AAS 201st Meeting, January, 2003
Session 18. Instrumentation for Infrared and Optical Observing
Poster, Monday, January 6, 2003, 9:20am-6:30pm, Exhibit Hall AB

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[18.02] Cryogenic temperature tunable solid Fabry-Perot spectrometer for the near-IR.

A.S. Kutyrev (SSAI/NASA/GSFC), C.L. Bennett, S.H. Moseley (NASA's GSFC), D.A. Rapchun (GST/GSFC/NASA), K. Stewart (NRL)

We are developing a high resolution near-infrared temperature tunable cryogenic spectrometer with solid Fabry-Perot etalons. Germanium and silicon etalons have been built and tested in the lab for spectral performance. Temperature range required for tuning the etalons in the current design is within the range easily achievable with the temperature control system. It does not exceed 15K for germanium and 35K for silicon etalons. The etalons operate at liquid nitrogen temperature or slightly above it. High refractive index of these materials allows for the construction of a very compact spectrometer equivalent to a gas spaced Fabry-Perot interferometer of 80 mm in diameter. First successful field tests of the spectrometer with double silicon etalon has been carried out last summer. The results demonstrated feasibility of our approach.

This project is supported by NASA funding.


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