2017/04/26 by Zanutta Alessio, Alessio Zanutta, Landoni Marco +7
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #Optical Coatings and Gratings #Photonic and Optical Devices #Photorefractive and Nonlinear Optics #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1704.08150
arxiv created 2017/04/26 · openalex publication_date 2017/04/26 · arxiv updated 2017/04/27 · openalex created_date 2017/05/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Many focal-reducer spectrographs, currently available at state-of-the art telescopes facilities, would benefit from a simple refurbishing that could increase both the resolution and spectral range in order to cope with the progressively challenging scientific requirements but, in order to make this update appealing, it should minimize the changes in the existing structure of the instrument. In the past, many authors proposed solutions based on stacking subsequently layers of dispersive elements and record multiple spectra in one shot (multiplexing). Although this idea is promising, it brings several drawbacks and complexities that prevent the straightforward integration of a such device in a spectrograph. Fortunately nowadays, the situation has changed dramatically thanks to the successful experience achieved through photopolymeric holographic films, used to fabricate common Volume Phase Holographic Gratings (VPHGs). Thanks to the various advantages made available by these materials in this context, we propose an innovative solution to design a stacked multiplexed VPHGs that is able to secure efficiently different spectra in a single shot. This allows to increase resolution and spectral range enabling astronomers to greatly economize their awarded time at the telescope. In this paper, we demonstrate the applicability of our solution, both in terms of expected performance and feasibility, supposing the upgrade of the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC) Optical System for Imaging and low-Intermediate-Resolution Integrated Spectroscopy (OSIRIS).