Kavli Affiliate: David Charbonneau
| First 5 Authors: Matthew C. H. Leung, Matthew C. H. Leung, , ,
| Summary:
An increasing number of applications in exoplanetary science require
spectrographs with high resolution and high throughput without the need for a
broad spectral range. Examples include the search for biosignatures through the
detection of the oxygen A-band at 760 nm, and the study of atmospheric escape
through the helium 1083 nm triplet. These applications align well with the
capabilities of a spectrograph based on a Virtually Imaged Phased Array (VIPA),
a high-throughput dispersive element that is essentially a modified Fabry-Perot
etalon. We are developing VIPER, a high-resolution, narrowband, multimode
fiber-fed VIPA spectrograph specifically designed to observe the helium 1083 nm
triplet absorption line in the atmospheres of gaseous exoplanets. VIPER will
achieve a resolving power of 300,000 over a wavelength range of 25 nm, and will
be cross-dispersed by an echelle grating. VIPER is intended for operation on
the 1.5 m Tillinghast Telescope and potentially on the 6.5 m MMT, both located
at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO) on Mount Hopkins, Arizona, USA.
In this paper, we present VIPER’s instrument requirements, derived from the
primary science goal of detecting anisotropic atmospheric escape from
exoplanets. We discuss the design methodology for VIPA-based spectrographs
aimed at maximizing throughput and diffraction efficiency, and we derive a
wave-optics-based end-to-end model of the spectrograph to simulate the
intensity distribution at the detector. We present an optical design for VIPER
and highlight the potential of VIPA-based spectrographs for advancing
exoplanetary science.
| Search Query: ArXiv Query: search_query=au:”David Charbonneau”&id_list=&start=0&max_results=3