Speaker
Description
The Stage-5 Spectroscopic Experiment (Spec-S5) aims to extend spectroscopic observations into the short-wavelength infrared, enabling measurements of galaxies at redshifts beyond the reach of silicon detectors. Germanium charge-coupled devices (Ge-CCDs) are a candidate technology for this infrared channel because germanium remains sensitive at wavelengths beyond the approximately 1.1 $\mu$m cutoff of silicon.
Brookhaven National Laboratory, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and the MIT Kavli Institute are developing and characterizing Ge-CCDs for this application. We will report the current status of the effort, including cryogenic operation of 256$\times$256-pixel, front-illuminated devices with 8.1 $\mu$m pixels. Initial measurements using LED illumination and X-rays have established conversion gain, output linearity, noise, and spectroscopic imaging performance. We will discuss how these results guide the next phase of device characterization and development toward an infrared detector suitable for Spec-S5.