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# Microwave fluctuational conductivity in YBa2Cu3O7-δ

## I Introduction

High-$`T_c`$ superconductors are particularly suitable for the study of fluctuational effects: high critical temperatures, short coherence lengths and strong anisotropy have as a direct consequence a strong widening of the temperature window where fluctuations dictate the behavior of various physical observables. In particular, it is widely recognized that the temperature region where critical fluctuations might be observable can be of order $``$1 K. On the other hand, the widening of the fluctuational temperature window extends to the high temperature region, thus giving the opportunity to test the validity range of fluctuational models beyond the $`TT_c`$ limit. It appears that both the regions close to and far from $`T_c`$ are worth of being investigated in cuprates.
Like in conventional, low-$`T_c`$ superconductors, most of the experimental data have been collected by measuring dc conductivity. Finite-frequency experiments, however, are a potential source for additional information, such as the estimate of the Ginzburg-Landau (GL) relaxation time. Moreover, a finite-frequency study in the fluctuational regime is in principle a more stringent test for theoretical models, since at a single frequency two curves (real and imaginary parts) have to be fitted by the model with the same parameters, and similarly the model must fit to the frequency dependence. A drawback is that measurements at frequencies high enough to yield data significantly different from the dc case (typically, in the microwave range) are rather difficult to perform near the normal state (most of the microwave experiments are optimized to small values of the impedance, i.e. well below the transition). In fact, in low-$`T_c`$ superconductors only a very few measurements of the complex excess conductivity have been performed, most of them at microwave frequencies or above. In cuprates, some measurements focussed to the temperature region very close to $`T_c`$, in order to assess the relevance of critical fluctuations, and only a few reports explored a wider temperature range above $`T_c`$. In this latter case, a significant reduction of the fluctuational conductivity below the theoretical expectations as calculated within the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory  was found. This feature was connected to the progressively smaller contribution of the high-momentum modes to the excess conductivity, as the temperature is raised above $`T_c`$: the so-called short-wavelength cutoff (SWLC) regime. Such a physical phenomenon has been successfully invoked to describe the excess dc conductivity in conventional superconductors and cuprates. It is then interesting to check this approach against a more stringent test, such as multifrequency measurements of the complex conductivity.
We notice that all the estimates of the excess conductivity (in zero magnetic field) rely on the assumption of some kind of normal state, existing at temperatures well above $`T_c`$, from which superconductivity emerges. In this paper we will follow the same approach, assuming in particular a linear $`T`$-dependent normal state above $`T_c`$, but we mention that alternative scenarios, connected to the so-called pseudogap phase, could affect some of the conclusions that have been given in all the papers devoted to the zero-field paraconductivity. To mention a few of the possible alternative scenarios, intrinsically inhomogeneous superconductivity would lead to a dissipationless state at the percolation threshold, with excess diamagnetism and anomalous frequency dependence of the surface impedance in the pseudogap region; preformed pairs well above $`T_c`$, invoked for the interpretation of the optical conductivity, and competing order parameters, with a hidden phase transition at the pseudogap $`T^{}`$, could as well increase the in-plane conductivity, thus giving an estimate of the paraconductivity lower than the one obtained with a linearly extrapolated normal state. It is then in any case necessary to consider models that predict a reduced paraconductivity with respect to the established theory.
In this paper we present measurements of the fluctuational complex conductivity $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma `$ in two high quality YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) thin films as a function of the temperature, and for two microwave frequencies (23.9 and 48.2 GHz). We show that the well-established theoretical result does not describe either the frequency dependent excess conductivity approaching $`T_c`$, or the fast drop of the excess conductivity as the temperature is raised far from $`T_c`$. We extend the established model  to include the short-wavelength cutoff, which accounts for the reduced paraconductivity far from $`T_c`$, and the renormalization, effective close to $`T_c`$. The extended model describes very well the temperature and frequency dependence of the complex conductivity. Several superconducting parameters are also evaluated.

## II Experimental section

The complex conductivity was obtained from measurements of the temperature dependence of the quality factor and frequency shift of cylindrical metal cavities, resonant in the TE011 mode. The sample was mounted as an end wall, so that microwave currents flow in the (a,b) planes, and measurements yielded the (a,b) plane response. The experimental systems, extensively described elsewhere, were modifed in order to measure the frequency shift. Two cavities were used, for measurements at $`\omega /2\pi `$= 23.9 and 48.2 GHz. Accurate calibration of the resonators was performed, in order to obtain the effective surface resistance $`R^{eff}`$ and the temperature variation of the effective surface reactance $`\mathrm{\Delta }X^{eff}`$.
Two YBa2Cu3O7-δ films, with transition temperatures $`T_c`$ 90 K, were grown on 1 cm $`\times `$ 1 cm $`\times `$ 1 mm LaAlO3 substrates by planar high oxygen pressure dc sputtering technique. The thickness of the films was $`d`$=(2200$`\pm `$ 200) Å. Details of the film growth and characterization have been reported elsewhere. Typical characteristics of these films are $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_c<`$0.5 K (from inductive measurements), surface resistance below 80 $`\mu \mathrm{\Omega }`$ at 77 K and 5.4 GHz, and FWHM of the rocking curves of the (005) peak of 0.1o (indicating excellent c-axis orientation). X-ray $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$-scan analysis indicated strong biepitaxiality along (a-b) plane. Average roughness of 20Å over 1 $`\mu `$m $`\times `$ 1 $`\mu `$m area was determined by AFM. The thickness of the films was of the order of the zero-temperature London penetration depth, so that close and above $`T_c`$ the thin-film approximation is fully justified. Thus, the measured effective impedance directly yields the complex resistivity through: $`R^{eff}\rho _1/d`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }X^{eff}\mathrm{\Delta }\rho _2/d`$. By accurate comparison with the cavity background, we did not resolve a frequency shift due to the sample above $``$95 K. We then assumed $`\rho _2=0`$ in our near-optimal doping samples in the normal state (recent microwave measurements have shown that this ansatz can be violated in underdoped samples, but it is valid in optimally doped cuprates), so that from the measured quality factor and frequency shift we get the complex resistivity, $`\rho (T)=\rho _1(T,\omega )+\mathrm{i}\rho _2(T,\omega )`$. The as-extracted complex resistivity of sample YA is reported in Fig.1 for the two frequencies investigated.
The complex excess conductivity $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma (T,\omega )=\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _1(T,\omega )+\mathrm{i}\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _2(T,\omega )`$was calculated by subtracting the temperature dependent normal state real resistivity $`\rho _n(T)=1/\sigma _n(T)`$, linearly extrapolated above 130 K, accordingly to the expression:

