KEYWORDS: Antennas, Near field, Holography, Telescopes, Phase measurement, Holograms, Polarization, Detector arrays, Near field optics, Signal detection
Wide field-of-view millimeter-wave telescopes with a bolometric detector array have been developed for cosmic microwave background radiation observations. For the purpose of laboratory verification of these telescopes, several studies have demonstrated near-field antenna measurements using a phase-sensitive detector that replaces a few representative pixels of the focal-plane detector array. We present a holographic phase-retrieval method that enables near-field measurements with the bolometric detector array as it is. We place a reference emitter at a fixed position and scan a signal emitter at the telescope aperture. These two emitters are phase-locked and generate interference patterns (holograms) on the focal plane, from which the amplitude and phase of the aperture field can be retrieved. We experimentally demonstrated this method with a crossed-Dragone telescope with a field-of-view that is 18 deg × 9 deg. In the demonstration, we placed a phase-sensitive detector at three detector positions on the focal plane. The antenna patterns calculated from the hologram, neglecting the directly measured phase information, were consistent with those calculated from both intensity and phase measurements at the −60-dB level at 180 GHz. Applying this method, the antenna patterns for all of the bolometric detectors on the focal plane can theoretically be measured simultaneously.
LiteBIRD is a space mission intended for the late 2020s that aims to observe the large-angular-scale polarization pattern of the cosmic microwave background. The low-frequency telescope (LFT) aboard LiteBIRD has a crossed-Dragone design and observes at 34 to 161 GHz with a field of view (FoV) of 18 deg × 9 deg. The LFT antenna optics is predicted to induce polarization angle rotation by up to around 1.5 deg in its FoV, while polarization angles among the detectors should be corrected to a few arcminutes level to distinguish E- and B-mode polarizations. To characterize the polarization angle rotation by the antenna optics and to develop a ground calibration method, we performed polarization angle measurements with a small compact-antenna-test-range setup. We measured the polarization angles of a 1/4-scaled LFT antenna across the FoV at correspondingly scaled frequencies of 140 to 220 GHz (35 to 55 GHz for the full-scale LFT). We placed a collimated-wave source near the scaled-LFT aperture and rotated the scaled-LFT feed polarization. The measured polarization angles agree with those measured by rotating the collimated-wave polarization at the 15″ level for the on-axis case. The measurements are consistent with simulation and determined the polarization angles with an uncertainty of less than 1.9′.
We verified a method of near-field antenna pattern measurement for a wide-field telescope with a bolometric detector array, based on a holographic phase-retrieval technique. A signal emitter scans the telescope aperture and a reference emitter, which is phase-locked to the signal, is located at a fixed position to allow a bolometric detector to receive the both. It generates a hologram on the focal plane as a function of the signal emitter location. Since the hologram is obtained in a receiving mode, we can use the telescope-equipped detector as it is. It is beneficial for the case where such detector is integrated with a feed antenna, which characterizes the telescope performance. The new method also has an advantage that we do not need the phase calibration of the reference emitter since it is constant. We experimentally demonstrated this method with a crossed-Dragone antenna whose field of view is 18◦ × 9 ◦ at 180 GHz for three representative detector positions in the focal plane. The antenna patterns were consistent with those measured by a vector near-field measurement at the level of −60 dB, which directly acquires both the phase and the amplitude of the electric field.
LiteBIRD is a JAXA-led international project aimed to make high sensitivity measurements of the primordial B-modes through cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization observations. LiteBIRD is expected to launch in the late 2020s. The Low Frequency Telescope (LFT) has a 400 mm diameter aperture and will observe at 34-161 GHz. The LFT is an optimized crossed Dragone reflective telescope with high order correction terms in the reflector shapes to maximize its diffraction-limited throughput across a 18° x 9° FOV. We will report on the development of the LFT optics design and assess the optical tolerances for potential misalignments and reflector deformations.
Suppression of straylight is one of the challenges in the optical design of a wide-field-of-view telescope. It contaminates the weak target signal with radiation from strong sources at angles far from the observing direction. We evaluated the optical design of a crossed-Dragone telescope, the LiteBIRD Low-Frequency Telescope (LFT), which has 18° ×9° field of view. We measured a 1/4-scaled antenna of the LFT at accordingly scaled frequencies of 160–200 GHz (corresponding to 40–50 GHz for the full-scale LFT), for the feed at the center and the edges of the focal plane. To separate straylight components, we computed the time profiles of the aperture fields with ∼ 0.1 ns resolution by inverse Fourier transformation of the measured frequency spectra and applied time gating to them. We identified far-sidelobe components in the time-gated antenna beam patterns whose arrival time and angular direction are consistent with straylight predicted by a ray-tracing simulation. The identified far-sidelobe components include straylight reduced but reflected inside the front hood and straylight with multiple reflections without intercepted by the front hood. Their intensities are less than the −56 dB level, which is the far-sidelobe knowledge requirement for the LFT.
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