Development of a test N-band image slicer: optical design

摘要

A spectrometer with integral field units on large optical/infrared telescopes enables efficient spectroscopy of moderately extended objects. In future mid-infrared observations with 30m class telescopes, where circumstellar disks larger than the spatial resolution will be major targets, such efficient observations are strongly desirable. Here we present an optical design of our new N-band image slicing spectrometer to test basic techniques for future image slicing spectrometers on larger telescopes. Our prototype image slicer follows the idea of the advanced image slicer considering not only object images but also pupil images and is optimized for the N-band (10 micron atmospheric window). Five slicing mirrors and five pupil mirrors are used to slice the field of view and make a rearranged pseudo slit image. The pseudo slit image is collimated, dispersed by a grating, and imaged on a Si:As 320x240 array. For the slicing mirrors, we plan to use polished stainless mirrors of 300 micron width. The spectral resolution is set as about 200. We plan to put an imaging optics module for target aquisition in addition to the simple image slicer module. The whole optics is designed to be compact (about 600mm x 450mm x 300 mm), which will allow us to make test observations easily with various telescopes.