A Near-Infrared Imaging Survey of the Chamaeleon I Dark Cloud

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Abstract
We describe a near-infrared imaging survey covering ~1 deg2 of the Chamaeleon I dark cloud. The survey is complete for K < 15.0, H < 16.0, and J < 16.5, roughly 2 magnitudes more sensitive than previous large-scale surveys. We use the large number of background stars detected to derive an accurate near-infrared extinction law for the cloud and select new candidate members with near-infrared color excesses. We list ~100 candidates of the cloud with K ≥ 12.0, based on their positions in the J-H, H-K color-color diagram. These new stars have low luminosities (K ~ 12–16, H-K 0.5–1.5) and may have masses close to or even below the hydrogen-burning limit.

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