$$\rho (T,\omega )=\rho _1(T,\omega )+\mathrm{i}\rho _2(T,\omega )=\frac{1}{\sigma _n(T)+\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma (T,\omega )}$$
(1)
We carefully checked that by changing the temperature range of the linear fit of the normal state resistivity in the region 125 K -165 K we did not affect the obtained $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma `$ below 110 K.
In doing all the necessary transformations from measured quality factor and frequency shift to complex excess conductivity, an easily calculated geometrical factor is needed. Errors in the geometrical factor, as well as in the estimate of $`d`$, all reflect on a simple scale factor in the calculated conductivity, without affecting the temperature dependence.
Before discussing the data for $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma `$, we summarize the theoretical framework that we adopt.

## III Theoretical background

In this Section we summarize and further extend well known and recent results for the complex excess conductivity of an anisotropic, three dimensional superconductor. Explicit calculations, in 3D, 2D and 1D, have been reported previously.
On theoretical grounds, fluctuational phenomena in superconductors have been addressed by microscopic as well as by phenomenological theories (see, e.g., the reviews in Ref.s ). The time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau (TDGL) approach is very useful since it allows for a first determination of important parameters, such as the coherence length and the relaxation time. Moreover, it often captures, in its simplicity, the basic ingredients of the underlying physics. In this section, we will give a formulation of the finite-frequency fluctuational excess conductivity in terms of this formalism. Since we are dealing with YBCO, anisotropy has to be taken into account. Due to the moderate anisotropy of this compound, we choose a description in terms of uniaxially anisotropic three-dimensional superconductor (we will come back to the consistency of this choice in the Discussion).
Calculation of fluctuational conductivity can be performed within several formalisms, such as the Kubo formula, the Boltzmann equation and the correlation-function formalism. We adopt here the model based on the correlation-function formalism, extended to include the uniaxial anisotropy. This approach is based on the following very general points:
1- The GL functional is written as an expansion in $`\psi `$ (the order parameter).
2- The response to a time-varying field $`𝐀(t)`$ ($`𝐀`$ is the vector potential) is determined by the current operator averaged with respect to the noise (represented below by the brackets), and it can be expressed as a function of the correlation function of the order parameter $`C(𝐫,t;𝐫^{},t^{})=\psi (𝐫,t)\psi ^{}(𝐫^{},t^{})`$ at equal times:

$$J_x\left(t\right)=\frac{\mathrm{}e^{}}{m_x}\frac{d^3q}{\left(2\pi \right)^3}q_xC\left[𝐤=𝐪\frac{e^{}}{\mathrm{}}𝐀\left(t\right);t,t\right]$$
(2)
where the momentum dependence has been shifted from $`𝐤`$ to the new vector $`𝐪=𝐤+\left(e^{}/\mathrm{}\right)𝐀\left(t\right)`$, $`e^{}=2e`$ is twice the electronic charge, and $`m_j`$ are the masses of the pair along the main crystallographic directions.
Standard calculations of the fluctuation conductivity are performed using the following conditions:
i) integration can be extended to the full momentum space, being the contribution at $`q=0`$ the most diverging close to $`T_c`$;
ii) terms containing powers of $`\psi `$ higher than 2 are dropped in the GL functional.
Using these hypotheses, one gets in a uniaxially anisotropic 3D superconductor, and in absence of a dc magnetic field, the in-plane excess conductivity (in Sistème International units): $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _{\mathrm{}}(ϵ,\omega )=\frac{e^2}{32\mathrm{}\xi _c(0)ϵ^{1/2}}\left[S_+\left(w\right)+\mathrm{i}S_{}\left(w\right)\right]`$, where $`ϵ=\mathrm{ln}(T/T_c)`$ is the reduced temperature,  $`\xi _c(0)`$ is the out-of-plane zero-temperature GL coherence length and $`w=\omega \tau `$ with $`\tau =\tau _0/ϵ`$ the temperature dependent GL relaxation time. $`S_+(w)`$ and $`S_{}(w)`$ are the scaling functions as can be found in Ref., and they have the property that $`S_+(w0)1\frac{w^2}{16}`$ and $`S_{}(w0)\frac{w}{6}`$. We will refer to this result as “infinite cutoff approximation” (IC), and we will use the subscript “$`\mathrm{}`$” for it. The above reported expression for $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _{\mathrm{}}`$, originally derived for isotropic superconductors, was found to well describe microwave fluctuational conductivity in conventional superconductors. Moreover, a scaling property was found close to $`T_c`$ in YBCO films in swept-frequency measurements, even if the temperature dependence of $`\tau `$ was markedly different from the GL prediction.
At temperatures sufficiently higher than $`T_c`$ the approximation i) above should be somehow relaxed. In fact, Eq.2 should be integrated only over momenta that give a physical contribution: modes with $`q>\xi _0^1`$, where $`\xi _0`$ is the temperature-independent coherence length, should be discarded. This fact was recognized early in the study of the dc excess conductivity, and largely applied to various superconductors. However, the absence of explicit expressions for the complex excess conductivity has limited the application of such approach to a few experimental results, and numerical methods had to be used. The usual way to discard high-momentum modes is to introduce a spectral cutoff $`q_j^{max}=\mathrm{\Lambda }_j\xi _{j0}^1`$ for each crystallographic direction in Eq.2 and to calculate the cutoff excess conductivity. In order to simplify the resulting expression, and to reduce the number of fitting parameters, we choose a single cutoff number imposing: $`\sqrt{\underset{j=1,\mathrm{..3}}{}[q_j^{max}\xi _j(0)]^2}<\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ (Ref.). The resulting complex excess conductivity can be calculated explicitly, and for a uniaxial superconductor the result reads:

