To appear in Proc. SPIE Vol. 4854, EUV-UV and Visible Space Astrophysics Missions and Instrumentation, J. C.

Blades; Oswald H. Siegmund; Eds.

Long-slit imaging dual order spectrograph { LIDOS

Stephan Robert McCandliss, Kevin France, Paul Feldman and Russ Pelton a
a The Johns Hopkins University Department of Physics and Astronomy
3400 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218 USA

ABSTRACT
We report on the design and fabrication of a long-slit imaging dual order spectrograph to be launched on a sounding
rocket-borne telescope. The instrument’s purpose is to investigate faint emissions of extended astronomical regions near
bright objects on intermediate angular scales (3 – 30000 ) and with moderate spectral resolution ( 3 Å) in the 900 – 1650 Å
bandpass. The design relies upon a toroidally figured holographically ruled grating to provide astigmatism correction in
both orders and an intrinsically low scattered light level. The use of both orders doubles the collection efficiency, nearing
that achievable with a blazed grating, while simultaneously providing a system redundancy that is desirable in the high
risk environment of space-based astronomy missions. We will discuss the predicted instrument performance and present
preliminary pre-flight calibration data.
Keywords: spectroscopy, far-ultraviolet, grating, calibration, optomechanical design

1. INTRODUCTION
The angular extent and spectral content of the myriad nebulae found in space provide us with the diagnositic fingerprints
from which we define distinct morphological classes such as, supernova remnants, planetary nebulae, reflection nebulae,
debris disks, translucent clouds, giant molecular clouds, globular clusters, starbursts, galaxies, and quasars. This is the
primary business of astronomy; to sift photons on ever finer spectral and angular scales, over as wide a bandpass as
possible, and then define reductionist criteria. Spectro-spatial observations allow us to assay the chemical composition of
the nebular material, determine its physical state, and investigate the dynamics of its interaction with local energy sources.
The far-UV provides a number of unique molecular and atomic spectral signatures for the presence of H2 , CO, H I, C I –
C IV, N I – N V, O I, O III, O V, O VI, and S I – S VI, and hence is valuable for probing the composition over a wide range
of energetic environments.
Observations of nebulae surrounding very bright point sources present special problems. To follow the dissipation of
energy from the bright object into the surrounding matter requires instrumentation with a high enough dynamic range to
simultaneously detect both the dim and bright emissions. The low level sensitivity of any instrument is set by the scattered
light in the optical system and background counts in the detector, which together comprise the background equivalent flux
(BEF) that unavoidedly adds to the source signal. Background subtraction always degrades the signal-to-noise ratio (s/n)
of the source signal, thereby increasing the time required to reach a desired s/n. This degradation is especially pronounced
when the source signal is of order or less than the BEF. Optics with low scattered light properties and detectors with
low background counts are desired when making such low flux measurements. The high flux limit is set by the detector
saturation point where the detector becomes non-linear (or non-proportionate) in its response to a signal.
It is difficult to find a single detector that has both a low detector background and a high saturation limit. Photoemissive
detectors, like microchannel plates (MCP), are capable of counting individual photons, but suffer deadtime correction and
microchannel charge depletion effects at high count rates. Photoconductive detectors, like charge coupled devices (CCD)
have a linear response up to the pixel full well limit but, at the low end they have the ever present read noise and typical
dark count rates two orders of magnitude higher than photoemissive devices, even when cooled to 200 K.
To take advantage of the complimentary properties of photoemissive and photoconductive detectors for addressing
this class of problems we have designed a long-slit imaging dual order spectrograph (LIDOS). Herein we will describe
S.R.M. email: stephan@pha.jhu.edu, Telephone: 1 410 516 5272

1
design considerations for the spectrograph, its configuration, its subsystems, its telescope, various component calibrations
undertaken to date, and our expected long-slit spectral performance and sensitivity limits. This instrument will be flown
on a sounding rocket preliminarily scheduled for mid-2003. Several follow-up flights are also planned to acquire long-slit
spectra of a sampling of extended nebulae and star formation regions. The general science goal is to determine the degree
to which absorption and scattering by dust regulates the far-UV radiation field and protects molecules from photodestruc-
tion. We also seek to understand the relationship between dust and fluorescent molecular hydrogen as pumped by local
sources of far-UV radiation. These sounding rocket flights are intended to validate the dual-order spectrograph concept
and enable its use on long duration missions studying faint or extended sources at spectral and spatial resolution scales
complementary to the capabilities of FUSE, and the HST spectrographs STIS and COS.

