Paper 14145-14
Paper 14145-14
A HgCdTe detector-based mid-infrared spectrometer for space-based exoplanet transit and phase curve observations
5 July 2026 • 15:20 - 15:40 CEST | Room B4-M3
Abstract
We present a modified HgCdTe detector-based laboratory demonstration of an ultra-stable mid-IR array spectrometer for exoplanet transits. The instrument includes a calibration system that enables the 1/f stability required for the detection of atmospheric bio-signatures in habitable-zone planets around M-dwarfs. We have already demonstrated the required stability of 5 ppm with Transition Edge Sensors (TES) over days in an identical spectrometer. However, TES require sub-K cooling. In 2019 Cabrera et al. demonstrated a long-wavelength cut-off of 16.7 μm for a new HgCdTe-based detector, and Mandell et al., 2022, demonstrated that this long-wavelength cutoff would be sufficient to measure surface temperature, radius, and multiple atmospheric tracers. We use this particular array in our demonstration. Here, we provide an overview of the testbed and present first results from ongoing tests and compare these to the performance we achieved with TES detectors.
Presenter
Johns Hopkins Univ. (United States), NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr. (United States)
Dr. Staguhn is a Principal Research Scientist at the Johns Hopkins University. He received the Ph.D. in Experimental Physics from the University of Cologne, Germany, developing heterodyne backend technologies for detecting interstellar line emission in our galaxy. After two years as Frank Kerr Fellow in the BIMA project at the University of MD, College Park, he joined NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in 2000. Staguhn's current primary research focus is on the development of instrumentation for far-infrared and submillimeter astronomy and Mid-IR instrumentation for exo-planet science. His current instrument projects include GISMO (PI), GISMO-2 (PI), HAWC+ (detector lead), and several CMB experiments. Staguhn is the Deputy Study Scientist and Instrument Scientist for the Origins Space Telescope mission concept study for the 2020 Decadal Review. He is leading a mission concept study for the MIR Exoplanet CLimate Explorer MIRECLE and is Co-Investigator on the FIR Probe concept PRIMA.