Dr. George R. Ricker Profile

Dr. George R. Ricker

Senior Research Scientist at MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics & Space Res

SPIE Involvement:

Author

Publications (38)

SPIE Journal Paper | 4 September 2018 Open Access

Fine-pointing performance and corresponding photometric precision of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite

Tam Nguyen, Edward Morgan, Roland Vanderspek, Alan Levine, Miranda Kephart, James Francis, Joseph Zapetis, Kerri Cahoy, George Ricker

JATIS, Vol. 4, Issue 04, 047001, (September 2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.10.1117/1.JATIS.4.4.047001

KEYWORDS: Stars, Cameras, Space operations, Device simulation, Exoplanets, Photometry, Point spread functions, Satellites, Imaging systems, Sensors

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Proceedings Article | 9 August 2016 Paper

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite

G. Ricker, R. Vanderspek, J. Winn, S. Seager, Z. Berta-Thompson, A. Levine, J. Villasenor, D. Latham, D. Charbonneau, M. Holman, J. Johnson, D. Sasselov, A. Szentgyorgyi, G. Torres, G. Bakos, T. Brown, J. Christensen-Dalsgaard, H. Kjeldsen, M. Clampin, S. Rinehart, D. Deming, J. Doty, E. Dunham, S. Ida, N. Kawai, B. Sato, J. Jenkins, J. Lissauer, G. Jernigan, L. Kaltenegger, G. Laughlin, D. Lin, P. McCullough, N. Narita, J. Pepper, K. Stassun, S. Udry

Proceedings Volume 9904, 99042B (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232071

KEYWORDS: Observatories, Stars, Cameras, Satellites, Exoplanets, Space telescopes, Charge-coupled devices, Planets, Space operations, James Webb Space Telescope

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Proceedings Article | 5 August 2016 Paper

Quantum efficiency measurement of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) CCD detectors

A. Krishnamurthy, J. Villasenor, C. Thayer, S. Kissel, G. Ricker, S. Seager, R. Lyle, A. Deline, E. Morgan, T. Sauerwein, R. Vanderspek

Proceedings Volume 9904, 99042W (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232244

KEYWORDS: Optical filters, Light sources, Sensors, Calibration, Quantum efficiency, Photodiodes, Charge-coupled devices, Integrating spheres, CCD image sensors, Bandpass filters

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Proceedings Article | 29 July 2016 Paper

The TESS camera: modeling and measurements with deep depletion devices

Deborah Woods, Roland Vanderspek, Robert MacDonald, Edward Morgan, Joel Villasenor, Carolyn Thayer, Barry Burke, Christian Chesbrough, Michael Chrisp, Kristin Clark, Gabor Furesz, Alexandria Gonzales, Tam Nguyen, Gregory Prigozhin, Brian Primeau, George Ricker, Timothy Sauerwein, Vyshnavi Suntharalingam

Proceedings Volume 9904, 99042C (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2231296

KEYWORDS: Zemax, Zemax, Point spread functions, Cameras, Sensors, Photons, Silicon, Diffusion, Monte Carlo methods, Charge-coupled devices, Instrument modeling

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Proceedings Article | 29 July 2016 Paper

Testing and characterization of the TESS CCDs

C. Thayer, J. Villasenor, S. Kissel, B. LaMarr, E. Morgan, G. Prigozhin, I. Prigozhin, G. Ricker, T. Sauerwein, V. Suntharalingam, R. Vanderspek, D. Woods

Proceedings Volume 9904, 99042X (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232886

KEYWORDS: Electronics, Light emitting diodes, Stars, Cameras, Sensors, X-rays, Charge-coupled devices, Imaging arrays, Floods, Temperature metrology

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SPIE Journal Paper | 24 October 2014 Open Access

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite

George Ricker, Joshua Winn, Roland Vanderspek, David Latham, Gáspár Bakos, Jacob Bean, Zachory Berta-Thompson, Timothy Brown, Lars Buchhave, Nathaniel Butler, R. Paul Butler, William Chaplin, David Charbonneau, Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard, Mark Clampin, Drake Deming, John Doty, Nathan De Lee, Courtney Dressing, Edward Dunham, Michael Endl, François Fressin, Jian Ge, Thomas Henning, Matthew Holman, Andrew Howard, Shigeru Ida, Jon Jenkins, Garrett Jernigan, John Asher Johnson, Lisa Kaltenegger, Nobuyuki Kawai, Hans Kjeldsen, Gregory Laughlin, Alan Levine, Douglas Lin, Jack Lissauer, Phillip MacQueen, Geoffrey Marcy, Peter McCullough, Timothy Morton, Norio Narita, Martin Paegert, Enric Palle, Francesco Pepe, Joshua Pepper, Andreas Quirrenbach, Stephen Rinehart, Dimitar Sasselov, Bun’ei Sato, Sara Seager, Alessandro Sozzetti, Keivan Stassun, Peter Sullivan, Andrew Szentgyorgyi, Guillermo Torres, Stephane Udry, Joel Villasenor

