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arXiv · 2606.21543

Development of TIFUUN: Terahertz Integral Field Units with Universal Nanotechnology

Abstract

TIFUUN (THz Integral Field Units with Universal Nanotechnology) is an ultra-wideband mm-submm wave imaging spectrometer that capitalizes on the highly scalable integrated superconducting spectrometer technology. TIFUUN has two slots for integral field units (IFUs), which can jointly be optimized as open-hardware for each astronomical observation in terms of spatial and spectral coverage. These IFUs can have observation frequencies in the range of 90--360 GHz, with spectral resolution up to $R\equiv F/\Delta F \le 1,000$, with up to $\sim$18,000 kinetic inductance detectors (shared by the two IFUs with a flexible ratio). The ultra-wide 4:1 (2 octave) bandwidth optics fits in a remarkably compact volume, by means of thin silicon lenses and a high chief ray angle design. The first pair of IFUs are being developed for the SUBLIME (Study of the Universe By Line Intensity Mapping Experiments) experiment that aims to map CII emission at redshift $\sim$6 to trace the cosmic large-scale structure and the buildup of galaxies during reionization, using TIFUUN on the ASTE 10-m telescope. The scalability, flexibility and compactness makes TIFUUN a highly compatible and portable system suited also for upcoming telescope facilities in the vicinity, such as FYST and AtLAST/LST.

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Akira Endo, Tom J. L. C. Bakx, Jochem J. A. Baselmans, Dries Boleij, Stefanie A. Brackenhoff, Bernhard R. Brandl, Martino Calvo, Shahab O. Dabironezare, Hans van der Does, Rei Enokiya, Sho Fujisawa, Shinji Fujita, Enrico Garaldi, Wouter Gregoor, Masato Hagimoto, Davit Hakobyan, Angelina Harke-Hosemann, Robert Huiting, Shiro Ikeda, Reinier M. J. Janssen, Kenichi Karatsu, Nick de Keijzer, Kotaro Kohno, Takumi Kojima, Alkistis Kyriakidou, Louis H. Marting, Tomotake Matsumura, Cory Meijneke, Tetsuhiro Minamidani, Arend Moerman, Alessandro Monfardini, Kana Moriwaki, Kanako Narita, Yuri Nishimura, Erika Ogata, Leon G. G. Olde Scholtenhuis, Tristan Oude Essink, Jim R. Piek, Matus Rybak, Kana Sakaguri, Seiichi Sakamoto, Aurora Simionescu, Nikita A. Soshnin, Tatsuya Takekoshi, Yoichi Tamura, Akio Taniguchi, David J. Thoen, Sten Vollebregt, Lingyu Wang, Paul P. van der Werf, Stephen J. C. Yates, Naoki Yoshida, Silvia Zhang. 2026-06-19. Development of TIFUUN: Terahertz Integral Field Units with Universal Nanotechnology. https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.21543

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