30 October 2024 Wide Area Linear Optical Polarimeter North instrument I: optical design, filter design, and calibration
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

The Wide Area Linear Optical Polarimeter North is an optical polarimeter designed for the needs of the Polar-Areas Stellar Imaging in Polarimetry High-Accuracy Experiment survey. It will be installed on the 1.3-m telescope at the Skinakas Observatory in Crete, Greece. After commissioning, it will measure the 30×30 arcmin2 polarization of millions of stars at high galactic latitude, aiming to measure hundreds of stars per square degree. The astronomical filter used in the instrument is a modified, polarimetrically neutral broadband Sloan Digital Sky Survey-r. This instrument will be a pioneering one due to its large field of view (FoV) of and high-accuracy polarimetry measurements. The accuracy and sensitivity of the instrument in polarization fraction will be at the 0.1% and 0.05% levels, respectively. Four separate 4k×4k charge-coupled devices will be used as the instrument detectors, each imaging one of the 0-, 45-, 90-, and 135-deg polarized FoV separately, therefore making the instrument a four-channel, one-shot polarimeter. Here, we present the overall optical design of the instrument, emphasizing the aspects of the instrument that are different from Wide Area Linear Optical Polarimeter South. We also present a customized design of filters appropriate for polarimetry along with details on the management of the instrument size and its polarimetric calibration.

© 2024 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
John Andrew Kypriotakis, Siddharth Maharana, Ramya M. Anche, Chaitanya V. Rajarshi, Anamparambu Ramaprakash, Bhushan Joshi, Artem Basyrov, Dmitry Blinov, Tuhin Ghosh, Eirik Gjerløw, Sebastian Kiehlmann, Nikolaos Mandarakas, Georgia V. Panopoulou, Katerina Papadaki, Vasiliki Pavlidou, Timothy J. Pearson, Vincent Pelgrims, Stephen B. Potter, Anthony C. S. Readhead, Raphael Skalidis, and Konstantinos Tassis "Wide Area Linear Optical Polarimeter North instrument I: optical design, filter design, and calibration," Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems 10(4), 044005 (30 October 2024). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.10.4.044005
Received: 29 February 2024; Accepted: 4 October 2024; Published: 30 October 2024
Advertisement
Advertisement
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission  Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace
KEYWORDS
Equipment

Tunable filters

Polarimetry

Optical filters

Polarization

Calibration

Design

Back to Top