R. Grange

Euclid near-infrared spectrophotometer instrument concept at the end of the phase A study

The Euclid mission objective is to map the geometry of the dark Universe by investigating the distance-redshift relationship and the evolution of cosmic structures. The NISP (Near Infrared Spectro-Photometer) is one of the two Euclid instruments operating in the near-IR spectral region (0.9-2μm). The instrument is composed of: - a cold (140K) optomechanical subsystem constituted by a SiC structure, an optical assembly, a filter wheel mechanism, a grism wheel mechanism, a calibration unit and a thermal control - a detection subsystem based on a mosaic of 16 Teledyne HAWAII2RG 2.4μm. The detection subsystem is mounted on the optomechanical subsystem structure - a warm electronic subsystem (280K) composed of a data processing / detector control unit and of an instrument control unit. This presentation will describe the architecture of the instrument, the expected performance and the technological key challenges. This paper is presented on behalf of the Euclid Consortium.

Multi object spectrograph of the Fireball balloon experiment

Fireball is a NASA/CNES balloon-borne experiment to study the faint diffuse circumgalactic emission in the ultraviolet around 200 nm. The field of view of the 1 meter diameter parabola is enlarged using a two-mirror field corrector providing 1000 arcmin2 at the slit mask. The 0.1 nm resolution Multi Object Spectrograph is based on two identical Schmidt systems sharing a reflective aspherical grating. The aspherization of the grating is achieved using a double replication technique of a metallic deformable matrix. We will present the F/2.5 spectrograph design and the deformable matrix process to obtain the Schmidt grating with elliptical contours.

Design, development, and test of a grism prototype for Euclid-NISP mission

The ESA mission Euclid is designed to map the geometry of the dark Universe by investigating the distance-redshift relationship and the evolution of cosmic structures. In the Euclid design of the NISP instrument, the spectroscopic channel uses four slitless low resolution grisms in NIR wavelength with four different orientations. Euclid grisms combine two optical functions: a grism function (ie dispersion without deviation at a specific wavelength) done by the grating associated with the prism and a spectral filter function done by a multilayer filter deposited on the entrance surface of the prism. After a successful development of a prototype of a grating realized by a photolithography process, we have begun a new phase of the prototype to manufacture a complete component, with a grism and a filter, and to validate its performance. Its development is very challenging as it requires manufacturing of the component in several steps which involve three different companies. We will present first the main optical requirements for the grism defined for the phase B and how the efficiency and wavefront specifications are split into the different components of the grism (mechanical mount, grating and filter). Then, we will describe the manufacturing process chosen for the NISP grism. Finally, we will present the first results of the optical characterisation of the prototype of the grism: global efficiency measurement, shape of the groove, wavefront contribution, and the trade-off made to achieve the final performance.

Bulk silica transmission grating made by reactive ion etching for NIR space instruments

A GRISM, made of a grating on a prism, allow combining image and spectroscopy of the same field of view with the same optical system and detector, thus simplify instrument concept. New GRISM designs impose technical specifications difficult to reach with classical grating manufacturing processes: large useful aperture (>100mm), low groove frequency (<30g/mm), small blaze angle (<3°) and, last but not least, line curvature allowing wavefront corrections. In addition, gratings are commonly made of resin which may not be suitable to withstand the extreme space environment. Therefore, in the frame of a R&D project financed by the CNES, SILIOS Technologies developed a new resin-free grating manufacturing process and realized a first 80mm diameter prototype optically tested at LAM. We present detailed specifications of this resin-free grating, the manufacturing process, optical setups and models for optical performance verification and very encouraging results obtained on the first 80mm diameter grating prototype: >80% transmitted efficiency, <30nm RMS wavefront error, groove shape and roughness very close to theory and uniform over the useful aperture.

The FIREBall-2 UV sample grating efficiency at 200-208nm

The FIREBall-2 (Faint Intergalactic Redshifted Emission Balloon-2) is a balloon-borne ultraviolet spectro-imaging mission optimized for the study of faint diffuse emission around galaxies. A key optical component of the new spectrograph design is the high throughput cost-effective holographic 2400 ℓ =mm, 110x130mm aspherized reflective grating used in the range 200 - 208nm, near 28°deviation angle. In order to anticipate the efficiency in flight conditions, we have developed a PCGrate model for the FIREBall grating calibrated on linearly polarized measurements at 12° deviation angle in the range 240-350nm of a 50x50mm replica of the same master selected for the flight grating. This model predicts an efficiency within [64:7; 64:9]±0:7% (S polarization) and [38:3; 45]±2:2% (P-polarization) for the baseline aluminum coated grating with an Al2O3 natural oxidation layer and within [63:5; 65] ±1% (S-polarization) and [51:3; 54:8] ±2:8% (P-polarization) for an aluminum plus a 70nm MgF2 coating, in the range 200 - 208nm and for a 28°deviation angle. The model also shows there is room for significant improvements at shorter wavelengths, of interest for future deep UV spectroscopic missions.

