Grazing Incidence Optics: New Techniques For High Sensitivity Spectroscopy In The Space Ultraviolet

16 November 1982

conference paper
Published by SPIE-Intl Soc Optical Eng

Vol. 331, 321-333
https://doi.org/10.1117/12.933473

Abstract

Astronomy in the ultraviolet at wavelengths shortward of 1200 A is a largely unexplored field, but one which holds tremendous potential. Efforts to study this region have, to date, been largely frustrated by the poor reflectivity of mirror surfaces. We point out that grazing incidence optics can solve this problem. We show that grazing optical designs are exceedingly versatile at wavelengths longer than 100 A. We discuss the design of spectrographs using grazing incidence components and estimate their performance parameters. We present a design for a hypothetical space observatory which uses grazing optics to study the 100-1500 A region of the spectrum. It has very high throughput and operates in a variety of modes which have resolution from as low as 10³ (λ/ΔΒλ) to as high as 10⁵.

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