GISMO: a 2-millimeter bolometer camera for the IRAM 30 m telescope

TLDR: In this paper, a bolometer camera (the Goddard-Iram Superconducting 2-Millimeter Observer, GISMO) was built for the IRAM 30 m telescope to provide the capability to rapidly observe galactic and extragalactic dust emission.

Abstract: We are building a bolometer camera (the Goddard-Iram Superconducting 2-Millimeter Observer, GISMO) for operation in the 2 mm atmospheric window to be used at the IRAM 30 m telescope. The instrument uses a 8x16 planar array of multiplexed TES bolometers which incorporates our newly designed Backshort Under Grid (BUG) architecture. Due to the size and sensitivity of the detector array (the NEP of the detectors is 4×10-17 W/√Hz), this instrument will be unique in that it will be capable of providing significantly greater imaging sensitivity and mapping speed at this wavelength than has previously been possible. The major scientific driver for this instrument is to provide the IRAM 30 m telescope with the capability to rapidly observe galactic and extragalactic dust emission, in particular from high-z ULIRGs and quasars, even in the summer season. The 2 mm spectral range provides a unique window to observe the earliest active dusty galaxies in the universe and is well suited to better confine the star formation rate in these objects. The instrument will fill in the SEDs of high redshift galaxies at the Rayleigh-Jeans part of the dust emission spectrum, even at the highest redshifts. The observational efficiency of a 2 mm camera with respect to bolometer cameras operating at shorter wavelengths increases for objects at redshifts beyond z ~ 1 and is most efficient at the highest redshifts, at the time when the first stars were re-ionizing the universe. Our models predict that at this wavelength one out of four serendipitously detected galaxies will be at a redshift of z > 6.5.