An Acousto-Optical Radio Spectrograph for Spectral Integration

Abstract

From early experiments in 1966 (Cole 1968) the acousto-optical radio spectrograph has been developed at CSIRO to a sensitive, multi-channel spectral-line back-end. The principles of the instrument are described in detail elsewhere (Lambert 1962; Hecht 1977; Milne and Cole 1977). By means of a Bragg interaction between a laser beam and an ultrasonic beam derived from the radio signal, light is diffracted into an order whose light intensity distribution is accurately related to the power spectrum of the radio signal. In the earlier spectrographs the spectrum was recorded photographically (Cole 1973a, b; Hecht 1973) but this was limited to strong spectral features. To study weak spectral features a stable, linear system was needed with large dynamic range. The combination of an array of photodiodes and computer would be capable of observing these weak spectral features (Cole and Abies 1974). Development since 1974 has been a progressive identification of sources of thermal and mechanical instability and of excess noise in the spectrograph system.