KALI Camera - Mid-infrared camera for the Keck Interferometer Nuller

摘要

We present a brief overview of the KALI Camera, the mid-infrared camera for the Keck Interferometer Nulling Project, built at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The instrument utilizes mainly transmissive optics in four identical beam paths to spatially and spectrally filter, polarize, spectrally disperse and image the incoming 7-14 micron light from the four outputs of the Keck Nulling Beam Combiner onto a custom Boeing/DRS High Flux 128X128 BIB array. The electronics use a combination of JPL and Wallace Instruments boards to interface the array readout with the existing real-time control system of the Keck Interferometer. The cryogenic dewar, built by IR Laboratories, uses liquid nitrogen and liquid helium to cool the optics and the array, and includes six externally motorized mechanisms for aperture and pinhole control, focus, and optical component selection. The instrument will be assembled and tested through the summer of 2002, and is planned to be deployed as part of the Keck Interferometer Nulling experiment in 2003.