Preliminary design of IGRINS (Immersion GRating INfrared Spectrograph)

Abstract

The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) and the Department of Astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) are developing a near infrared wide-band high resolution spectrograph, IGRINS. IGRINS can observe all of the H- and K-band atmospheric windows with a resolving power of 40,000 in a single exposure. The spectrograph uses a white pupil cross-dispersed layout and includes a dichroic to divide the light between separate H and K cameras, each provided with a 2kx2k HgCdTe detector. A silicon immersion grating serves as the primary disperser and a pair of volume phased holographic gratings serve as cross dispersers, allowing the high resolution echelle spectrograph to be very compact. IGRINS is designed to be compatible with telescopes ranging in diameter from 2.7m (the Harlan J. Smith telescope; HJST) to 4 - 8 m telescopes. Commissioning and initial operation will be on the 2.7m telescope at McDonald Observatory from 2013.