2. INSTRUMENT
Our scientific program to study dust and molecular hydrogen in the vicinity of bright targets requires a long-slit spec-
trograph with good off-axis imaging, low scattered light and high dynamic range, covering the 900–1650 Å bandpass
spanned by fluorescent molecular hydrogen emission. The instrument design is described here and the parameters are
summarized in Table 1. The spectrograph and telescope are shown in Figure 1.

2.1. Dual Order Grating

We have chosen a Rowland circle mounting with a holographically ruled grating, straight rulings and a toroidal figure
for our dispering element. The single bounce of the concave grating in a Rowland circle mount is the most efficient
dispersion method in the far-UV, where optical components with efficiencies of 50% are considered excellent. The need
for low scatter is met through the use of a holographically ruled grating; generally recognized to have  10 times lower
scattered light than a conventionally ruled blazed grating.1, 2 The holographic etching process tends to produce a groove
with a symmetric profile, the consequence of which is to yield equal power in both positive and negative orders.3 A
dual-order configuration is most easily realized with a normal incidence mount (α = 0Æ ), which diffracts the positive and
negative orders symmetrically about the grating normal. This mounting also reflects the grating zero-order back through
the entrance slit, greatly reducing the available undispersed long wavelength light within the housing that might scatter
into the detectors.
A concave grating with a spherical figure suffers from astigmatism, the reduction of which is crucial to achieving good
spatial resolution and low BEF. One method of eliminating astigmatism is to use a toroidal figure with a slightly smaller
radius perpendicular to the dispersion direction, which causes the sagittal and tangential foci to coincide at a particular
wavelength, 1275 Å in our design. Astigmatism is also reduced significantly throughout the bandpass in comparison to
a spherical grating. Astigmatism correction with a toroidal figure has the advantage of being independent of the sign of
the order. The other common means of astigmatism reduction, the use of curved rulings on a spherical substrate (most
easily achieved with a holographic process), does depend on the sign of the order. The consequence of this dependence
is to correct the astigmatism in one order while doubling it in the other. This can be demonstrated by examining the
holographic astigmatism aberration coefficients for a concave grating.4 We have recently purchased from Jobin-Yvon a
toroidal figured grating with straight rulings, holographically etched into a CVD-SiC substrate. The parameters of the
grating are given in Table 1. Efficiency measurements are discussed in §3.

2.2. Detectors
MCP: Our photon counting detector is a windowless microchannel plate (MCP) Z-stack with a double delay-line an-
ode.5 It is a commercial-off-the-shelf product built by Sensor Sciences, offering low image distortion, low fixed pattern
noise, high operational stability and environmental robustness. Delay-line MCP’s are used on a number of spacebased
imaging and spectroscopic missions.6–9 Ours was originally used to acquire long-slit UV spectra of Comet Hale-Bopp.10
The delay line anode and detector body are attached to a vacuum baseplate, containing four signal and one high voltage
feedthrough. A preamplifier is mounted on the back of the vacuum flange to provide a common ground. An opaque CsI
photocathode is expected to provide a quantum detection efficiency (QDE) of between 15 – 45% throughout the bandpass.
The active area is 30 mm  12 mm with a 1 mm wide occulting strip in the center to provide for a spectro-coronagraphic
mode on bright continuum sources. The specified detector resolution of 30 µm FWHM in X (dispersion direction) and
50 µm FWHM in Y (cross-dispersion direction) comfortably exceed the pointing limited spectral and spatial resolution
goals (3 Å and 300 ). The detector is very quiet with a laboratory background rate of (0.5 cnts s 1 cm 2 ).

