Dr Jesper Skottfelt

The Euclid mission is now in the Post Launch Support phase. The CEI will continue to monitor the trap pumping data from the spacecraft and provide input to the radiation damage correction based on this data.

Post Launch support, development and analysis for the Trap pumping data products that has been implemented for the Euclid Science Ground Segment as part of the calibration routines for the VIS instrument.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is developing a UV space telescope called CASTOR and they are now looking for partners to the project. Currently JPL/NASA is part of the collaboration, delivering the instrument. We are bidding for the UK to be part of the mission in two key areas where UK can play a leading role: One of these roles is the development of the UV-optimised detectors for the mission. With Te2v delivering the sensors, the CEI is a obvious partner for the main part of this work. We will be looking to utilise the full range of CEI capabilities, from Radiation environment and shielding simulations, General detector characterisation including UV QE measurements, to radiation damage and general characterisation of the detectors and flight device testing and delivery. The project is lead by UKATC and a number of institutions are involved in different parts of the project (Leicester, Birmingham, Edinburgh).

This project merges the old WFIRST proposal (now called Roman Space Telescope) with a new activity in UV-sensitive detector development for future missions such as Castor (Canada), Luvoir and HabEx. These projects should be separate, however as they both work with JPL NASA they are being merged in an attempt to make this 3.5 month project >£250k (to meet the call demands). The key to this 3.5 month pre-study is to procure major equipment items for the long term and put in the effort to work with the partners and develop the long-term 4-year plan to start 1st April 2021.

Te2v-sponsored STFC CASE Studentship on the analysis of calibration data from Euclid, including trap-pumping results. For Gaia, CEI PhD student Saah Ahmed investigated the differences between pre-launch predictions of radiation damage and what happened in-orbit using simple calibration data. His findings have shown interesting correlations with device batches, as well as fine-tuned the calibration process used in the RVS instrument. A first proper investigation of radiation damage while in-orbit will help our fundamental understanding, not just for CCDs but also for future CMOS missions. For Euclid, we have access to a highly accurate and much deeper analysis technique in trap-pumping, giving the power to analyse the performance in great detail and investigate many open questions that can’t be answered from ground testing, important to all future space missions, whether CCD or CMOS: - How does a 5 minute on-ground irradiation compare to a steady rate of increase over 5 years in-orbit? - How does a NIEL scaled 200MeV dose compare to a full spectra of particle energies? - How does annealing compete with new trap production? This is very timely for an October 2024 start as we will have ~1 year of data already and more arriving as the PhD progresses (towards EOL of the mission as the student writes-up).

Continuation of Euclid work to deliver Trap Pumping analysis data products for the Euclid Science Ground Segment.

The funding from the STFC IAA is being used to strategically focus on translating our space research, developing new opportunities and providing support to foster entrepreneurialism among our researchers and academics.

European Space Agency (ESA) Network Partnering Initiative (NPI) funding to support PhD student Saad Ahmed, who is working on radiation damage of the Gaia focal plane detectors. This funding will allow Saad to work more closely with ESA using in-orbit calibration data from the Gaia space telescope, and to get access to test equipment located at the ESA Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Holland.

Supporting the radiation damage correction efforts for the Euclid VIS Instrument by delivering Trap Pumping analysis data products for the Euclid Science Ground Segment.