Improving SPIRou sensitivity by reducing thermal background

Gregory Barrick; Gregory Green

doi:10.1117/12.3017859

18 July 2024 Improving SPIRou sensitivity by reducing thermal background

Gregory Barrick, Gregory Green

Proceedings Volume 13096, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X; 130962X (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3017859
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2024, Yokohama, Japan

Conference Poster

Abstract

SPIRou (SpectroPolarimètre Infra-Rouge in French), is a near-infrared, fiber-fed spectropolarimeter at the Canada-France- Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) which gives full spectral coverage from 0.98 to 2.35 μm with a resolving power of 70,000. To obtain an RV precision of ~1 m/s, SPIRou must measure and average the redshift of as many spectral lines as possible. The K-band contains many such lines making K-band sensitivity very important. Unfortunately, the original thermal background suppression design did not work as expected so that the background is over 5 times higher than desired reducing the K-band sensitivity by 2-3 magnitudes. Some of the background has been eliminated by cooling the fiber interface at the entrance to the spectrograph, but the fiber injection unit on the telescope still produces a large amount of background and is more difficult to cool. This paper will describe the cooling system installed on the SPIRou Cassegrain unit (fiber injection unit) and its performance.

(2024) Published by SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Citation Download Citation

Gregory Barrick and Gregory Green "Improving SPIRou sensitivity by reducing thermal background", Proc. SPIE 13096, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X, 130962X (18 July 2024); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3017859

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