2
 Table 1. Instrument Summary
Telescope, f/16 Dall-Kirkham
Clear Area 1064 cm2
Diameter 393 mm
Plate Scale 32:00 8 mm 1
Primary Mirror Substrate Zerodur
Primary Mirror Coating IBS-SiC
Secondary Mirror CVC-SiC
Spectrograph, Dual Order Rowland (α=0Æ )
Grating Ruling Holographic
Grating Figure Toroidal
Grating Material CVD-SiC
Wavelength range 900–1650 Å
Stigmatic Wavelength 1275Å
Rowland Circle Diameter 600 mm
Ruling Density 700 lines mm 1
Dispersion 25.9 Å mm 1
Slit size 1000  30000
Slitjaw FOV 200 Diameter
MCP Open-window
CsI Cathode 900 – 1650 Å QDE = 45 – 15%
Pulse Location Anode Double Delay-line
Active area 30 mm12 mm
Pixel format 2048512
Resolution X (spectral) < 30 µm

Resolution Y (spatial) < 50 µm

Maximum countrate 104 counts s 1

Background rate  1.5 e cm 2 s 1
CCD, Open-window thinned δ-doped SITe ST-001A
QDE 900–1650Å 40% (estimated)
Pixel Size 24µm
Pixel Format 1100330
Active area 26.4mm7.9mm
Dark Rate @ –85ÆC 400 e cm 2 s 1
Intrinsic Resolutions
Spectral 1.1 – 1.7 Å
Spatial 100 3:00 5
Pointing Limited Resolution (2.500 jitter)
Spectral (2.500 jitter) 3.0 – 3.5 Å
Spatial (2.500 jitter) 2:00 7 4:004
Instantaneous FOV Ω=1.10 9 sr
Peak Summed Effective Area : 16 cm2

Figure 1. The telescope and spectrograph.

3
 Figure 2. Two views of the CCD mounted on its cyro package.

δ-doped CCD: To accommodate stars brighter than  3  10 11 ergs cm 2 s 1 Å 1 we require a UV sensitive CCD.
The sensitivity of untreated CCDs at wavelengths below 4000 Å falls to zero because the absorption length of UV photons
in silicon can be as short as 4 nm. Photon generated electrons become trapped and annihilated in a positive surface
potential well that forms in the native oxide/silicon interface. A number of methods for creating a negative charge at
the interface to eliminate the problematic attractive potential well have been demonstrated.11 We have used an air-soak,
UV-flood and cool technique to achieved a relatively flat 45% QDE (with a quantum yield of  2 e photon 1) from 1175
to 1608 Å on thinned non-AR coated SITe chips.12 The QDE below 1175 Å is expect to be similar.
The air-soak and UV-flood and cool technique requires repeated vacuum cycling, and constant cooling to maintain UV
sensitivity. These are impractical requirements for our application. Fortunately a stable and permanent backside charge
treatment for thinned CCD’s exists in the form of the δ-doped process.13 Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is used grow
a permanent δ-function type repulsive potential profile on the CCD backside to repell UV photo-generated electrons in
to the charge collection wells. UV QDE is found to be uniform and stable to thermal cycling and illumination history.
QDE measurements at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) covering the wavelength range from 60 to
1500 Å14, 15 are in agreement with those achieved by the air-soak, UV-flood method.12
We have acquired a JPL δ-doped SITe ST-001A CCD that has a format of 1100  330, (24 µm)2 pixels. A combi-
nation vacuum flange, signal feedthrough, and cyrogenic cooling package has been developed to mount the CCD to the
spectrograph. The vacuum flange utilizes the same footprint as the MCP detector, to allow for convienent future reconfig-
urations. The flange material is an oxygen free copper and 316 stainless steel (SS) bi-metal, which was bonded together
by an explosive welding process. Twin hermetic 25 pin subminiture D-type connectors are welded to the SS portion of
this rectangular vacuum flange. A pocket milled through the SS uncovers the copper that serves as the heatsink to a 4
stage thermoelectric cooler (TEC). The heatsink is kept at a constant temperature by a Joule-Thompson cooler attached
to the outside of the flange.
The cold end of the TEC is compressed by a copper coldsink mounted in the center of a CCD headboard, trapping it
against the flange heatsink. A calibrated thermistor is mounted in the copper coldsink. The CCD sits in a pair of double
row “SIPS” strips mounted to the headboard on either side of the coldsink. The CCD is compressed against the coldsink
with a rectangular spring, mounted on standoffs atop the headboard. Electrical traces run from the SIPS strips directly to
D-type socket arrays at the ends of the headboard. The whole headboard assembly plugs directly into the D-connectors
on the flange. It is held in place on standoffs attached to the D-connector screw mounts. Provision has also been made for

