Spectrograph sensitivity analysis: An efficient tool for different design phases

摘要

In this paper we present an efficient tool developed to perform opto-mechanical tolerance and sensitivity analysis both for the preliminary and final design phases of a spectrograph. With this tool it will be possible to evaluate the effect of mechanical perturbation of each single spectrograph optical element in terms of image stability, i.e. the motion of the echellogram on the spectrograph focal plane, and of image quality, i.e. the spot size of the different echellogram wavelengths. We present the MATLAB®-Zemax® script architecture of the tool. In addition we present the detailed results concerning its application to the sensitivity analysis of the ESPRESSO spectrograph (the Echelle Spectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations which will be soon installed on ESO's Very Large Telescope) in the framework of the incoming assembly, alignment and integration phases.