Infrared Spectroscopy and Young Stellar Objects: Characterizing the Dust and Gas in Circumstellar Disks

In this dissertation, I describe my work in infrared spectroscopy and in studying the circumstellar disks around young stellar objects. In the first part, I detail an electronic component I designed for the Texas Echelon Cross Echelle Spectrograph (TEXES), which has acted as a visiting instrument on Gemini North and the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility. In order to detect the incoming infrared flux, a bias voltage is applied across the detector to sweep out the photo-excited electrons. If the bias voltage is too weak, the electrons can recombine before being swept out, while a strong bias can create unstable photoconductive gain. The initial design of TEXES required the operator to open the electronics and change the bias voltage by hand. However, the optimal bias is not the same for different instrument modes, which wasted substantial observing time when changing instrument modes. In order to save future observing time, and to fulfill a precondition set by Gemini North for TEXES to act as a visiting instrument, I created an electronic component to change the detector bias from the computer control room. I investigate and characterize the optimal voltages for the Raytheon 2562 SiAs IBC "SIRTF" array for the different instrument modes used by TEXES.;In the following sections, I describe our observing campaign using the Spitzer IRS module and three ground-based telescopes to investigate edge-on circumstellar disks and classical infrared companions. Observations of the terrestrial planet forming regions of circumstellar disks are difficult to obtain, but recent detections of molecular absorption originating from these regions have proven valuable for disk models. We were granted time with the Spitzer Space Telescope to observe seven targets classified as young stellar objects, likely with their disks seen edge-on, to search for molecular absorption features. We used ground-based telescopes, including Gemini South, W. M. Keck Observatory, and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, to further investigate and characterize our targets. I begin with a comparison of the disks around DG Tau B and VV CrA, showing evidence for extensive grain growth and settling in DG Tau B and characterizing the disk geometry of VV CrA. I discuss findings of Glass I, which proves to be extremely variable and shows high ionization ratios of fine structure emission not previously seen in young stars. Finally, I discuss the disk geometry of DoAr 24E and investigate the source of high extinction toward the infrared companion of this binary system.