4
 Figure 3. LIDOS housing assembled for preliminary vacuum bakeout.

the attachment of the TEC and thermistor leads to the headboard. All CCD electronics are mounted outside the vacuum
in close proximity to the flange. A schematic of the CCD and mounting flange is shown in Figure 2. This mounting and
cyrogenic scheme will be tested in the coming months.

2.3. Spectrograph Mechanical Structure

We have choosen a slightly off Rowland circle mounting for the spectrograph to relieve crowding of the detectors and
slitjaw. The detectors have been moved inward and the slit outward from their nominal positions on the Rowland circle.
The consequence is to demagnify the spectrograph image plane about 15%. The spectrograph structure is a vacuum vessel
evacuated to pressure of  10 8 Torr, providing contamination control for the grating and detectors during storage and
testing of the instrument. The vacuum is maintained by a 50 litre s 1 non-evaporable getter pump. A ruggedized 2 litre s 1
vac-ion pump serves primarily as a pressure gauge. The spectrograph structure, sitting atop the telescope, consists of three
main parts as shown in Figure 1 and Figure 3.
At the top is a conical reducer with a modified NW 80 iso-flange for mounting the grating at one end. It has a standard
NW 160 iso-flange at the other end. This reducer has angled mini-conflat flange (cff) ports for attaching a pumpout valve
and the vac-ion pump. In the middle, attached to the large end of the reducer, is an NW 160 iso-nipple with an angled
2.75 inch cff for mounting the getter pump. The reducer and nipple are commercial-off-the-shelf parts slightly modified
by the vendor. At the bottom, attached to the base of the 160 nipple, is a custom designed detector baseplate that holds
the detector bodies at the proper angle with respect to the diffracted beams. The detector bodies attach to the baseplate
by compliant welded bellows to allow for focus adjustment. Situated between the two detectors is a 2.25 inch to mini-cff
reducer for mounting a gatevalve that serves as the spectrograph entrance aperture seal and is the mount point for the
slitjaw. The slitjaw, located in the focal plane of the telescope, consists of a mirrored plate into which a long-slit has been
cut to define the entrance aperture of the spectrograph. It is angled to pass the image of the field surrounding the slit to a
tracking camera to aid the target acquistion process. Light baffles for defining the focal ratio of the input and diffracted
beams are attached on the vacuum side of the detector baseplate. A normally opened shutter is planned to be mounted to
one of the baffles in front of the CCD to allow clearing the array before an exposure and for smear free readout afterwards.

2.4. On-board Far-UV Electron Impact Calibration Lamp

Calibration spectra of emission line and continuum sources are essential to characterizing the performance of spectro-
scopic instrumentation and have long been utilized to improve science return at longer wavelengths. It is standard astro-
nomical practice to acquire concomitant calibration spectra for processing with the object spectrum. Spectra of emission
line and continuum sources provide a means to monitor instrumental stability and account for variations in the wavelength
scale and detector flat-field within the spectral reduction process.

5
Figure 4. Cutway shows the optical path of the electron impact calibration lamp and the telescope input in green. The tungsten target
is shown in blue. The pickoff flats and grating are shown in red.