$`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _{3D}={\displaystyle \frac{e^2}{32\mathrm{}\xi _c(0)ϵ^{1/2}}}{\displaystyle \frac{16}{3\pi w^2}}\{atnK(1\mathrm{i}w)^{3/2}atn\left({\displaystyle \frac{K}{\sqrt{1\mathrm{i}w}}}\right)+`$ (3)
$`+\mathrm{i}w[{\displaystyle \frac{K}{2\left(1+K^2\right)}}{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}atnK]\}`$ (4)
where $`K=\mathrm{\Lambda }/ϵ^{\frac{1}{2}}`$. In order to clarify some of the main features of Eq.4, it is useful to introduce the small $`w`$ expansion. Up to terms of order $`w^2`$ one has:

$`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _1(ϵ,w<<1){\displaystyle \frac{e^2}{32\mathrm{}\xi _c(0)ϵ^{1/2}}}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\pi }}\left[atnK{\displaystyle \frac{K}{\left(1+K^2\right)^2}}\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{5}{3}}K^2\right)\right]+o(w^2)\right\}`$ (5)
$`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _2(ϵ,w<<1){\displaystyle \frac{e^2}{32\mathrm{}\xi _c(0)ϵ^{1/2}}}{\displaystyle \frac{w}{6}}{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\pi }}\left[atnK+{\displaystyle \frac{K}{\left(1+K^2\right)^3}}\left(K^4{\displaystyle \frac{8}{3}}K^21\right)\right]`$ (6)
Like in the IC approximation, the leading term in the real part is frequency independent and the corresponding term in the imaginary part is proportional to the frequency. On the other hand, the cutoff affects strongly the temperature dependences, in particular on the real part (see also the discussion in Ref.). It is then expected that the analysis of the data in the region $`w<<1`$ can be used to easily discriminate between the IC and the finite-cutoff expressions.
Regarding the assumption ii), it becomes less and less acceptable approaching very closely $`T_c`$. In order to take into account the critical fluctuation regime, Dorsey has released that assumption by using the Hartree approximation for the quartic term in $`\psi `$, and keeping the validity of i) above. The resulting expression of the complex excess conductivity remained unaffected, including the scaling functions $`S_+(x)`$ and $`S_{}(x)`$, and the effect of the extended approach was to change the temperature dependence of the reduced temperature $`ϵ`$ (renormalization) according to:

$$\stackrel{~}{ϵ}=ϵ\frac{ϵ}{\eta }\left[1+\left(1+\frac{ϵ}{\eta }\right)^{1/2}\right]^2$$
(7)
When one takes into account the anisotropy, in the preceeding expression $`\eta =l^2\kappa ^4\gamma ^2\xi _{ab}^2(0)`$, $`l=\left(e^2\mu _0k_BT/4\pi \mathrm{}^2\right)`$, $`\mu _0`$ is the magnetic permeability, $`\gamma =\xi _{ab}(0)/\xi _c(0)`$ is the anisotropy factor and $`\kappa =\lambda _{ab}(0)/\xi _{ab}(0)`$ is the Ginzburg parameter, and $`\xi _c(0)`$ and $`\lambda _{ab}(0)`$ are the zero-temperature values of the GL out of plane coherence length and in-plane penetration depth, respectively. Summarizing, in the Hartree approximation the fluctuational excess conductivity has the same form as in the IC, unrenormalized limit, with the replacement $`ϵ\stackrel{~}{ϵ}`$. We remark that close to $`T_c`$ the temperature dependence of the GL relaxation time changes to $`\tau ϵ^2`$, showing the so-called slowing down of fluctuations.
We note that the two above-described modifications to the IC, unrenormalized approximation have a significant relevance in different temperature ranges: the renormalization is relevant only close to $`T_c`$ ($`TT_c`$ 2 K), while the influence of the cutoff in Eq.4 shows up above that temperature range. We then cast together the two modifications by substituting $`ϵ`$ with $`\stackrel{~}{ϵ}`$ in Eq.s 4,5,6.
In concluding this section, we ought to mention that the cutoff approach is still somehow debated. However, it is believed to be a fundamental aspect of the GL theory. In the specific case of the dc, 2D excess conductivity, we have thoroughly discussed the similarities between the GL cutoffed model and the microscopic theory, and we have shown that the GL expression with cutoff reproduces nearly exactly the microscopic theory for clean superconductors, when the appropriate cutoff number is chosen.
Finally, we comment on the fact that the momentum cutoff is not the only possible approach in order to extend the validity of the GL theory beyond the vicinity of $`T_c`$. In fact, an alternative choice is the so-called “total energy” cutoff, where it is the kinetic + localization energy of the (fluctuating) Cooper pair that is limited to some value. The results for the ac excess conductivity are formally identical to the ones reported in Section III, with the substitution $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\sqrt{c^2ϵ}`$, with $`c`$ a new cutoff number, as noted earlier, in analogy with the other physical quantities. Eq.4 modified in order to use a total energy cutoff would exhibit a stronger decrease of the excess conductivity at high $`ϵ`$, with vanishing $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma `$ at $`ϵ=c^2`$.

