Solar energy paper index

Optical design of VIPER: a high-resolution multimode fiber-fed VIPA spectrograph for characterizing exoplanet atmospheric escape

2026-07-24 · arXiv: 2607.22454

One-line summary

A solar energy research paper on Optical design of VIPER: a high-resolution multimode fiber-fed VIPA spectrograph for characterizing exoplanet atmospheric escape.

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Chinese explanation / 中文解读

中文解读待补充:本站会优先为光伏效率、钙钛矿太阳能电池、储能技术、太阳能热利用、BIPV、并网技术等高价值论文补充中文说明。

Original abstract

We present the optical design of VIPER: a high-resolution, multimode fiber-fed, narrowband, cross-dispersed, seeing-limited spectrograph based on a Virtually Imaged Phased Array (VIPA), a spectral disperser that provides higher dispersion and a more compact form factor than conventional diffraction gratings. VIPER is specifically designed to probe exoplanet atmospheric escape through the helium 1083 nm triplet line, with a resolving power of 300,000 over a 10 nm wavelength range. VIPER is intended for operation at the 1.5 m Tillinghast Telescope at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO) on Mount Hopkins, Arizona, USA, and is matched to this telescope's 100 $μ$m circular-core multimode optical fiber feed at f/6. VIPER's optical design is specifically optimized for high throughput, which, in a VIPA spectrograph, is more challenging with a multimode fiber feed than a single-mode fiber feed because of the larger etendue. To address this challenge, our design implements a novel use of a cylindrical beam expander and pupil slicer. We validate our design using analytic calculations and simulations in Zemax OpticStudio non-sequential mode. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of multimode fiber-fed VIPA spectrographs as compact, high-throughput alternatives to conventional grating-based spectrographs for exoplanet science and other astronomical applications.

5.0Engineering value
7.0Research novelty
4.0Business relevance

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