We present the optical and cryo-mechanical solutions for the Spectrograph of VSI (VLTI Spectro-Imager), the second generation near-infrared (J, H and K bands) interferometric instrument for the VLTI. The peculiarity of this spectrograph is represented by the Integrated Optics (IO) beam-combiner, a small and delicate component which is located inside the cryostat and makes VSI capable to coherently combine 4, 6 or even 8 telescopes. The optics have been specifically designed to match the IO combiner output with the IR detector still preserving the needed spatial and spectral sampling, as well as the required fringe spacing. A compact device that allows us to interchange spectral resolutions (from R=200 to R=12000), is also presented.
Download