SPIFI: The South Pole Imaging Fabry-Perot Interferometer

SPIFI is a direct detection, imaging Fabry-Perot interferometer designed for use in the submillimeter band (200 to 650 microns), especially the 350 and 450 micron windows available to the JCMT. SPIFI's detector is a 5 x 5 element monolithic silicon bolometer array cooled to 60 mK in an adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator. SPIFI uses free standing metal mesh Fabry-Perot interferometers to deliver spectroscopic images at velocity resolutions up to 30 km/s over the entire array. The velocity resolution is continuously adjustable from 300 to 30 km/s in a few minutes time at the telescope. Higher velocity resolutions (better than 15 km/s) are possible for the inner 9 pixels. The Winston cones coupling radiation to SPIFI's bolometers have 6.1" (~ lambda/D at 450 microns) circular entrance apertures and are arranged on a 7.0' square grid, so that SPIFI images a 35" x 35" field of view at the diffraction limit of the JCMT telescope.

SPIFI may be available for use during the semester. Current best estimates of sensitivities and other parameters will be posted on the web page at the Cornell Astronomy Department Site.

First light for SPIFI on the JCMT in April 1999. A report on this event was published in the March 2000 JCMT Newsletter.

The Cornell group welcomes scientific collaborations with other JCMT users. Please contact Prof. G.J. Stacey at Cornell University (stacey@astrosun.tn.cornell.edu) to arrange collaborative efforts.

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