DEVELOPMENT OF A CRYOGENIC TESTING SYSTEM FOR MID-INFRARED DETECTORS ON SPICA

For future space IR missions, such as SPICA, it is crucial to establish an experimental method for evaluating the performance of mid-IR detectors. In particular, the wavelength dependence of the sensitivity is important but difficult to be measured properly. We are now preparing a testing system for mid-IR Si:As/Si:Sb detectors on SPICA. We have designed a cryogenic optical system in which IR signal light from a pinhole is collimated, passed through an optical filter, and focused onto a detector. With this system, we can measure the photoresponse of the detector for various IR light using optical filters with different wavelength properties. We have fabricated aluminum mirrors which are adopted to minimize thermal distortion effects and evaluated the surface figure errors. The total wavefront error of the optical system is $1.3{\mu}m$ RMS, which is small enough for the target wavelengths ($20-37{\mu}m$) of SPICA. The point spread function measured at a room temperature is consistent with that predicted by the simulation. We report the optical performance of the system at cryogenic temperatures.