Published January 30, 2025 | Version v1
Poster Open

Pushing the Limits of Visible-Light Spectro-Imaging: The Evolution of FIRST on SCExAO

Authors/Creators

  • 1. ROR icon National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
  • 2. ROR icon Observatoire de Paris
  • 3. CNRS Délégation Ile-de-France Ouest et Nord
  • 4. University of Arizona
  • 5. ROR icon National Institutes of Natural Sciences
  • 6. The University of Sydney
  • 7. Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur
  • 8. ROR icon The University of Texas at San Antonio
  • 9. ROR icon University of California, Los Angeles
  • 10. ROR icon University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
  • 11. EDMO icon California Institute of Technology, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences
  • 12. ANU Research School of Physics and Engineering
  • 13. ROR icon University of Sydney
  • 14. SETI Institute
  • 15. ROR icon Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble
  • 16. ROR icon LIRA - Laboratoire d'instrumentation et de recherche en astrophysique
  • 17. 東京大学大学院理学系研究科

Description

FIRST (Fibered Imager foR a Single Telescope) is a unique visible-light instrument installed on SCExAO (Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics). It combines aperture masking and spatial wavefront filtering techniques to achieve spectro-imaging at high angular resolution. Over the years, FIRST has evolved into a platform for testing innovative beam recombination methods, with the goal of enhancing sensitivity at the spatial resolution limits of visible wavelengths (≤10 milliarcseconds).
Originally, FIRST operated in the FIRST-FIZ mode, where single-mode fibers are used to recombine the light from non-redundant sub-apertures of the telescope pupil. This setup enabled cross-dispersed spectroscopy, providing astrometric measurements of companions near host stars and determining their spectral flux ratios.
Recent upgrades have introduced the FIRST-PL mode, which incorporates a Photonic Lantern (PL) to feed a new spectrometer with a spectral resolution of 3000. This mode is designed to detect H-alpha emission from accreting protoplanets using spectro-astrometry. Additionally, FIRST-PL will support high-precision radial velocity measurements, including a key scientific goal of determining stellar spin axes from radial velocity data.
We report on the scientific demonstration of the FIRST-FIZ mode, showcasing performance below the telescope’s diffraction limit. We also present the integration and preliminary engineering tests of the FIRST-PL mode, which enables high-throughput visible spectroscopy.

 

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2025 - SubaruUsersMeeting_FIRST-Poster.pdf

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