Full size Euclid grism prototype made by photolithography: first optical performance validation

The ESA Euclid mission is intended to explore the dark side of the Universe, particularly to understand the nature of the dark energy responsible of the accelerating expansion of the Universe. One of the two probes carried by this mission is the Baryonic Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) that requires the redshift measurements of millions of galaxies. In the Euclid design, these massive NIR spectroscopic measurements are based on slitless low resolution grisms. These grisms with low groove density and small blaze angle are difficult to manufacture by conventional replica process. Two years ago we started a CNES R&D program to develop grism manufacturing by the photolithographic process which is well adapted to coarse gratings. In addition, this original method allows introducing optical aberration correction by ruling curved and non-parallel grooves in order to simplify the instrument optical design. During the Euclid Phase A, we developed several prototypes of gratings made by photolithography. In this paper, we present the optical performance test results, including tests in the specific environment of the Euclid mission.

Design and functional tests of the Euclid grism mount

The Euclid mission selected by ESA in the Cosmic Vision program is dedicated to understand dark energy and dark matter. One of the probes based on detection of Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations required the redshift of millions of galaxies. This massive spectroscopic survey relies on the Near Infrared SpectroPhotometer (NISP) using grism in slitless mode. In this Euclid NISP context, we designed a cryogenic mount for the four grisms of the spectroscopic channel. This mount has to maintain optical performances and alignment at the cryogenic temperature of 120K and to survive launch vibrations. Due to a very small mass and volume budget allowed in the Grism Wheel Assembly our design relies on a weight relief Invar ring glued to the grism by tangential flexures. Tangential flexures have the advantage of small height but the drawback of less decoupling capabilities than bipods. We will present the design of the mount and the integration and functional tests to stay within the 60 nm RMS transmitted wavefront error budget allowed to the grism.

Fireball multi object spectrograph: as-built optic performances

Fireball (Faint Intergalactic Redshifted Emission Balloon) is a NASA/CNES balloon-borne experiment to study the faint diffuse circumgalactic medium from the line emissions in the ultraviolet (200 nm) above 37 km flight altitude. Fireball relies on a Multi Object Spectrograph (MOS) that takes full advantage of the new high QE, low noise 13 μm pixels UV EMCCD. The MOS is fed by a 1 meter diameter parabola with an extended field (1000 arcmin2) using a highly aspherized two mirror corrector. All the optical train is working at F/2.5 to maintain a high signal to noise ratio. The spectrograph (R~ 2200 and 1.5 arcsec FWHM) is based on two identical Schmidt systems acting as collimator and camera sharing a 2400 g/mm aspherized reflective Schmidt grating. This grating is manufactured from active optics methods by double replication technique of a metal deformable matrix whose active clear aperture is built-in to a rigid elliptical contour. The payload and gondola are presently under integration at LAM. We will present the alignment procedure and the as-built optic performances of the Fireball instrument.

The UV multi-object slit-spectrograph FIREBall-2 simulator

The FIREBall-2 Instrument Model (FIREBallIMO) is a piece of software simulating the optical behaviour of the Multi-Object Two-Curved Schmidt Slit Spectograph of FIREBall-2 (Faint Intergalactic Redshifted Emission BALLoon), a balloon-borne telescope (40 km in alt.) designed to perform a direct detection of the faint Circum Galactic Medium (CGM) in emission around low-z galaxies. The spectrograph has been optimized to operate in a narrow UV band [195-225] nanometers, the so-called atmospheric sweet spot, where the sky background presents no emission lines and can be considered approximately at, a value of 500 continnum units, seen through an optical transmission of 50% at an atmospheric pressure of 3 millibars. This paper gives an overview of the software current modular architecture after a year of productive effort (in terms of parametric model space definition, associated data cubes generation and digital processing) starting from the instrument initial optical model designed under Zemax software to the final 2D-detected image. A special emphasis is put on the design of a cython-wrapped driver able to retrieve dense ray-sampled PSFs out of the Zemax box efficiently. The optical mappings and distortions from the sky to the spectrographs entrance slit plane and from the sky to the detection plane are presented, as well as some end-to-end simulations leading to Signal-to-Noise Ratio estimates computed on artificial point-like or extended test sources.

Grism cryogenic mount for the Euclid-NISP mission

The spectroscopic channel of the Euclid Near Infrared SpectroPhotometer (NISP) relies on four grisms mounted on a wheel via Invar mounts. The mount design was studied to maintain the optical performances and alignment at cryogenic operating temperature (120K), and to survive launch vibrations. We designed two stages of radially compliant blades: one set of 9 blades is bonded to the Silica grism and the second set of 3 blades is located at interface points with the wheel. Severe packaging and mass constraints yielded us to design a ring mount with strong weight relief. In fall 2013 we proceeded to thermal cycling (323K-105K), vibration tests (10.7 g rms) to successfully qualify the grism mount in the Euclid environment. Thanks to detailed finite element analyses, we correlated simulations and tests.