## IV Discussion

We now discuss our data in light of the theoretical frame of Sec.III. We first identify the temperature region where $`w<<1`$ in our data. In Fig.2 we present the complex excess conductivity at 23.9 and 48.2 GHz in sample YA as a function of $`T`$. As can be seen, at temperatures above 90.5 K the frequency dependence is nearly absent in $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _1`$, indicating that the GL relaxation rate $`1/\tau _0`$ is much larger than our measuring frequency (see Eq.s 5). Consistently (see Eq.s 6), the imaginary part $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _2`$ scales approximately as the ratio of the measuring frequencies. These features represent the experimental indication that, for most of the temperature range here explored, the small frequency regime is reached.
We now show that the simple IC model is not compatible with our data. Using the fact that, within $`1\%`$, one has $`ϵ\frac{T}{T_c}1`$ up to $`T=1.1T_c`$, the IC approximation in the small $`w`$ regime predicts $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _{1,\mathrm{}}^2TT_c`$ in a rather wide temperature range, as opposed to the cutoff expression (see Eq.5), that removes this simple temperature dependence.
In Fig.3 we plot the data as $`\left(\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _1\right)^2`$ vs. $`T`$. It is clear that our data do not follow a linear law in a significant temperature range, as would be expected from the IC approximation. The temperature and frequency dependence of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma `$ further indicate (see later and Fig.4) that the simple IC prediction does not describe our data. We conclude that a proper description for our data of the fluctuational conductivity must be found beyond the IC approximation.
We adopt the extension of the TDGL theory described in Sec.III. In order to take into account temperatures far from $`T_c`$ as well as the approach to the critical region, we use in the full expression, Eq.4, the renormalized reduced temperature, Eq.7. The resulting explicit expression for the complex $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma `$ contains as parameters the cutoff number $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ (effective mostly at high temperatures), the out-of-plane, zero-temperature GL coherence length $`\xi _c(0)`$ (which acts mainly as a scale factor), the GL relaxation time $`\tau _0`$ (determined mainly through $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _2`$), the number $`\eta `$ (which determines the reduced temperature range of the renormalized regime), or alternatively the zero-temperature, in-plane penetration depth $`\lambda _{ab}(0)`$, and $`T_c`$.
An extremely precise determination of $`T_c`$ is not essential, since the main point of this paper is the “high” temperature regime. Nevertheless, scaling theories in a 3D superconductor suggest the following path for its evaluation: in fact, one has $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _1(TT_c)=\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _2(TT_c)`$, so that the crossing point of the real and imaginary parts should give the critical temperature. Unfortunately this determination can be easily affected by experimental errors in the evaluation of the absolute value of the excess conductivity such as those mentioned in Sec.II. We have then chosen to keep $`T_c`$ as a parameter of the fit, keeping in mind that it cannot be noticeably different from the cross-point $`T^\times `$ of the real and imaginary parts of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma `$. The values of the crossing temperature $`T^\times `$ and the fitted $`T_c`$ are reported in the Table, and good agreement is found.
All the parameters are fixed by the simultaneous fitting of four experimental curves in each sample: real and imaginary parts at two different measuring frequencies.
Fits are presented in Fig.s 4 and 5 as continuous lines. It is clear that the extended model well describes our data for both microwave frequencies, as opposed to the failure of the IC approximation (dashed lines in Fig.4). In particular, it is the temperature dependence at large $`ϵ`$ that clarifies the role of the cutoff, while the slowing down of fluctuations at $`T_c`$ is described by the renormalization.
The so-obtained fitting parameters are summarized in Table I. The zero-temperature c-axis coherence lengths, $`\xi _c(0)`$, are in agreement with commonly accepted values. The renormalization parameter $`\eta 710^{}_{}{}^{}3`$ (corresponding to a GL $`\lambda _{ab}(0)`$900 Å) indicates that in a region $``$0.6 K wide close to $`T_c`$ the corrections to the $`\psi ^4`$ cannot be neglected. The cutoff number $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is of the correct order of magnitude, and appears to be sample-dependent. We already found (from dc conductivity) that in slightly overdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x crystals there was a doping-dependence of the cutoff number. It would be interesting to look for a similar dependence in YBCO. We note that the obtained parameters are consistent with the 3D treatment here employed: in fact, in order to neglect the layered structure one needs the anisotropy parameter $`\left(\frac{2\xi _c}{t}\right)^2`$ ($`t`$ 7 Åis the spacing between superconducting planes in YBCO) to be sufficiently larger than $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^2`$ (Ref.s ). With our parameters we obtain a factor $``$ 3 between the two quantities, that points to an essentially 3D nature of YBCO.
The GL relaxation time is found to be slightly sample dependent, in agreement with results obtained from the analysis at microwave and radio frequencies and from combined excess diamagnetism and conductivity measurements. The numerical value for $`\tau _0`$ is noticeably larger than the BCS estimate, $`\tau _0=\frac{\mathrm{}\pi }{16k_BT}`$ 17 fs (having taken $`T=T_c`$), in qualitative agreement with Ref.. A possible interpretation of this finding comes from the unconventional nature of the pairing in cuprates. In fact, it is expected that in a d-wave superconductor the GL relaxation time is larger than the BCS, s-wave estimate. It is clear that this intriguing point deserves further experimental work in the future, possibly expanding the frequency range explored.

