Development of a wide bandwidth array acousto optical spectrometer for the Herschel Satellite Mission

Abstract

The Herschel satellite observatory will explore the universe at far-infrared, submillimetre, and millimetre wavelengths. This regime of the electromagnetic spectrum is difficult to observe, because water vapour in the Earth’s atmosphere absorbs the signals of almost all the astronomical sources. With the 3.5m telescope (the largest ever placed aboard a spacecraft), it will be possible to observe various atomic and molecular lines with exceptionally high spatial resolution. The receiver system employs the heterodyne technique, and the spectral information is obtained by means of real-time spectrometers. Within this thesis, the requirements, specifications, design concept, and development of a wide bandwidth array acousto-optical spectrometer (WBS) is discussed...