The image slicer for the Subaru Telescope High Dispersion Spectrograph

TL;DR

This paper details the design, manufacturing, and testing of an image slicer for the Subaru Telescope's High Dispersion Spectrograph, enhancing spectral resolution and efficiency.

Contribution

It introduces a Bowen-Walraven type image slicer that improves spectral resolution and throughput for the Subaru Telescope's spectrograph.

Findings

Achieved a resolving power of R=110,000.

Throughput exceeds 80% in 400-700 nm range.

Efficiency improved by a factor of 1.8 for 0.7 arcsec seeing.

Abstract

We report on the design, manufacturing, and performance of the image slicer for the High Dispersion Spectrograph (HDS) on the Subaru Telescope. This instrument is a Bowen-Walraven type image slicer providing five 0.3 arcsec x 1.5 arcsec images with a resolving power of R= 110,000. The resulting resolving power and line profiles are investigated in detail, including estimates of the defocusing effect on the resolving power. The throughput in the wavelength range from 400 to 700 nm is higher than 80%, thereby improving the efficiency of the spectrograph by a factor of 1.8 for 0.7 arcsec seeing.