Abstract
Electron-multiplying charge-coupled devices (EMCCDs) allow for subelectron effective read noise and thus for imaging at extremely low flux levels. In the ultraviolet, quantum yield creates an additional source of stochastic gain variation, which can be difficult to quantify using existing techniques. We propose a method for measuring the quantum yield gain of these devices, independent of existing methods, using images that are part of the existing test regimen for new EMCCDs. With this method, we were able to recover the quantum yield used to create simulated images within an accuracy of ∼5 % and the method provided consistent results with test images after only minor modifications. However, the measured quantum yield remains anomalously low, consistent with other measurements on Teledyne-e2v devices. We hypothesize that this discrepancy is due to lateral transfer of secondary electrons between pixels at the surface explained by the band structure and crystal geometry of typical silicon wafers used in array detector manufacture.
Highlights
NASA’s Cosmic Origins Program[1] identifies photon-counting large-format ultraviolet detectors as a top priority technology for future ultraviolet and optical astronomy missions
Electron-multiplying charge-coupled device (CCD) (EMCCDs) can deliver photon counting performance in the visible, and since the technologies mentioned above are applicable to these silicon detector arrays, UV optimized EMCCDs are a technology of interest
We integrate over all bins with a number of electrons more than five times the best-fit standard deviation on the Gaussian component σ in each data set to estimate the signal levels, αL and αd, which we correct for the possibility of signal below that threshold using the method we describe in Sec. 4.1 based on a similar method described by Daigle et al.[12]
Summary
NASA’s Cosmic Origins Program[1] identifies photon-counting large-format ultraviolet detectors as a top priority technology for future ultraviolet and optical astronomy missions. Note that the CIS113 was found to have an anomalously low quantum yield.[9] Another aspect on NASA’s technology roadmap is photon-counting capability, which is an enabler of future extremely low background visible or UV spectroscopic missions. These UV photon-counting applications are typically addressed by image intensifiers that do not have high quantum efficiency (typically
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