Compact sources for use in the far-UV have long been desired. We have found that an electron impact source can be
used to produce both emission lines, and a bremsstrahlung continuum in the far-UV.16 This source has an advantage over
coronal discharge lamps as it can be used within an ambient vacuum compatible with microchannel plate operation. In
operation, current flowing through a filament provides a source of free electrons that are accelerated towards a tungsten
target by an applied voltage. Electrons impacting with residual gas molecules produce line emissions characteristic of the
excited fragments. Electrons impacting the target will produce the bremsstrahlung.
Our electron impact lamp consists of a mini-cff cube into which are mounted the filament in proximity to a tungsten
target rod 3/32 inches in diameter. In operation we find the electron emission current is a strong function of filament
current (temperature) and target bias voltage, but is only some what dependent on gas pressure. Emission current increases
sharply as the filament temperature goes above > 1100 K. The contrast between emission lines and bremsstrahlung can
be decreased by increasing the target bias voltage. This effect is due in part to the increase in bremsstrahlung emission
with increasing emission current. It is also contributed to by the decrease in line emission strength, per unit electron
emission current, as a function of increasing electron impact energy. This is the expected trend for electron impact
excitation of molecules where the cross-sections typically rise to a peak at 50 – 100 eV and then fall towards higher
electron energies.17–22 Our source follows this trend even though the energy of electrons in the line emitting volume is
not mono-energetic. In principal, knowledge of the residual gas content, the volumetric distribution of electrons in the
residual gas excitation region and the electron impact excitation cross-sections could allow this lamp to be used as an
absolute calibration standard as has been done with mono-energetic sources.23 The atomic and molecular emission lines
present will depend upon the quality of the vacuum. They result from the electron impact dissociation of H2 O, N2 and to
a lesser degree, H2 , CO2 , and CO. Typically lines of H I Lyman-α, N I λ1200, N II λ1084, O I λ1304, O I λ989, and N2
(c04 -X) 958 dominate, while Lyman-β, O I λ1152, N I λ1243, N I λ1135, C II λ1335, CO (B-X) 1150 and CO (C-X) 1088
are weaker.
The side view in Figure 4 shows the layout of the electron impact lamp with its two flat pick off mirrors within
the LIDOS housing. An entrance slit for the lamp is mounted in the copper gasket in the flange joining the lamp to
spectrograph. A deep channel running the diameter of the baseplate allows for the propagation of a beam from the lamp
slit into an optical path intercepting the grating and detectors. Both mirrors are made from polished SS and overcoated
with ion beam sputtered SiC. The first is a simple 45Æ ellipical flat. The second, located along the telescope optical
axis, has a horseshoe shaped cutout to allow an unobstructed passage of the telescope beam, while picking off the faster
calibration beam and redirecting it towards the grating.

6
 0.8 0.25

0.20

Absolute Efficiency
0.6
Reflectivity

0.15
0.4
0.10

0.2 Zero order

0.05
+1 Order
−1 Order
0.0 0.00
500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
Wavelength (Å) Wavelength (Å)

Figure 5. On the left we show the reflectivity of a Trex Enterprises CVC-SiC sample substrate. The solid line is a calculation of the
SiC reflectivity from optical constants in the literature. On the right we show the measured absolute efficiency of Jobin-Yvon CVD-SiC
Grating. The solid lines are fits to the efficiency of the three orders assuming the calculated SiC efficiency shown on the left degraded
by an overall scale factor of 0.9.

2.5. Telescope and Far-UV Coatings

Although prime focus spectroscopic designs are inherently more efficient their off axis imaging performance is poor.
Good off-axis imaging is best achieved with a Cassegrain telescope and this consideration outweighs the efficiency lost
in the extra bounce. However, a prime focus telescope tends to have a faster focal ratio than a Cassegrain. Consequently
the spectrograph astigmatism is correspondingly higher, increasing its BEF (see § 4). Hence the lower efficiency of the
Cassegrain is mitigated by a lower BEF and such a system can ultimately be more sensitive, albeit at the expense of longer
exposure times.
We use the Dall-Kirkham Cassegrain configuration where the primary is elliptical and the secondary spherical. The
primary mirror is coated with a layer of ion-beam sputtered SiC (IBS-SiC) over Al. The Al provides much higher visible
reflectivity than bulk SiC, which is necessary for the visible sensitive tracking camera. Our experience has shown that
aged IBS-SiC has a lower reflectivity ( 30 – 35%) than chemical vapor deposited (CVD) SiC ( 40 – 50%).24 It is
less costly to coat a large conventionally figured zerodur substrate with IBS-SiC than it is to make one from CVD-SiC.25
This technology has been successfully employed by HUT on Astro-2 to triple its effective area relative to Astro-126 and by
FUSE to shift from costly grazing incidence optics to a less expensive normal incidence design.27 However, the small size
and spherical shape of the secondary mirror is relatively simple to produce with conventional mirror fabrication techniques
even in a substance as hard a SiC. We have secured a flat of chemical vapor composite (CVC) SiC from Trex Enterpries
for this purpose. Recent advances in the fabrication of CVC-SiC hold promise for the production of near net shape SiC
optics at a fraction of the cost for producing conventional CVD-SiC,28 suggesting the cost effective fabrication of large
lightweight SiC mirrors may be possible in the future.

