Initial On-Sky Performance Testing of the Single-Photon Imager for Nanosecond Astrophysics (SPINA) System

Lau A.W.K. Shaimoldin N. Maksut Z. Chan Y.Y. Shafiee M. Grossan B. Smoot G.F.
2023 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.

IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement
2023 #72 1 - 11 pp.

This work presents an initial on-sky performance measurement of the Single-Photon Imager for Nanosecond Astrophysics (SPINA) system, part of our Ultra-Fast Astronomy (UFA) program. We developed the SPINA system based on the position-sensitive silicon photomultiplier (PS-SiPM) detector to record both temporal and spatial information of detected photons. The initial on-sky testing of the SPINA system was conducted on UT 10 July, 2022, with the Nazarbayev University Transient Telescope at the Assy-Turgen Astrophysical Observatory (NUTTelA-TAO), studied stars with a wide range of brightness and a dark region of the sky without stars <18 mag. This on-sky testing yielded crucial calibration metrics for the SPINA system, demonstrating the SPINA systems ability in rapid astronomical detections. Key findings include a spatial resolution of < 232 μm , affected by atmospheric conditions; a background noise level of 1914 counts per second (cps) within this resolution element; and crosstalk probability of ∼0.18 near the detectors center while reaching ∼0.5 at the edges. We derived a 5σ sensitivity of 17.45 Gaia BP magnitude in a 1-s exposure with no atmospheric extinction. Based on a false alarm rate of once per 100 nights, the SPINA system provides a transient sensitivity of 14.06 mag on a 10-ms window and a 15 photoelectron (P.E.) detection threshold for sub-μs time scale, limited by crosstalk. In addition, the SPINA system proved its capability to detect rapid alterations in the stellar profile: a variation of ±1.8% in the stellar profile full-width half-maximum (FWHM) under 20-ms exposure and ±5% change under 2-ms exposures, as well as capturing stellar light curves on the ms and μs scales.

Astronomy instrumentation , optical detection , silicon photomultipliers , single-photon detection , ultrafast photometry

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Department of Physics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, M5S 1A1, ON, Canada
Energetic Cosmos Laboratory, Nazarbayev University, Astana, 010000, Kazakhstan
William H. Miller III Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 21218, MD, United States
Energetic Cosmos Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Nazarbayev University, Astana, 010000, Kazakhstan
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, 94720, CA, United States
Department of Physics and the Institute for Advanced Study, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Laboratoire APC-PCCP, Universite Sorbonne Paris Cite, Universite Paris Diderot, Paris, 75013, France
Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, 94720, CA, United States
Laboratoire Astroparticule et Cosmologie, Universite de Paris, Paris, 75013, France
Donostia International Physics Center, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), San Sebastian, 48080, Spain

Department of Physics
Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics
Energetic Cosmos Laboratory
William H. Miller III Department of Physics and Astronomy
Energetic Cosmos Laboratory
Space Sciences Laboratory
Department of Physics and the Institute for Advanced Study
Laboratoire APC-PCCP
Department of Physics
Laboratoire Astroparticule et Cosmologie
Donostia International Physics Center

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