Collimating Slicer for Optical Integral Field Spectroscopy

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel Collimating Slicer design for optical integral field spectroscopy that aims to create a more compact spectrograph by combining the image slicer with the collimator, promising advantages for low resolution applications.

Contribution

It proposes a new type of integral field spectrograph that integrates the slicer and collimator, simplifying the optical system and potentially improving compactness.

Findings

Initial system analysis shows promising results.

The new design is suitable for low resolution spectroscopy.

Future improvements are discussed.

Abstract

Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS) is a technique that gives simultaneously the spectrum of each spatial sampling element in a given object field. It is a powerful tool which rearranges the data cube (x, y, lambda) represented by two spatial dimensions defining the field and the spectral decomposition in a detector plane. In IFS, the spatial unit reorganizes the field and the spectral unit is being composed of a classical spectrograph.The development of a Collimating Slicer aims at proposing a new type of integral field spectrograph which should be more compact. The main idea is to combine the image slicer with the collimator of the spectrograph, thus mixing the spatial and spectral units. The traditional combination of slicer, pupil and slit elements and the spectrograph collimator is replaced by a new one composed of a slicer and collimator only. In this paper, the state of the art of integral field spectroscopy using image slicers is described. The new system based onto the development of a Collimating Slicer for optical integral field spectroscopy is depicted. First system analysis results and future improvements are discussed. It finally turns out that this new system looks very promising for low resolution spectroscopy.