JATIS, Vol. 1, Issue 01, 014003, (October 2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.10.1117/1.JATIS.1.1.014003

KEYWORDS: Stars, Planets, Exoplanets, Space operations, Satellites, Cameras, Charge-coupled devices, Space telescopes, James Webb Space Telescope, Observatories

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Proceedings Article | 28 August 2014 Paper

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)

George Ricker, Joshua Winn, Roland Vanderspek, David Latham, Gáspár Bakos, Jacob Bean, Zachory Berta-Thompson, Timothy Brown, Lars Buchhave, Nathaniel Butler, R. Paul Butler, William Chaplin, David Charbonneau, Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard, Mark Clampin, Drake Deming, John Doty, Nathan De Lee, Courtney Dressing, E. Dunham, Michael Endl, Francois Fressin, Jian Ge, Thomas Henning, Matthew Holman, Andrew Howard, Shigeru Ida, Jon Jenkins, Garrett Jernigan, John Johnson, Lisa Kaltenegger, Nobuyuki Kawai, Hans Kjeldsen, Gregory Laughlin, Alan Levine, Douglas Lin, Jack Lissauer, Phillip MacQueen, Geoffrey Marcy, P. McCullough, Timothy Morton, Norio Narita, Martin Paegert, Enric Palle, Francesco Pepe, Joshua Pepper, Andreas Quirrenbach, S. Rinehart, Dimitar Sasselov, Bun'ei Sato, Sara Seager, Alessandro Sozzetti, Keivan Stassun, Peter Sullivan, Andrew Szentgyorgyi, Guillermo Torres, Stephane Udry, Joel Villasenor

Proceedings Volume 9143, 914320 (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2063489

KEYWORDS: Observatories, Stars, Cameras, Sensors, Exoplanets, Space telescopes, Charge-coupled devices, Planets, Space operations, James Webb Space Telescope

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Proceedings Article | 25 September 2012 Paper

Characterization of the silicon drift detector for NICER instrument

G. Prigozhin, K. Gendreau, R. Foster, G. Ricker, J. Villaseñor, J. Doty, S. Kenyon, Z. Arzoumanian, R. Redus, A. Huber

Proceedings Volume 8453, 845318 (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.926667

KEYWORDS: Light emitting diodes, Stars, Sensors, Photons, X-rays, X-ray sources, Silicon, Clouds, X-ray detectors, Signal detection

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Proceedings Article | 11 August 2010 Paper

ExoplanetSat: detecting transiting exoplanets using a low-cost CubeSat platform

Matthew Smith, Sara Seager, Christopher Pong, Jesus Villaseñor, George Ricker, David Miller, Mary Knapp, Grant Farmer, Rebecca Jensen-Clem

Proceedings Volume 7731, 773127 (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.856559

KEYWORDS: Signal to noise ratio, Stars, Sensors, Interference (communication), Exoplanets, Space telescopes, Charge-coupled devices, Planets, Space operations, CCD image sensors

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Proceedings Article | 20 September 2007 Paper

Spectrometer concept and design for X-ray astronomy using a blazed transmission grating

Kathryn Flanagan, Minseung Ahn, John Davis, Ralf Heilmann, David Huenemoerder, Alan Levine, Herman Marshall, Gregory Prigozhin, Andrew Rasmussen, George Ricker, Mark Schattenburg, Norbert Schulz, Yong Zhao

Proceedings Volume 6688, 66880Y (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.739941

KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Mirrors, Spectroscopy, X-rays, Silicon, Spectral resolution, Computed tomography, Charge-coupled devices, Diffraction gratings, Absorption

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Proceedings Article | 13 June 2006 Paper

