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Design And Fabrication Of Astrophysical Instrumentation For Distinguishing Infrared Sources, Serena M. Tramm

Theses

Observations in the near- and far-infrared allow us to probe through cosmic clouds of gas and dust to uncover processes that are obscured at other wavelengths such as young stars embedded in dust clouds, thermal emission from the interstellar medium, and the birth of galaxies. However, cosmic infrared light is obstructed by Earth's atmosphere. As a result, infrared astrophysical instrumentation is often designed for use in space. As specific examples of technologies addressing the kind of science that can be performed at these wavelengths, I will discuss my contributions to two applications of infrared instrumentation: a Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) …