New generation exoplanet imagers on large ground-based telescopes are highly optimised for the detection of young giant exoplanets in the near-infrared, but they are intrinsically limited for their characterisation by the low spectral resolution of their integral field spectrographs (R < 100). High-dispersion spectroscopy at R ≫ 104 would be a powerful tool for the characterisation of these planets, but there is currently no high-resolution spectrograph with extreme adaptive optics and coronagraphy that would enable such characterisation. With project HiRISE we propose to use fiber coupling to combine the capabilities of two flagship instruments at the Very Large Telescope in Chile: the exoplanet imager SPHERE and the high-resolution spectrograph CRIRES+. The coupling will be implemented at the telescope in early 2023. We provide a general overview of the implementation of HiRISE, of its assembly, integration and testing (AIT) phase in Europe, and a brief assessment of its expected performance based on the final hardware.
In next generation space instrumentation for Earth and Universe Observation, new instrument concepts include often non planar gratings. Their realization is complex and costly. We propose a new technology for designing and realizing convex blazed gratings for high throughput spectrographs. For this purpose, our requirements are driven by a Digital-Micromirror-Device-based (DMD) MOS instrument to be mounted on the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) and called BATMAN. The two-arm instrument is providing in parallel imaging and spectroscopic capabilities. The objects/field selector is a 2048 x 1080 micromirrors DMD, placed at the focal plane of the telescope; it is used as a programmable multi-slit mask at the entrance of the spectrograph. The compact Offner-type spectrograph design contains a low density convex grating to disperse light. For optimization of the spectrograph efficiency, this convex grating must be blazed. A blazed reflective grating has been designed with a period of 3300 nm and a blaze angle of 5.04°, and fabricated into convex substrates with 225 mm radius of curvature and a footprint diameter of 63.5 mm. The blaze is optimized for the center wavelength of 580 nm within the spectral range of 400 – 800 nm. Such gratings have been fabricated and coated with a silver-based layer, with a final 7° blaze angle over the whole surface. Efficiency close to 90% on the 1st diffraction order at 700nm has been obtained, measured on BATMAN spectroscopic arm. Detailed mapping of the blazed grating showed a very good period uniformity with up to 0.5% deviation. Grating depth and blaze angle have higher deviation, up to 7%. An optimized device with the exact required blaze angle would reach the same efficiency and be centered on the mid of 400-800nm wavelength band: its realization is on-going. The grating brings a significant contribution in the total amount of straylight at instrument level. Their straylight level remains a critical issue, and its reduction by specific and controlled implementation of improvements in manufacturing process is a challenge to tackle. Preliminary straylight measurement has been done and shows a lowest straylight level below 10-2 sr-1 between the diffraction orders. This new type of non-planar reflective gratings will be the key component for future high throughput spectrographs in space missions.
In next generation space instrumentation for Earth and Universe Observation, new instrument concepts include often non planar gratings. Their realization is complex and costly. We propose a new technology for designing and realizing convex blazed gratings for high throughput spectrographs.
For this purpose, our requirements are driven by a Digital-Micromirror-Device-based (DMD) MOS instrument to be mounted on the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) and called BATMAN. The two-arm instrument is providing in parallel imaging and spectroscopic capabilities. The objects/field selector is a 2048 x 1080 micromirrors DMD, placed at the focal plane of the telescope; it is used as a programmable multi-slit mask at the entrance of the spectrograph. The compact Offner-type spectrograph design contains a low density convex grating to disperse light. For optimization of the spectrograph efficiency, this convex grating must be blazed.
A blazed reflective grating has been designed with a period of 3300 nm and a blaze angle of 5.04°, and fabricated into convex substrates with 225 mm radius of curvature and a footprint diameter of 63.5 mm. The blaze is optimized for the center wavelength of 580 nm within the spectral range of 400 – 800 nm. Convex blazed gratings have been fabricated and coated with protected silver, with a final 5.7° blaze angle over the whole surface. Efficiency close to 90% on the 1st diffraction order at 700nm has been obtained.
This new type of non-planar reflective gratings will be the key component for future high throughput spectrographs in space missions.
Next-generation infrared astronomical instrumentation for ground-based and space telescopes could be based on MOEMS programmable slit masks for multi-object spectroscopy (MOS). MOS is used extensively to investigate astronomical objects optimizing the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR): high precision spectra are obtained and the problem of spectral confusion and background level occurring in slitless spectroscopy is cancelled. Fainter limiting fluxes are reached and the scientific return is maximized both in cosmology, in galaxies formation and evolution, in stellar physics and in solar system small bodies characterization. We are developing a 2048 x 1080 Digital-Micromirror-Device-based (DMD) MOS instrument to be mounted on the 3.6m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) and called BATMAN. A two-arm instrument has been designed for providing in parallel imaging and spectroscopic capabilities. BATMAN will be mounted on the folded Nasmyth platform of TNG. Thanks to its compact design, high throughput is expected. The two arms with F/4 on the DMD are mounted on a common bench, and an upper bench supports the detectors thanks to two independent hexapods. The stiffness of the instrument is guaranteed thanks to a box architecture linking both benches. The volume of BATMAN is 1.4x1.2x0.75 m3, with a total mass of 400kg. Mounting of all sub-systems has been done and integration of the individual arms is under way. BATMAN on the sky is of prime importance for characterizing the actual performance of this new family of MOS instruments, as well as investigating the new operational procedures on astronomical objects (combining MOS and IFU modes, different spatial and spectral resolutions in the same FOV, absolute (spectro-) photometry by combining imaging and spectroscopy in the same instrument, automatic detection of transients …). This instrument will be placed at TNG by beginning-2019.
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