Gaussian beam measurement for HIFI instrument Herschel Space Observatory

摘要

The Heterodyne Instrument (HIFI) is part of the ESA Herschel Space Observatory Project. The instrument is intended for high-resolution spectroscopy and has a frequency coverage from 480 to 1250 GHz band in five receiver bands and 1410 to 1910 GHz in two additional bands. HIFI is built based on a modular principle: the mixers together with their respective optics are integrated into Mixer Sub-Assemblies (MSA). Each frequency band has two MSAs allocated for horizontal and vertical polarization. In this paper, we present the work done on the design and construction of a Gaussian beam measurement range. One of the unique features of the developed method is a possibility to measure the beam parameters of the MSAs in the absolute coordinate system referred to the device under test. This along with other methods should allow integration of the entire HIFI with the best possible coupling of the antenna beam to the receivers and achieving ultimate performance in such a complicated optical system. The range houses the measured MSA, which is at 4 K ambient temperature, and a continuous wave source placed on a precise scanner entirely under vacuum. Developed triangulation system provides mechanical reference data on the MSA, in-situ, after the entire system is evacuated and the cooling is finished. We adopted a scalar measurement approach where the test source scans the receiver input beam and the mixer IF power is measured. The data collected from 3-4 planar scans are used to calculate the orientation and position of the optical axis. We present results from the first beam measurements for MSA HIFI bands 1 and 2 (480 and 640 GHz), the measurement system performance and accuracy analysis.