The Constellation-X reflection grating spectrometer

Jean Cottam, Webster Cash, Kathryn Flanagan, Ralf Heilmann, Gregory Prigozhin, Andrew Rasmussen, George Ricker, Mark Schattenburg, Eric Schindhelm

Proceedings Volume 6266, 62661X (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.672227

KEYWORDS: Mirrors, Optical design, Roentgenium, Reflection, Sensors, Spectroscopy, X-rays, Spectral resolution, Charge-coupled devices, Diffraction gratings

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Proceedings Article | 11 October 2004 Paper

The Constellation-X RGS options: raytrace modeling of the off-plane gratings

Kathryn Flanagan, John Davis, Ralf Heilmann, Alan Levine, Michael McGuirk, George Ricker, Mark Schattenburg, Michael Wise, Andrew Rasmussen, Jay Bookbinder, Mark Freeman, Terrance Gaetz, Diab Jerius, Dan Nguyen, William Podgorski, P. Reid, Webster Cash, Ann Shipley, Dennis Gallagher, Pei Huang, Steve Jordan

Proceedings Volume 5488, (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.551766

KEYWORDS: Diffraction, Roentgenium, Cameras, Sensors, Spectroscopy, X-rays, Space telescopes, Spectral resolution, Geometrical optics, Diffraction gratings

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Proceedings Article | 11 March 2003 Paper

ECLAIRs: a microsatellite for the multiwavelength study of gamma-ray burst prompt emission

Bertrand Cordier, Jaques Paul, Didier Barret, Gerald Skinner, Jean-Luc Atteia, George Ricker

Proceedings Volume 4851, (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.461345

KEYWORDS: Astronomy, X-ray optics, Cameras, X-rays, Spectral resolution, Astronomical telescopes, Gamma radiation, X-ray astronomy, X-ray telescopes, Gamma-ray astronomy

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Proceedings Article | 11 March 2003 Paper

Advanced CCD imaging spectrometer (ACIS) instrument on the Chandra X-ray Observatory

Gordon Garmire, Mark Bautz, Peter Ford, John Nousek, George Ricker

Proceedings Volume 4851, (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.461599

KEYWORDS: Cameras, Calibration, Image processing, Spectroscopy, X-rays, X-ray sources, Bismuth, Charge-coupled devices, Spatial resolution, X-ray imaging

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Proceedings Article | 11 March 2003 Paper

X-ray imaging spectrometer (XIS) on board Astro-E2

Tadayasu Dotani, Masanobu Ozaki, Hiroshi Murakami, Katsuji Koyama, Takeshi Tsuru, Hironori Matsumoto, Hiroshi Tsunemi, Kiyoshi Hayashida, Emi Miyata, Shunji Kitamoto, Hisamitsu Awaki, Mark Bautz, John Doty, George Ricker, Richard Foster, Gregory Prigozhin, Steven Kissel, Barry Burke, Allen Pillsbury

Proceedings Volume 4851, (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.461313

KEYWORDS: Sensors, Calibration, Satellites, Spectroscopy, X-rays, Charge-coupled devices, Radiation effects, X-ray imaging, CCD image sensors, X-ray telescopes

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Proceedings Article | 11 March 2003 Paper

Model of the backside illuminated Chandra CCD

Gregory Prigozhin, Mark Bautz, George Ricker

Proceedings Volume 4851, (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.461428

KEYWORDS: Data modeling, Signal attenuation, Photons, X-rays, Silicon, Clouds, Monte Carlo methods, Bismuth, Charge-coupled devices, Instrument modeling

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Proceedings Article | 30 January 2002 Paper

Novel methods for shaping thin-foil optics for x-ray astronomy

Ralf Heilmann, Glen Monnelly, Olivier Mongrard, Nat Butler, Carl Chen, Lester Cohen, Christopher Cook, Lee Goldman, Paul Konkola, Michael McGuirk, George Ricker, Mark Schattenburg

Proceedings Volume 4496, (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.454373

KEYWORDS: Thin films, Mirrors, X-ray optics, Reflection, Glasses, Particles, Silicon, Coating, Epoxies, Semiconducting wafers

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Proceedings Article | 13 December 2000 Paper

Characterization of the radiation damage in the Chandra x-ray CCDs

Gregory Prigozhin, Steven Kissel, Mark Bautz, Catherine Grant, Beverly LaMarr, Richard Foster, George Ricker

Proceedings Volume 4140, (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.409106

