Design, Fabrication, Assembly, And Testing Of The Florida Image Slicer For Infrared Cosmology And Astrophysics (Fisica) Integral Field Unit

We discuss the design, fabrication, assembly, and testing of the prototype Florida Image Slicer for Infrared Cosmology and Astrophysics (FISICA) Integral Field Unit (IFU). FISICA is intended for large telescopes with f/numbers close to f/15, such as the KPNO 4-m and GTC 10.4-m telescopes. It implements an image slicing approach, wherein the initial image plane is optically sliced into thin strips and the strips are optically rearranged end-to-end, whereupon the composite slit image is fed into a conventional spectrograph. We divide the field of view into 22 slices, while accommodating the entire f/15 viewing solid angle. The all-reflective instrument resides in a cryogenic dewar at the initial focal plane, and places the composite slit image output precisely at the initial focus, allowing it to interface to the existing FLAMINGOS spectrograph. The mirrors were diamond turned using various tool geometries and state-of-the-art, multi-axis tool control. The mirrors are made from a single billet of aluminum, and the optical bench and mounts are made of the same alloy as the mirrors for optimum performance during cryogenic cooling. We discuss the key design efforts, emphasizing tradeoffs among performance, volume, fabrication difficulty, and alignment requirements. We describe the fabrication, and present preliminary laboratory test results