1. Interference Filters and Coatings for Mid-Infrared Astronomy (8-30μm)
- Author
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Roger Hunneman, Gary John Hawkins, Richard Sherwood, and Barbara M. Barrett
- Subjects
Physics ,Very Large Telescope ,Spectrometer ,business.industry ,Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics ,Astronomical filter ,Optics ,Optical coating ,Band-pass filter ,Observatory ,Filter (video) ,Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,business ,Passband ,Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics - Abstract
The VISIR instrument for the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) is a thermal-infrared imager and spectrometer currently being developed by the French Service d'Astrophysique of CEA Saclay, and Dutch NFRA ASTRON Dwingeloo consortium. This cryogenic instrument will employ precision infrared bandpass filters in the N-(λ=7.5-14μm)and Q-(λ=16-28μm) band mid-IR atmospheric windows to study interstellar and circumstellar environments crucial for star and planetary formation theories. As the filters in these mid-IR wavelength ranges are of interest to many astronomical cryogenic instruments, a worldwide astronomical filter consortium was set up with participation from 12 differing institutes, each requiring instrument specific filter operating environments and optical metrology. This paper describes the design and fabrication methods used to manufacture these astronomical consortium filters, including the rationale for the selection of multilayer coating designs, temperature-dependant optical properties of the filter materials and FTIR spectral measurements showing the changes in passband and blocking performance on cooling to
- Published
- 2003
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