3. SIC REFLECTANCE AND GRATING EFFICIENCY MEASUREMENTS

The JHU Calibration and Test Equipment facility is used to measure mirror reflectance, diffraction grating efficiency, and
quantum detection efficiency at vacuum ultraviolet wavelengths, from 584 – 3000 Å.29 The facility uses a combination of
lamps and evacuated monochromators to produce an f/50 monochromatic beam for these measurements. The experimental
setups for measuring mirror reflectance12 and grating efficency3 have been described previously. For measurements
between 1600  λ  3000 Å we use a 542F type photomultiplier tube with a sapphire window and a Cs2 Te cathode. A
542G tube with a LiF window and a CsI cathode is used for measurements between 1050  λ  1600 Å. For λ  1050 Å
we use a Bi-Alkali 541E tube with a sodium salicylate scintillator to down-convert far-UV photons to the visible. These
tubes are positioned to measure the intensity of the light incident on the sample and then moved to measure the intensity
of the light reflected from the sample. The ratio is the reflectivity or efficiency of the sample. Between each measurement,
the chamber is closed off from the monochromator and a dark value is measured and subtracted from the signal. The
standard deviations of the incident, reflected, and dark measurements are recorded and used in the error analysis.

7
 Spectral Resolution (Å)
1.5
1.0
0.5
Slit Length (")
150. 0.0
100.
50.
0.
1000 1200 1400 1600

Spatial Resolution (’’)

Wavelength (Å)
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
Slit Length (")

150. 0.0
100.
50.
0.
1000 1200 1400 1600
Wavelength (Å)
Figure 6. These surface plots, for an input PSF of 100 , show the variation of spectral (top) and spatial (bottom) resolution as a function
of wavelength and distance from slit center.

3.1. Trex CVC-SiC Reflectance

The Trex Enterprises chemical vapor composite (CVC) process is a variant of the chemical vapor deposition (CVD)
process but with 10 times the growth rate making it less expensive than the traditional deposition process. The CVC
mirror was measured from 900 – 3000 Å in the facility described above. The UV reflectivity measurements shown in
Figure 5 on the left are the first of their kind for a SiC substrate produced using the CVC process. The solid line is the
reflectance of 6H SiC as calculated from the optical constants listed in the literature.30 The measurements are remarkably
consistent with the calculated values.

3.2. JY-Torodial Grating Absolute Efficiency

The absolute efficiency of the JY-Toroidal grating was measured by mounting the grating at a fixed angle and rotating the
photomultiplier tubes to the appropriate incident and diffracted positions of the grating’s Rowland circle. The incident
f/50 beam focus was coincident with the grating’s spherical center. Measurements were made of the minus, zero, and plus
orders over the bandpass of the instrument, 900 – 1700 Å are shown on the right of Figure 5. The solid lines are fits to the
efficiency of the three orders assuming the calculated SiC efficiency shown on the left. The fitting procedure varied the
depth of an assumed trapezoidal groove profile along with an overall scale factor for the SiC reflectivity. The steepness
of the sides of the trapezoid were then varied until all orders converged on a common depth, which we found to be 
20% larger than specified in Table 1. The sides have slopes  22.5Æ . We found the SiC efficiency scale factor to be 0.9 of
the calculated value. All these results are consistent with the expectations of the manufacturer. These fits will be used to
model the expected effective area of the instrument in § 4.

4. EXPECTED PERFORMANCE
4.1. Spectral Performance
We have performed a raytrace of the telescope/spectrograph combination, described in the previous sections, with an
astigmatism corrected wavelength of 1275 Å. In the raytrace, the telescope point spread function (PSF) was simulated
by a 100 (FWHM) gaussian object. PSF output by the spectrograph were calculated for wavelengths ranging from 900 to
1650 Å and positions 000 , 5000 , 10000, and 15000 off-axis. The results are summarized in the surface plots shown in Figure 6.

