WALOP-South: A wide-field one-shot linear optical polarimeter for PASIPHAE survey
Creators
- Maharana, Siddharth
- Kypriotakis, John A.
- Ramaprakash, A. N.
- Khodade, Pravin
- Rajarshi, Chaitanya
- Joshi, Bhushan
- Chordia, Pravin
- Anche, Ramya M.
- Mishra, Shrish
- Blinov, Dmitry
- Eriksen, Hans Kristian
- Ghosh, Tuhin
- Gjerløw, Eirik
- Mandarakas, Nikolaos
-
Panopoulou, Georgia V.
-
Pavlidou, Vasiliki
-
Pearson, Timothy J.
- Pelgrims, Vincent
-
Potter, Stephen B.
-
Readhead, Anthony C. S.
- Skalidis, Raphail
-
Tassis, Konstantinos
- Wehus, Ingunn K.
Contributors
Abstract
WALOP (Wide-Area Linear Optical Polarimeter)-South, to be mounted on the 1m SAAO telescope in South Africa, is first of the two WALOP instruments currently under development for carrying out the PASIPHAE survey. Scheduled for commissioning in the year 2021, the WALOP instruments will be used to measure the linear polarization of around 10⁶ stars in the SDSS-r broadband with 0.1 % polarimetric accuracy, covering 4000 square degrees in the Galactic polar regions. The combined capabilities of one-shot linear polarimetry, high polarimetric accuracy (< 0.1 %) and polarimetric sensitivity (< 0.05 %), and a large field of view (FOV) of 35 35 arcminutes make WALOP-South a unique astronomical instrument. In a single exposure, it is designed to measure the Stokes parameters I, q and u in the SDSS-r broadband and narrowband filters between 500-700 nm. During each measurement, four images of the full field corresponding to the polarization angles of 0°, 45°, 90° and 135° will be imaged on four detectors and carrying out differential photometry on these images will yield the Stokes parameters. Major challenges in designing WALOP-South instrument include- (a) in the optical design, correcting for the spectral dispersion introduced by large split angle Wollaston Prisms used as polarization analyzers as well as aberrations from the wide field, and (b) making an optomechanical design adherent to the tolerances required to obtain good imaging and polarimetric performance under all temperature conditions as well as telescope pointing positions. We present the optical and optomechanical design for WALOP-South which overcomes these challenges.
Additional Information
© 2020 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). The PASIPHAE program is supported by grants from the European Research Council (ERC) under grant agreement No 771282 and No 772253, from the National Science Foundation, under grant number AST-1611547 and the National Research Foundation of South Africa under the National Equipment Programme. This project is also funded by an infrastructure development grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and from the Infosys Foundation.Attached Files
Published - 114475E.pdf
Accepted Version - 2102.09519.pdf
Presentation - SPIE-AS20-dc8991df-07da-e911-813b-005056be4d05.pdf
Files
114475E.pdf
Additional details
Identifiers
- Eprint ID
- 107146
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20201217-093521517
Related works
- Describes
- https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.09519 (URL)
Funding
- European Research Council (ERC)
- 771282
- European Research Council (ERC)
- 772253
- NSF
- AST-1611547
- National Research Foundation (South Africa)
- Stavros Niarchos Foundation
- Infosys Foundation
Dates
- Created
-
2020-12-17Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-06-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field
Caltech Custom Metadata
- Caltech groups
- Astronomy Department
- Series Name
- Proceedings of SPIE
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 11447