## V Conclusions

We have measured the excess complex conductivity at two microwave frequencies in very high quality YBCO films. The temperature dependence of the data in the region $`\omega \tau <<1`$ directly shows that the established results of the time-dependent Ginzburg Landau theory within the IC approximation do not describe our data. We have incorporated in the TDGL theory the renormalization (R) of the reduced temperature and the short-wavelength cutoff (C), obtaining a single explicit expression for the finite-frequency excess conductivity. With these modifications, the RC-GL theory describes in full our data, in the temperature and in the frequency dependence. With a reduced parameter set we are able to fit at once four experimental curves for each sample. The very good fitting and remarkable consistency of the parameters support the idea that the proposed modifications of the TDGL model capture the essential features of the complex excess conductivity in YBCO. We have estimated the out-of-plane coherence length, the in-plane penetration depth and the GL relaxation time. The latter appears longer than the BCS s-wave value. This point, in qualitative agreement with the expectations for d-wave superconductors, deserves further experimental work in the future.

$``$ Note added. After completing this manuscript, a related work appeared, discussing a possible effect of the cutoff close to $`T_c`$ within a model for the ac fluctuation conductivity similar to the one here presented. Such effect should manifest itself in an increasing T× with the frequency. This is qualitatively consistent with our data, see the Table.

## VI acknowledgements

We thank D.Neri for help and for many useful discussions in the early stage of this work, M.W.Coffey and T.Mishonov for useful discussions and stimulating correspondence, R.Raimondi for useful discussions. Work in Salerno was partially supported by a MURST-COFIN 2000 project.


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# 1 Background

## 1 Background

In order to examine the role of entanglement for this paper we utilize as a measure the entropy of entanglement of a pure composite bipartite state. The entropy of entanglement $`(𝒮)`$ of a bipartite pure state $`\rho K(H_AH_B)`$ is given by Von Neumann’s entropy of either $`\rho _A`$ or $`\rho _B`$, $`𝒮(\rho )=\text{Tr}(\rho _A\mathrm{log}\rho _A)`$

Gurvitz  considered the measurement of a single electron oscillating in a double-dot by using a quantum point contact detector. We briefly review the setup in Fig. 1, but refer the reader to . The barrier shown in the figure is connected with two reservoirs at the potentials $`\mu _L`$ and $`\mu _R=\mu _LV_d`$ respectively where $`V_d`$ is the applied voltage. The Hamiltonian $`H`$ consisting of the point contact Hamiltonian $`H_{PC}`$, double-dot $`H_{DD}`$ and their interaction $`H_{int}`$ is

$$H=H_{QPC}+H_{DD}+H_{int}$$

where

$`H_{QPC}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{l}{}}E_la_l^{}a_l+{\displaystyle \underset{r}{}}E_ra_r^{}a_r+{\displaystyle \underset{l,r}{}}\mathrm{\Omega }_{lr}(a_l^{}a_r+a_r^{}a_l)`$
$`H_{DD}`$ $`=`$ $`E_1c_1^{}c_1+E_2c_2^{}c_2+\mathrm{\Omega }_0(c_2^{}c_1+c_1^{}c_2),`$
$`H_{int}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{l,r}{}}\mathrm{\Omega }_{lr}c_2^{}c_2(a_l^{}a_r+a_r^{}a_l),`$
and $`E_{l,r}`$ are the energy levels in the respective QPC reservoirs, $`E_1,E_2`$ are the energy levels of the DD, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{lr}`$ is the coupling between the reservoirs, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ is the coupling between the left and right dots, $`a_l^{}`$,$`a_l`$ denotes the respective creation and annhilation operators in the left reservoir (similarly for the right) and similarly $`c_i^{}`$, $`c_i`$ are creation and annihilation operators for the double-dot in state $`i`$. A coupling parameter is defined as $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_d=T_1V_d/(2\pi )`$ where $`T_1`$ is the transmission coefficient between the DD and QPC.

## 2 Entanglement for the DD-QPC

Suppose that the initial state of the DD is a pure state parameterized by $`\theta ,\varphi [0,2\pi ]`$ such that $`\sigma _{11}(0)=\mathrm{cos}^2\frac{\theta }{2}`$, and $`\sigma _{12}(0)=\mathrm{sin}\frac{\theta }{2}\mathrm{cos}\frac{\theta }{2}\mathrm{exp}(i\varphi )`$. Then the entropy of entanglement, $`𝒮`$ is characterized by the eigenvalues of the density matrix $`\sigma (t)`$ of the DD.

We define $`\alpha =^{^{\mathrm{}}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_d/\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ and $`\tau =^{^{\mathrm{}}}\mathrm{\Omega }_0t`$. Hence, $`\alpha `$ is a normalized measure of the coupling between the DD and QPC, and $`\tau `$ is normalized to $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$. The case where $`\alpha >>1`$ is strong coupling whereas for $`\alpha <<1`$ is weak coupling. Entanglement between the DD and QPC and the rate of the entanglement, defined as $`(\tau )=^{^{\mathrm{}}}\frac{d𝒮}{d\tau }`$ was determined for several cases and for various couplings. Several results in  are summarized below:

* Double-Dot initially in left Dot coupled to QPC, ($`\theta =0`$).

1. $`𝒮(0)=0`$. $`𝒮(\tau )0`$ for all $`\tau `$ as $`\alpha 0`$.
    2. There exists a nearly optimal coupling of $`\alpha 5`$ that minimizes the entanglement time to approximately $`\tau =1`$. $`𝒮(\tau )`$ for a given $`\tau `$ decreases with coupling in the strong coupling regime
    3. $`(\tau )=0`$ at $`\tau =0`$. $`(\tau )0`$ as $`\tau \mathrm{}`$ and also decreases with increasing coupling for large $`\tau `$
* Double-Dot initially in a Superposition ($`\theta =90`$)

1. $`𝒮(\tau )`$ increases at a given $`\tau `$ with increased coupling. Entanglement time surpasses the optimal minimal entanglement time for the case of localised DD
    2. The rate of entanglement $`(\tau )>0`$ at $`\tau =0`$

Hence an initial superposition leads to an unbounded entanglement rate increase, whereas when the DD is initially localized, the rate is bounded due to the existence of an optimal coupling.