8
 0.6

CVD SiC (Palik) 50

CCD DQE (Estimated) 40 FUSE

0.4
Efficiencies

Aeff (cm2)
IBS SiC (Aged)
CsI DQE (COS) 30
HUT (Astro−2)

0.2 20
Grating (Fit)
LIDOS SUM
10
LIDOS CCD
0.0 0 LIDOS MCP

1000 1200 1400 1600 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800

Wavelength (Å) Wavelength (Å)

Figure 7. On the left we show the component efficiencies used to estimate the Ae f f in Figure 7. The lower solid line is the fit to the
absolute grating efficiency from Figure 5. The upper solid line is the calculated CVD-SiC reflectivity. The reflectivity of aged IBS-SiC
4
are (3), the QDE of CsI are ( ) and the estimated CCD QDE is the dotted line. On the right we show Ae f f in the MCP (dash) and
CCD (dot-dot-dot-dash) channels and the sum of the two channels (thick) compared to HUT(Astro-2), and FUSE.

The spectral resolution grows modestly with increasing offaxis position, ranging from 1.1 - 1.7 Å. The spatial resolution
shows the effects of astigmatism, yielding output spectral PSFs ranging from 100 - 400 . As the pointing limit of the sounding
rocket is expected to be closer to 2.500 the spectral resolution will grow accordingly. The dip in the spatial resolution will
fill-in and the variation will become less pronounced.

4.2. Effective Area and BEF

The effective area is calculated as

Ae f f (λ) = At R p (λ)Rs (λ)Eg (λ)Rg (λ)Qd (λ)Tgr ;

where At is the clear area of the telescope, R p , Rs and Rg are the reflectivities of the primary mirror, secondary mirror and
grating, respectively, Eg is the groove efficiency of the grating, Qd is the quantum efficiency of the detector, and Tgr is the
transmission of the ion repeller grids (0.97). The IBS-SiC reflectivity is a measurement of an aged coating on our telescope
primary and is fully stabilized. We use the CVD-SiC calculation, shown as the solid line on the left of Figure 5, for the
secondary mirror reflectivity. The CsI quantum efficiency, Qd (λ), are from recent measurements of a Cosmic Origins
Spectrograph detector, kindly provided by O. H. Siegmund (private communication). The CCD Qd (λ) are estimated at
a fixed 44%, consistent with previous experience.12 The grating absolute efficiency (Ea = Eg Rg ) is taken from the fit to
the data shown on the right of in Figure 5. The individual component efficiencies are shown in Figure 7 on the left. The
effective area is shown on the right along with those of the prime focus instruments FUSE31 and HUT/Astro-2.26 The
effective areas for the MCP and CCD channels are shown separately as dashed and dot-dot-dot-dashed lines respectively
and the summed area as a thick line.
At high count rates the MCP detector linearity is globally limited by the overall speed of our pulse locating electronics
to  10,000 counts s 1 , and locally limited by charge depletion in the micropores of the MCP to  5 counts channel 1 s 1 .
The maximum count rate in the CCD detector is limited by the full well capacity of a pixel,  50,000 counts pixel 1, and
the minimum shutter time (1 s). Count rate maxima are plotted as straight lines on the left in Figure 8.
The ability to detect a faint source is limited by the spectrograph BEF. This is the signal that lies underneath all spectra
that are extracted from the detector. The BEF present in a region around a point source spectrum changes with wavelength
because of variations in the astigmatism height, the effective area, and the fall off in the profile of scattered light from
geocoronal Lyman-α and other airglow lines. We estimate the BEF for the MCP and CCD channels (in ergs cm 2 s 1
Å 1 ) with the formula,

hc B(λ) Hast (λ)

Fλ = :
λ Ae f f (λ) D

9
 CCD Full Well Limit (1s) 10−12
10−6

Flux Limit (ergs cm−2 s−1 Å−1)

BEF (ergs cm−2 s−1 Å−1)

10−8 3C273

MCP Local Limit

10−10 CCD
MCP Global Limit
10−13
LIDOS CCD MCP
10−12 100s
200s
400s

10−14
FUSE
HUT
For S/N (Å−1) = 3 in 400 s
10−16 LIDOS MCP 10−14
800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 1000 1200 1400 1600
Wavelength (Å) Wavelength (Å)

Figure 8. On the left are shown flux maxima (straight lines) and BEF for the CCD and MCP channels (as labeled), compared to FUSE
and HUT (Astro-2). The CCD background is shown for integration times of 100, 200, and 400 seconds. On the right are shown the flux
levels required to reach a signal-to-noise of 3 per unit Å in an integration time of 400 s. The flux for 3C273 is shown for reference.

