Ten-fold spectral resolution boosting using TEDI at the Mt. Palomar NIR Triplespec spectrograph

Abstract

An optical technique called "interferometric spectral reconstruction" (ISR) is capable of increasing a spectrograph's resolution and stability by large factors, well beyond its classical limits. We have demonstrated a 6- to 11-fold increase in the Triplespec effective spectral resolution (R=2,700) to achieve R=16,000 at 4100 cm-^(1) to 30,000 at 9600 cm^(-1) by applying special Fourier processing to a series of exposures with different delays (optical path differences) taken with the TEDI interferometer and the near-infrared Triplespec spectrograph at the Mt. Palomar Observatory 200 inch telescope. The TEDI is an externally dispersed interferometer (EDI) used for Doppler radial velocity measurements on M-stars, and now also used for ISR. The resolution improvement is observed in both stellar and telluric features simultaneously over the entire spectrograph bandwidth (0.9-2.45 μm). By expanding the delay series, we anticipate achieving resolutions of R=45,000 or more. Since the delay is not continuously scanned, the technique is advantageous for measuring time-variable phenomena or in varying conditions (e.g. planetary fly-bys). The photon limited signal to noise ratio can be 100 times better than a classic Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) due to the benefit of dispersion.

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