MEMs-based speckle spectrometer

A. I. Sheinis; L. Nigra; M. Q. Kuhlen

doi:10.1117/12.673537

28 June 2006 MEMs-based speckle spectrometer

A. I. Sheinis, L. Nigra, M. Q. Kuhlen

Proceedings Volume 6272, Advances in Adaptive Optics II; 62724U (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.673537
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2006, Orlando, Florida , United States

Abstract

We describe a new concept for a MEMS-based active spatial filter for astronomical spectroscopy. The goal of this device is to allow the use of a diffraction-limited spectrometer on a seeing limited observation at improved throughput over a comparable seeing-limited spectrometer, thus reducing the size and cost of the spectrometer by a factor proportional to r₀/D (For the case of a 10 meter telescope this size reduction will be approximately a factor of 25 to 50). We use a fiber-based integral field unit (IFU) that incorporates an active MEMS mirror array to feed an astronomical spectrograph. A fast camera is used in parallel to sense speckle images at a spatial resolution of λ/D and at a temporal frequency greater than that of atmospheric fluctuations. The MEMS mirror-array is used as an active shutter to feed speckle images above a preset intensity threshold to the spectrometer, thereby increasing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the spectrogram. Preliminary calculations suggests an SNR improvement of a factor of about 1.4. Computer simulations have shown an SNR improvement of 1.1, but have not yet fully explored the parameter space.

Citation Download Citation

A. I. Sheinis, L. Nigra, and M. Q. Kuhlen "MEMs-based speckle spectrometer", Proc. SPIE 6272, Advances in Adaptive Optics II, 62724U (28 June 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.673537

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