Journal Article

The NIKA2 Instrument, A Dual-Band Kilopixel KID Array for Millimetric Astronomy

André, P., Comis, B., Rodriguez, L., Doyle, S., Adam, R., Coiffard, G., Bres, G., Monfardini, A., Rebolo, M., Pajot, F., Savini, G., Scordilis, J.-P., Bourrion, O., Ritacco, A., D’Addabbo, A., Kramer, C., Tucker, C., Beelen, A., Schuster, K., Mauskopf, P., Leclercq, S., Mayet, F., Désert, F.-X., Adane, A., Catalano, A., Pascale, E., Billot, N., Ade, P., Bideaud, A., Revéret, V., Ponthieu, N., Garde, G., Perotto, L., Grollier, M., Zylka, R., Calvo, M., Barria, E., Sievers, A., Benoît, A., Leggeri, J.-P., Goupy, J., Pont, G., Triqueneaux, S., Macías-Pérez, J.-F., Belier, B., Tourres, D., Martino, J.

2016

Overview

New IRAM KID array 2 (NIKA2) is a camera dedicated to millimeter-wave astronomy based upon kilopixel arrays of kinetic inductance detectors [ 1 ] (KID). The pathfinder instrument, NIKA [ 2 ], has already shown state-of-the-art detector performance. NIKA2 builds upon this experience but goes one step further, increasing the total pixel count by a factor ∼ 10 while maintaining the same per pixel performance. For the next decade, this camera will be the resident photometric instrument of the Institut de Radio Astronomie Millimetrique (IRAM) 30 m telescopes in Sierra Nevada (Spain). In this paper, we give an overview of the main components of NIKA2 and describe the achieved detector performance. The camera has been permanently installed at the IRAM 30 m telescope in October 2015. It will be made accessible to the scientific community at the end of 2016, after a 1-year commissioning period. When this happens, NIKA2 will become a fundamental tool for astronomers worldwide.

• Publisher: Springer US
• Subject: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials / Condensed Matter Physics / Magnetic Materials / Magnetism / Physics / Physics and Astronomy