandwidth and resolution: 1 GHz bandwidth at 200 kHz resolution, and at least 500 MHz at 100 kHz resolution. The HRS will be divided into 4 or 5 sub-bands, each of which can be placed anywhere within the full 4 GHz IF band. The instrument will be able to perform rapid and complete spectral line surveys with resolving powers from 103 up to 107 (300 - 0.03 km/s) and deep line observations.
Very wideband heterodyne receiver systems are planned for many astronomical applications during the next 5 - 10 years. These extend up to 830 GHz for ground based telescopes and up to 2.7 THz for space and airborne applications. At present the only means to provide sufficient local oscillator power for these submillimeter receivers is the Schottky varactor diode frequency multiplier. Present multipliers operate at up to 1 THz with solid state pump sources, and are largely based on whisker contacted diodes. This paper describes a new generation of varactor multipliers which will be based on planar technology and may extend frequency coverage by a factor of two or more.
The Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS) mission will study galactic star formation and interstellar chemistry. To carry out this mission, SWAS will survey dense (nH2 > 103 cm-3) molecular clouds within our galaxy in either the ground-state or a low- lying transition of five astrophysically important species: H2O, H218O, O2, CI, and 13CO. By observing these lines SWAS will: (1) test long-standing theories that predict that these species are the dominate coolants of molecular clouds during the early stages of their collapse to form stars and planets and (2) supply heretofore missing information about the abundance of key species central to the chemical models of dense interstellar gas. During its two-year mission, SWAS will observe giant and dark cloud cores with the goal of detecting to setting an upper limit on the water abundance of 3 X 10-6 (relative to H2) and on the molecular oxygen abundance of 2 X 10-6 (relative to H2). SWAS is designed to carry all elements of a ground based radiotelescope. The telescope is a highly efficient 54 X 68-cm off-axis Cassegrain antenna with an aggregate surface error less than or equal to 11 micrometers rms. The receiver system consists of two independent heterodyne receivers with second harmonic Schottky diode mixers, passively cooled to approximately equals 150 K. The spectrometer is a single acousto-optical spectrometer (AOS) with 1400 1-MHz channels enabling simultaneous observations of the H2O, O2, CI, and 13CO lines.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.