Timothy Goodsall

HARMONI: a single-field wide-band integral-field spectrograph for the European ELT

We describe the results of a Phase A study for a single field, wide band, near-infrared integral field spectrograph for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). HARMONI, the High Angular Resolution Monolithic Optical & Nearinfrared Integral field spectrograph, provides the E-ELTs core spectroscopic requirement. It is a work-horse instrument, with four different spatial scales, ranging from seeing to diffraction-limited, and spectral resolving powers of 4000, 10000 & 20000 covering the 0.47 to 2.45 μm wavelength range. It is optimally suited to carry out a wide range of observing programs, focusing on detailed, spatially resolved studies of extended objects to unravel their morphology, kinematics and chemical composition, whilst also enabling ultra-sensitive observations of point sources. We present a synopsis of the key science cases motivating the instrument, the top level specifications, a description of the opto-mechanical concept, operation and calibration plan, and image quality and throughput budgets. Issues of expected performance, complementarity and synergies, as well as simulated observations are presented elsewhere in these proceedings[1].

SWIFT de-magnifying image slicer: diffraction limited image slicing at optical wavelengths

We present the manufacturing and first results from testing and characterising the SWIFT image slicer. The SWIFT image slicer design is based on the MPE-3D and SPIFFI image slicers. It uses plane mirrors to slice the input field but through a novel, de-magnifying design, using a mosaic of spherical lenses, it achieves a considerable de-magnification. Classical polishing techniques can be applied to manufacture both plane and spherical surfaces with very high surface accuracy and quality reducing aberrations and scattered light. The SWIFT image slicer was manufactured over a 18 months period and was delivered to Oxford in September 2007. The commissioning of the SWIFT instrument will take place in August/September 2008.

Expected performance and simulated observations of the instrument HARMONI at the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT)

HARMONI has been conceived as a workhorse visible and near-infrared (0.47-2.45 microns) integral field spectrograph for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). It provides both seeing and diffraction limited observations at several spectral resolutions (R= 4000, 10000, 20000). HARMONI can operate with almost any flavor of AO (e.g. GLAO, LTAO, SCAO), and it is equipped with four spaxel scales (4, 10, 20 and 40 mas) thanks to which it can be optimally configured for a wide variety of science programs, from ultra-sensitive observations of point sources to highangular resolution spatially resolved studies of extended objects. In this paper we describe the expected performance of the instrument as well as its scientific potential. We show some simulated observations for a selected science program, and compare HARMONI with other ground and space based facilities, like VLT, ALMA, and JWST, commenting on their synergies and complementarities.