Hast (λ) is the astigmatism height variation with wavelength and D is the dispersion (for HUT, LIDOS, and FUSE: 40,
25, and 1 Å mm 1 respectively). B(λ) is the background rate, which we model as the combination of the radiation-
induced background, intrinsic detector dark counts and 3 kRayleighs of Lyman-α (typical of Lyman-α nightglow) filling
the 1000  30000 slit of the spectrograph convolved with a measured scattering profile. Based on the orbital experience of
HUT, each of these backgrounds contributes  0.5 cnts cm 2 s 1 far from the Lyman-α line core. The results are shown
on the left of Figure 8. For the CCD the background is limited by the amplifier read noise (5 e rms) for short exposures
and by the thermal dark current in the silicon (see Table 1) for long exposures. Lyman-α backgrounds in the CCD are only
important for long exposures. The BEF of the LIDOS MCP channel is lower than HUT because they did not correct for
astigmatism. It is lower than FUSE because the spectrum is less dispersed. Given enough observing time this instrument
will be capable of seeing deeper than either HUT or FUSE. The expected flux limit yielding a signal-to-noise of 3 in 400
seconds is shown on the right of Figure 8.

5. DISCUSSION
The dual order spectrograph design presented here increases throughput by a factor of two. It provides a system redun-
dancy in the primary science instrument that is desirable in the high risk environment of space-base missions. The design
is flexible. It can be used with different detectors, as described herein, to extend the dynamic range of the instrument. It
can also be used with dual MCP detectors to increase the sensitivity to low flux objects.
The dual order concept is not limited to Rowland circle spectrographs. We have studied dual order Wadsworth designs
with astigmatism reduced by a parabolic toroidal figure and higher order aberrations reduced by curved ruling holographic
solutions. The Wadsworth mounting with its single bounce is attractive as a high throughput spectrograph design. Me-
chanical collimators are required to reduce field-of-view confusion and airglow background, and because they are formed
by stacks of plates with “lands” an “voids” they also reduce throughput. However, collimators have been made with a
throughput as high as  66%,32 suggesting that far-UV dual order Wadsworth designs merit further study.
Astigmatism in the normal incidence mount (α = 0Æ ) will always be higher than in the minimal astigmatism mount
(β = 0Æ ).4 Although a toroidal figure can significantly reduce the astigmatism it does so at only one wavelength in each
order. Growth of astigmatism away from the stigmatic point scales with the diffracted angle (β). To mitigate this problem
and keep the spectral resolution fixed, designers should use a longer focal length and lower ruling density
We have shown how an electron impact excitation lamp can be integrated into a far-UV spectrograph without recourse
to moving parts that could possibly block the primary optical path. We have been successful in decreasing the contrast
between the bremsstrahlung continuum and line emission over that produced in our early experiments with Bayard-
Alpert33 (ion-gauge) tubes. The inclusion of this on-board source in far-UV spectrographs is expected to significantly

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improve the quality of the spectral data product by allowing for in-situ wavelength calibration and correction of detector
flat field variations.
We look forward in the future to presenting a more complete report on the operation of the electron impact lamp,
the cryogenic and spectral performance of the δ-doped CCD, the imaging performance of the grating, and the overall
performance of LIDOS.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We wish to acknowledge the support of Shouleh Nikzad and Peter Deelman at JPL who supplied processing information
and performed the delta-doping on the thinned SITe CCD. We would like to thank O. H. Siegmund for supplying the COS
CsI QDE’s. We would also like to thank SITe for identifying a lot of thinned CCD’s suitable for delta-doping. This work
is supported through NASA grants NAG5-5315 & NAG5-11456 to JHU.

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