Optical design of exo-planet coronagraph, integral field spectrograph, and high resolution spectrometer for LUVOIR study (Conference Presentation)

Abstract

The Large UV/Optical/IR Surveyor (LUVOIR) is a concept for a highly capable, multi-wavelength space observatory with ambitious science goals. Finding and characterizing a wide range of exoplanets, including those that might be habitable, is a major goal of the study. Driven by the ambitious science goals is the challenges of the optical design. The paper will present how the optical design meets the unique challenges for coronagraphs on large segmented telescopes to achieve high contrast for a wide wavelength range from 400 nm to 1700 nm, such as the position and size of occulter masks, deformable mirror placement and separation, diffraction from a segmented mirror, tight tolerances on the optical system and each element, etc. Two types of spectrometers are designed after the coronagraph to analyze the spectrum of detected exo-planet signals: one is an Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS), and the other one is a High Resolution Spectrometer (HRS). These two spectral instruments will provide information scientists requested in searching for habitable planets. The optical designs, unique challenges, and the solutions for all coronagraph and spectral instruments will be presented. Their specifications derived from science goal will be detailed.