On October 13, the SOLARNET project received from Winlight Optics the prototype of the Integral Field Unit (IFU), designed by the optical department of the IAC, and manufactured by the company.
The instrument is based on the "image slicer" concept and, thanks to its small size and excellent optical quality of its construction material, represents an important technical milestone in solar astrophysical instrumentation.
Each of its 8 functional "slicers" has a thickness of 100 microns, and the set also includes its corresponding block of 8 collimating mirrors and 8 camera mirrors, providing 8 individual slits suitable for its use by the GRIS spectrograph at the GREGOR telescope. The whole set has been manufactured in Zerodur, material with the lowest coefficient of thermal expansion that can support this application. The present prototype is framed with the preparatory roadmap to face the technological challenge of equipping the EST with spectroscopy based on image slicers. It is estimated that the thickness requirement of EST slices is 50 microns. The IFU is being installed at the GREGOR telescope for its first tests.