Event
Astro Seminar: "Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors for High Contrast Imaging"
Benjamin Mazin (UCSB)
Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors, or MKIDs, are superconducting detector arrays that can measure the energy and arrival time of individual optical through near-IR photons without read noise or dark current. I will report on the promising commissioning and first science results of the first two MKID Integral Field Spectrographs (IFSs) for high contrast imaging, the DARKNESS/SDC instrument at Palomar and the MEC/SCExAO instrument on Subaru. Future upgrades to integrate the MKID IFS as a focal plane wavefront sensor for implement active speckle nulling will be discussed, as well as the potential for these instruments on ELTs.