## 3 DD-DD interacting with QPC

We now consider double-dots that are entangled a priori in a singlet state. One of the double dots, denoted by $`DD_1`$, interacts with the QPC. Note that the Hamiltonian shown in Sec. 1 does not incorporate the effect of the entanglement with the second DD. The entanglement effects were computed by first characterizing the QPC-DD interaction in terms of a positive operator value expansion. A technique similar to that developed in  was adapted for this purpose. There are several entanglement quantities that are of interest. In Fig. 2 we plot the Schr$`\ddot{\text{o}}`$dinger predicted entanglement between the two DDs. Although the initial state is pure, the state shortly becomes mixed and hence the measure used to quantify this entanglement was the Entropy of Formation, for which there is a closed form solution. Note that the two DDs disentangle under Schr$`\ddot{\text{o}}`$dinger evolution in a very fast, microscopic, time period. Although the two DDs are predicted to disentangle, it turns out that Schr$`\ddot{\text{o}}`$dinger’s equation predicts that the two DDs, considered as a system, are predicted to entangle with the QPC as shown. Note that the entanglement time is substantially longer than the disentanglement time of the two DDs.

In Ref.  we left open the question of whether or not there exist conditions for which projective measurement occurs. Note that if the QPC was a measuring device, then the measurement postulate should be applied, and there would be no entanglement between the two double-dots. Hence, we analyze this problem and report on the results both in two ways: 1) treating the detector and entangled particles entirely according to Schr$`\ddot{\text{o}}`$dinger’s equation and 2) assuming the QPC is a measurement device and applying the projection postulate.

For the case of projective measurement where the result of the measurement is not known, the average density matrix $`\rho _M`$ is initialized at $`t=0`$ as follows:

$$\rho _M(0)=p_L\rho (DD_1=D_L)+p_R\rho (DD_1=D_L),$$
(1)
where $`\rho (DD_1=D_L)=(L\text{I}_2)\rho (L\text{I}_2)^{}`$ (re-normalized to unit trace as needed) and $`L`$ denotes the projection operator that projects to the left dot and $`D_L`$ is the resultant density operator of the DD upon projection, $`\rho `$ denotes the singlet density operator of the two DDs. The probabilities are computed by $`p_L=\text{Tr}((L\text{I}_2)\rho )`$ and similarly for the right dot. Now, if one initializes the DD-DD with the singlet state, and allows it to evolve, the result will be $`\rho (t)`$. On the other hand if the system is initialized on average as in (1) then the system will evolve, on average, as $`\rho _M(t)`$. We plot the difference between the average density matrix under the measurement postulate and $`\rho `$ as $`\rho _M(\tau )\rho (\tau )`$ where $`||||`$ denotes the Frobenius norm used for convenience, although other measures that relate to quantum distinguishability would be preferred. Note that the biggest difference is at $`\tau =0`$. However, asymptotically the two density operators converge. Note that actual detectors have a physical response time that also would have to be included in the computation of $`\rho _M`$.

Surprisingly, the DD-DD becomes disentangled both under Schr$`\ddot{\text{o}}`$dinger evolution and via the measurement postulate. The conclusion that measurement and Schr$`\ddot{\text{o}}`$dinger’s equation provide similar predictions was also found for a different experiment in Ref. . However, our result has shown a difference between measurement and Schr$`\ddot{\text{o}}`$dinger evolution, albeit small. More work is needed to define experiments that better differentiate these cases.

Acknowedgment: The authors would like to thank Dr. P. Reynolds for ONR funding.


text:
# The Planetary Nebulae Spectrograph: the green light for Galaxy Kinematics

## 1 Introduction

The study of the internal dynamics of galaxies provides some of the best observational clues to their formation history and mass distribution, including dark matter, but much of the interesting information is inaccessible with conventional techniques. Stellar kinematics, the most important diagnostic, have generally been determined using absorption-line spectra of the integrated light, the surface brightness of which is such that only the inner parts of the galaxy can be observed in a reasonable amount of telescope time. In practical terms, it is hard to measure the integrated stellar spectra beyond $`12R_e`$ (the “effective radius”, which contains half the galaxy’s projected light). This is a serious limitation, because it is at larger radii that the gravitation of the dark matter halo is likely to dominate, and that the imprint of the galaxy’s origins are likely to be found in its stellar orbits.

Alternative diagnostics of the gravitational potential include measurement of the 21cm-wavelength emission from neutral hydrogen, observations of HII regions, and the observation of the motions of globular clusters and planetary nebulae. But neutral hydrogen and HII regions are effectively absent from early- type galaxies, and globular clusters, not surprisingly, have been found to be kinematically distinct from the stellar population which is of primary interest.

Planetary nebulae (PN) are part of the post-main-sequence evolution of most stars with masses in the range 0.8–8 M. Taking into account the duration of the PN phase itself, even in a galaxy with continuing star formation most observed PN will have progenitors in the range 1.5–2 M, corresponding to a mean age of $`1.5`$ Gyr. In the case of early-type galaxies the PN are drawn from the same old population that comprises most of the galaxy light.

PN are sufficiently bright to be detected in quite distant galaxies and their radial velocities are readily measured by a variety of techniques. Moreover, because they are easier to detect at large galactocentric radius where the background continuum is fainter, they represent the crucially important complement to absorption line studies. These properties make PN an ideal kinematic tracer for the outer parts of such galaxies, allowing the measurement of stellar kinematics to be extended out to typically $`45R_e`$.