KEYWORDS: Signal attenuation, X-rays, Time metrology, Space telescopes, Charge-coupled devices, Manganese, Image storage, X-ray telescopes, X-ray characterization, Temperature metrology

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Front side illuminated CCDs comprising focal plane of the Chandra X-ray telescope have suffered some radiation damage in the beginning of the mission. Measurements of CTI and dark current at different temperatures led us to conclusion that the type of damage is inconsistent with the much studied type of damage created by protons with energies higher than 10 MeV. Intensive ground based investigation showed that irradiation of a CCD with low energy protons (about 100 keV) results in the device characteristics similar to the ones of the flight chips (very low dark current, the shape of the CTI temperature dependence). We were able to reliably determine that only image section of the flight chips was damaged and therefore only fast transfer from image to frame store section was affected. We have developed several techniques in order to determine the parameters of the electron traps introduced into the transfer channel of the irradiated device. One of them is based on the analysis of the amplitude of the signal in the pixels trailing the pixel that absorbed an X-ray photon of known energy. Averaging over large number of photons allowed us to get high signal/noise ratio even for pixels with extremely low signal far behind the X-ray event. Performing this analysis at different temperatures we were able to measure trap density, emission time constant, and trap cross section. Another technique is based on the analysis of the tail behind the events of very high amplitude, such as cosmic ray hits. We have developed a new scheme of clocking the device which prevents several rows of image section from being ever read out and keeps them moving back and forth. This so- called 'squeegee mode' improves CTI and can also be used to measure trap parameters, being especially effective in measuring long time constants. At least 4 different types of traps were detected, two of them with short time constant in the range from tens to a few hundred microseconds. The most damaging for the device performance are the traps with longer time constant in the millisecond range. The measurement of the trap parameters allows us to accurately model charge transfer inefficiency and helps to choose optimal operational parameters, and eventually will lead to techniques that may noticeably improve performance of a damaged CCD.

Proceedings Article | 28 November 2000 Paper

High-accuracy x-ray foil optic assembly

Glen Monnelly, Olivier Mongrard, David Breslau, Nat Butler, Carl Chen, Lester Cohen, Wendy Gu, Ralf Heilmann, Paul Konkola, George Ricker, Mark Schattenburg

Proceedings Volume 4138, (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.407556

KEYWORDS: Mirrors, X-ray optics, Metrology, Teeth, Silicon, Autocollimators, Optical alignment, Tolerancing, Optical mounts, Assembly tolerances

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Proceedings Article | 18 July 2000 Paper

Radiation damage in the Chandra x-ray CCDs

Gregory Prigozhin, Steven Kissel, Mark Bautz, Catherine Grant, Beverly LaMarr, Richard Foster, George Ricker, Gordon Garmire

Proceedings Volume 4012, (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.391612

KEYWORDS: Calibration, X-rays, Time metrology, Space telescopes, Charge-coupled devices, Manganese, Neon, Image storage, X-ray telescopes, Temperature metrology

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Proceedings Article | 18 July 2000 Paper

X-ray imaging spectrometers for Astro-E: ground calibration in the soft x-ray range

Kiyoshi Hayashida, Shunji Kitamoto, Emi Miyata, Hiroshi Tsunemi, Kumi Yoshita, Takayoshi Kohmura, Kouji Mori, Kazunori Katayama, Haruyoshi Katayama, Makoto Shouho, Motoari Ohta, Tadayasu Dotani, Masanobu Ozaki, Katsuji Koyama, Hisamitsu Awaki, Takeshi Tsuru, George Ricker, Mark Bautz, Richard Foster, Steven Kissel

Proceedings Volume 4012, (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.391548

KEYWORDS: Cameras, Calibration, X-rays, Spectrometers, Quantum efficiency, CCD cameras, Frequency modulation, Fermium, Charge-coupled devices, X-ray astronomy

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Proceedings Article | 18 July 2000 Paper

Absolute calibration of ACIS x-ray CCDs using calculable undispersed synchrotron radiation

Mark Bautz, Michael Pivovaroff, Steven Kissel, Gregory Prigozhin, Takashi Isobe, Stephen Jones, George Ricker, R. Thornagel, S. Kraft, Frank Scholze, Gerhard Ulm

Proceedings Volume 4012, (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.391582

KEYWORDS: Data modeling, Sensors, Calibration, Error analysis, X-rays, Quantum efficiency, Charge-coupled devices, Synchrotrons, Synchrotron radiation, Instrument modeling

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