Simulations of the Spectral Resolving Power of a Compact Space-Borne Immersion-Echelle Spectrometer Using Mid-Infrared Wave Tracing

Abstract

We performed wave-optics-based numerical simulations at mid-infrared wavelengths to investigate how the presence or absence of entrance slits and optical aberrations affect the spectral resolving power R of a compact, high-spectral-resolving-power spectrometer containing an immersion-echelle grating. We tested three cases of telescope aberration (aberration-free, astigmatism and spherical aberration), assuming the aberration budget of the Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA), which has a 20-µm-wavelength diffraction limit. In cases with a slit, we found that the value of R at around 10-20 µm is approximately independent of the assumed aberrations, which is significantly different from the prediction of geometrical optics. Our results also indicate that diffraction from the slit improves R by enlarging the effective illuminated area on the grating window and that this improvement decreases at short wavelengths. For the slit-less cases, we found that the impact of aberrations on R can be roughly estimated using the Strehl ratio.