For future space IR missions, such as SPICA, it is crucial to establish an experimental method for eval- uating the performance of mid-IR detectors. In particular, the wavelength dependence of the sensitivity is important but difficult to be measured properly. We are now preparing a testing system for mid-IR Si:As/Si:Sb detectors on SPICA. We have designed a cryogenic optical system in which IR signal light from a pinhole is collimated, passed through an optical filter, and focused onto a detector. With this system, we can measure the photoresponse of the detector for various IR light using optical lters with different wavelength properties. We have fabricated aluminum mirrors which are adopted to minimize thermal distortion effects and evaluated the surface figure errors. The total wavefront error of the optical system is 1.3 μm RMS, which is small enough for the target wavelengths (20-37 μm) of SPICA. The point spread function measured at a room temperature is consistent with that predicted by the simulation. We report the optical performance of the system at cryogenic temperatures.

Debris disks are important observational clues to understanding on-going planetary system formation. They are usually identied by signicant mid-infrared excess on top of the photospheric emission of a central star on the basis of prediction from J-, H-, and Ks-band uxes and the stellar model spectra. For bright stars, 2MASS near-infrared uxes suffer large uncertainties due to the near-infrared camera satu- ration. Therefore we have performed follow-up observations with the IRSF 1.4 m near-infrared telescope located in South Africa to obtain accurate J-, H-, and Ks-band uxes of the central stars. Among 754 main-sequence stars which are detected in the AKARI 18 m band, we have performed photometry for 325 stars with IRSF. As a result, we have successfully improved the ux accuracy of the central stars from 9.2 % to 0.5 % on average. Using this dataset, we have detected 18 m excess emission from 57 stars in our samples with a 3 level. We nd that some of them have high ratios of the excess to the photospheric emission even around very old stars, which cannot be explained by the current planet-formation theories.

Debris disks are circumstellar dust disks around main-sequence stars. They are important observational clues to understanding the planetary system formation. The zodiacal light is the thermal emission from the dust disk in our Solar system. For a comprehensive understanding of the nature and the evolution of dust disks around main-sequence stars, we try a comparative study of debris disks and the zodiacal light. We search for debris disks using the AKARI mid-infrared all-sky point source catalog. By applying accurate ux estimate of the photospheric emission based on the follow-up near-infrared observations with IRSF, we have improved the detection rate of debris disks. For a detailed study of the structure and grain properties in the zodiacal dust cloud, as an example of dust disks around main-sequence stars, we analyze the AKARI mid-infrared all-sky diffuse maps. As a result of the debris disks search, we found old (>1 Gyr) debris disks which have large excess emission compared to their age, which cannot be explained simply by the conventional steady-state evolution model. From the zodiacal light analysis, we nd the possibility that the dust grains trapped in the Earth's resonance orbits have increased by a factor of 3 in the past 20 years. Combining these results, we discuss the non-steady processes in debris disks and the zodiacal light.