Integral field unit for the existing imaging and spectroscopy instrument, FOCAS

Abstract

Abstract The Faint Object Camera and Spectrograph (FOCAS) is an optical imaging and spectroscopy instrument for the Subaru Telescope. It has been a workhorse instrument since the first-light phase of the telescope. We describe an integral field unit (IFU) that has recently been installed in FOCAS. The IFU utilizes an image slicer that divides a ${13{^{\prime \prime }_{.}}5}$ × ${10{^{\prime \prime }_{.}}0}$ field of view into 23 stripes, with a width of ${0{^{\prime \prime }_{.}}435}$. A sky spectrum separated from an object by approximately ${5{^{\prime }_{.}}2}$ can be obtained at the same time as an object spectrum. Test observations confirmed that the image quality of the IFU does not degrade the ${0{^{\prime \prime }_{.}}435}$ sampling, and that slice width and length are consistent with the design. Highly reflective multilayer dielectric coatings were coated on all the mirrors in the IFU, thereby offering a high mean IFU throughput of ∼85% over the field. However, the outer part of the field showed throughput degradation, which was mainly caused by vignetting as a result of misalignment. The flat-fielding accuracy was degraded by the vignetting, with the variation depending on the direction of the telescope.