SCIENTIFIC VERIFICATION OF FARADAY ROTATION MODULATORS: DETECTION OF DIFFUSE POLARIZED GALACTIC EMISSION

Journal Article · Fri Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 2013 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/765/1/64· OSTI ID:22167613

Moyerman, S.; Bierman, E.; Kaufman, J.; Keating, B. G. ^[1]; Ade, P. A. R. ^[2]; Aiken, R.; Hristov, V. V.; Jones, W. C.; Mason, P. V. ^[3]; Barkats, D. ^[4]; Bischoff, C.; Kovac, J. M. ^[5]; Bock, J. J.; Dowell, C. D. ^[6]; Chiang, H. C. ^[7]; Duband, L. ^[8]; Hivon, E. F. ^[9]; Holzapfel, W. L. ^[10]; Kuo, C. L. ^[11]; others, and

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1. Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, University of California, San Diego, CA 92037 (United States)
2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wales, Cardiff CF24 3YB (United Kingdom)
3. Department of Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
4. Joint ALMA Observatory, ESO, Santiago (Chile)
5. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
6. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
7. Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States)
8. SBT, Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (apostrophe), F-38054 Grenoble (France)
9. Insititut d'Astrophysique de Paris, F-75014 Paris (France)
10. Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
11. Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA 94305 (United States)

The design and performance of a wide bandwidth linear polarization modulator based on the Faraday effect is described. Faraday Rotation Modulators (FRMs) are solid-state polarization switches that are capable of modulation up to 10 kHz. Six FRMs were utilized during the 2006 observing season in the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP) experiment; three FRMs were used at each of BICEP's 100 and 150 GHz frequency bands. The technology was verified through high signal-to-noise detection of Galactic polarization using two of the six FRMs during four observing runs in 2006. The features exhibit strong agreement with BICEP's measurements of the Galaxy using non-FRM pixels and with the Galactic polarization models. This marks the first detection of high signal-to-noise mm-wave celestial polarization using fast, active optical modulation. The performance of the FRMs during periods when they were not modulated was also analyzed and compared to results from BICEP's 43 pixels without FRMs.

• OSTI ID: 22167613
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 765, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DESIGN
DETECTION
FARADAY EFFECT
GHZ RANGE
KHZ RANGE
MILKY WAY
MODULATION
PERFORMANCE
PHOTON EMISSION
POLARIMETERS
POLARIMETRY
POLARIZATION
RADIOASTRONOMY
SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO