KRAKENS: a superconducting MKID integral field spectrograph concept for the Keck I telescope

Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors, or MKIDS, have the ability to simultaneous resolve the wavelength of individual photons and time tag photons with microsecond precision. This opens up a number of exciting new possibilities and efficiency gains for optical/IR astronomy. In this paper we describe a plan to take the MKID technology, which we have demonstrated on the Palomar, Lick, and Subaru Telescopes, out of the realm of private instruments usable only by experts. Our goal is to incorporate MKIDs into a facility-class instrument at the Keck 1 Telescope that can be used by a large part of the astronomical community. This new instrument, the Keck Radiometer Array using KID ENergy Sensors (KRAKENS), will be a 30 kpix integral field spectrograph (IFS) with a 42.5” x 45” field of view, extraordinarily wide wavelength coverage from 380-1350 nm, and a spectral resolution R=λ/▵λ > 20 at 400 nm. Future add on modules could enable polarimetry and higher spectral resolution. KRAKENS will be built using the same style MKID arrays, cryostat, and similar readout electronics to those used in the successful 10 kpix DARKNESS instrument at Palomar and 20 kpix MEC instrument at Subaru, significantly reducing the technical risk.

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