A common and well-tested technique for obtaining the radial velocities of PN consists of a narrow-band imaging survey of \[OIII\] emission to identify candidates, followed by a spectroscopic campaign to obtain their spectra. This approach has in the past commonly resulted in low yields (see §3.1).

We have developed an alternative single-stage method, which uses narrow-band slitless spectroscopy. By obtaining two sets of data with the spectra dispersed in different directions (a technique we call “counter-dispersed imaging” or CDI), one can identify PN and measure their radial velocities in a single observation. The use of CDI by modifying existing instrumentation has been so successful that we decided to design and build a custom-made CDI spectrograph, with an overall efficiency improvement of about a factor of ten over a typical general-purpose spectrograph.

The organisation of this paper is as follows. In §2 we review the important observational characteristics of PN and discuss the implications of their luminosity function for the number of PN which can be detected. In §3 we introduce CDI and compare it with more traditional techniques. The PN.Spectrograph, which is the main subject of this paper, is presented in some detail in §4. As well as a complete technical discussion, and a short history of the project, this section includes some of the first images obtained with the instrument, following its recent successful commissioning. Further technical information is presented in three appendices.

## 2 Observation of extragalactic PN

PN, which are unresolved objects at distances of 1 Mpc or more, can be detected by means of their strong characteristic emission lines (see Fig. 1). The narrowness of the lines (the intrinsic linewidth is usually less than 30km s-1) makes it relatively easy to measure the radial velocities of the individual PN.

The brightest line is usually the 5007Å line of \[O III\] in which as much as 15% of the central star’s energy is emitted (Dopita et al., 1992). The PN brightness in this line is conventionally given in magnitudes as

$$m_{5007}=2.5\mathrm{log}F_{5007}13.74$$
(1)
where $`F_{5007}`$ is in erg cm-2 s-1 and the constant is such that a star of the same magnitude would appear to be equally bright when observed through an ideal V-band filter. The \[O III\] line consists of a doublet 4959/5007Å with the intensity ratio 1:3. Only the brighter component of the doublet (rest wavelength in air 5006.843Å) is included in the above magnitude. The absolute magnitude $`M_{5007}`$ is defined in the usual way.

PN are found to have a well-behaved luminosity function $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ which can be approximated by (dropping the 5007 subscript)

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(M)e^{0.307M}[1e^{3(M^{}M)}]$$
(2)
where the parameter $`M^{}`$, defining a sharp bright-end cutoff to the luminosity function, was normalised using PN in M31 to $`M^{}`$ = –4.48 (Ciardullo et al., 1989) and has since changed only slightly (Ciardullo et al., 2002a). The symbol $`m^{}`$ is used for the apparent magnitude of the PNLF cutoff.

By fitting the above function to a (complete) sample of PN in a given galaxy a distance estimate can be made. This application of the PNLF, the characteristics of which are under constant review (see e.g. Ferrarese et al. (2000)), will not concern us further here, but knowledge of the shape of the PNLF is important in that it allows us to estimate the relative number of PN in a given system down to a certain magnitude limit (see below).

The absolute number of PN present in a stellar system is usually characterised by the number-density in the top dex (2.5 magnitudes) of the PNLF, normalised to bolometric magnitude, which takes a value

$$\alpha _{2.5}750\times (10^9L_{\mathrm{},\mathrm{bol}})^1,$$
(3)
depending on the colour (Ciardullo et al., 1991) and luminosity (Ciardullo, 1995) of the galaxy. For practical purposes a number-density ($`\beta _{2.5}`$) normalised to the B-band luminosity is often used.

Eqn 2 can be used to compute the cumulative luminosity function. The results, normalised to $`\alpha _{2.5}`$, are shown in Table 1. This shows for example that to double the number of PN detected in a given galaxy with respect to a complete sample down to $`MM^{}=2.5`$ one needs to reach a limit nearly 1.5 magnitudes, or a factor 4 in flux, fainter.

As a numerical example we consider the Virgo galaxy NGC 4374, with an assumed distance of 15 Mpc and a foreground extinction of 0.2 mag. The brightest PN in this galaxy would be expected to have an apparent magnitude of $`m_{5007}^{}26.6`$, corresponding to an \[O III\] flux of $`7.3\times 10^{17}`$ erg cm-2 s-1. This converts to a detection rate in the \[O III\] line of 0.7 photon per second for a 4m telescope with 30% system efficiency. For NGC 4374, $`\alpha _{2.5}=16.7`$ (Jacoby et al., 1990), and with the appropriate bolometric correction (BC = $`m_{\mathrm{bol}}m_V`$ = -0.83) and colour index (B-V = 0.97) this corresponds to $`\beta _{2.5}=47.7`$. Correcting the apparent magnitude ($`m_\mathrm{B}=10.3`$) for distance and extinction gives $`M_\mathrm{B}=20.8`$, corresponding to $`32.5\times 10^9L_{\mathrm{},\mathrm{B}}`$. Thus one would expect $`1550`$ PN in the top dex of the luminosity function or, using Table 1, $`710`$ down to the magnitude limit $`m_{5007}^{}=28.1`$.

By definition half of these would fall within one effective radius of the centre, where the noise contribution from the galaxy light is very significant, and be hard to detect. For NGC 4374 the B-band background light is 22.2 mag arcsec-2 at $`1R_e`$, which corresponds to 50% of the dark night sky background at a good observing site.

To put the above number of PN in perspective, note that $``$1000 radial velocities are necessary to nonparametrically constrain the dynamical properties of a hot stellar system (Merritt and Saha (1993), Merritt and Tremblay (1993)). However, early-type galaxies normally have integrated light kinematical measurements available to $`1R_e`$, the addition of which dramatically decreases the number of discrete velocity measurements needed. In such cases, $``$100–200 velocities can place strong constraints on a galaxy’s mass distribution (Saglia et al. (2000), Romanowsky and Kochanek (2001)). If 200 PN velocities are measured outside 1 $`R_e`$, $``$50 will be outside 3 $`R_e`$, a sample that can reliably constrain the rotational properties of the galaxy’s outer parts (Napolitano et al. (2001)).

## 3 Observing techniques

To study the kinematics of extragalactic PN, there are two aspects: finding the PN and obtaining their radial velocities. In the following sections we discuss the techniques applied to this problem so far. Simple formulae are given for the S/N achieved with each technique, and then used to compute the integration time required to reach $`S/N=10`$ for a PN with given magnitude. This is a reasonable benchmark since experiments show that detection completeness varies from nearly 100% at $`S/N9`$ to 0% at $`S/N=4`$ (Ciardullo, 1987). We compute the noise as the quadratic sum of poisson noise from the object, sky background, and detector read out. We adopt the notation of Table 2 and the default values therein, unless otherwise specified.

The “system efficiency” which is quoted for multi-object spectroscopy (MOS) and other techniques is based on typical limiting magnitudes actually achieved with current instrumentation at 4-m class telescopes. By definition it includes telescope, filter and detector efficiency as well as the efficiency of the instrument proper, but it should be stressed that light loss due to the finite size of the fibre or slit, and hence also astrometric, pointing, and tracking errors affect the performance of MOS instruments. This can lead to values of the system efficiency which are smaller by a factor of two or more than the nominal optimum instrument performance.

In these and other calculations in the paper we include atmospheric losses of 0.15 mag corresponding to an airmass of 1.0 at a good observing site.

### 3.1 Survey/multi-object spectroscopy

Most of the PN work on external galaxies has been done by first performing an imaging survey to obtain a sample of PN, and then following this up with multi-fibre or multi-slit spectroscopy of the individual objects to obtain their radial velocities (Hui et al., 1995).

Detection of the PN in \[O III\] emission is usually done by comparing images made with on-band and off-band filters (Jacoby et al., 1990), which allows PN candidates to be distinguished from foreground stars. For maximum sensitivity, the on-band filter should only be wide enough to accommodate the expected range of velocities, while the off-band filter can be broader. The positions of the PN must be determined to at least 0.5 arcsec precision in order to set up a subsequent observing campaign with standard multi-object spectroscopy (MOS).

For the detection of a PN in a narrow-band survey

$$S/N=F_{\mathrm{PN}}T_{\mathrm{on}}/\sqrt{F_{\mathrm{PN}}T_{\mathrm{on}}+A_{\mathrm{psf}}F_{\mathrm{back}}BT_{\mathrm{on}}+n_pn_rr^2}$$
(4)
where the symbols are defined in Table 2. The assumption is made that the off-band integration time ($`TT_{\mathrm{on}}`$) is chosen such as to reach the same level of sky background (owing to the wider bandpass the image can be obtained relatively quickly). For useful S/N values, the read-noise is usually negligible.

As an illustration, consider the case of a survey carried out at a telescope of 4.0m diameter. The overall detection efficiency is assumed to be 0.4, and $`T`$ is divided between narrow-band and broad-band imaging in the ratio 80:20 ($`T_{\mathrm{on}}=0.8\times T`$). The assumed background (see Table 2) corresponds to $`F_{\mathrm{back}}=0.20`$ photons/sec/Å/arcsec2 for this case. The goal is to detect objects down to $`m_{5007}=28`$ with $`\mathrm{S}/\mathrm{N}10`$. Equation 4 with default parameters indicates that this can be achieved in $`T=6.2`$ hours.

The spectroscopy can be done efficiently with fibre or multislit spectroscopy, and the detection of the \[O III\] line is usually dominated by photon noise. For example, for fibre spectroscopy at spectral resolution $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda `$, this being the bandwidth corresponding to the projected width of the fibre in the spectra,

$$S/N=F_{\mathrm{PN}}T/\sqrt{F_{\mathrm{PN}}T+A_{\mathrm{fibre}}F_{\mathrm{back}}\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda T+n_pn_rr^2}$$
(5)
For this case, the system efficiency measured in practice (see § 3) is usually in the range 0.05-0.1, and here we adopt 0.1. With similar observing parameters to the previous example, and default values for $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda `$ and $`A_{\mathrm{fibre}}`$, the multi-object spectrograph should then return spectra with S/N $`10`$ for a $`m_{5007}=28`$ object in about $`T=3.3`$ hours.

Since several fibre configurations might be required to obtain all of the spectra (as a result of limitations on the number of fibres or on their positioning) we must multiply $`T`$ by some factor, typically $`24`$. Total time for the project, even with these ideal assumptions, is thus $`1319`$ hours. However, as discussed in §3.4, several practical problems arise in the MOS follow-up to narrow-band imaging, significantly reducing the yield of PN velocities obtained.

### 3.2 Fabry-Perot interferometry

A Fabry-Perot system produces a cube of narrow-band images and is in principle well suited to observing extragalactic PN. Its large field of view (10′ at a 4-m telescope is typical) can encompass typical galaxies out to five effective radii at the distance of the Virgo Cluster. Tremblay et al. (1995) used this technique to study the PN in the SB0 galaxy NGC 3384.

The theoretical signal-to-noise for the detection of an emission-line object in the appropriate step from a wavelength scan in which a total bandpass $`B`$ is scanned over $`N`$ resolution elements is

$$S/N=(F_{\mathrm{PN}}T/N)/\sqrt{(F_{\mathrm{PN}}T/N)+A_{\mathrm{psf}}F_{\mathrm{back}}(B/N)(T/N)+2n_pr^2}$$
(6)
where now $`n_r=1`$ is assumed since the integration time per step is usually short. The factor 2 in the read-noise term allows for the fact that the actual step size needs to be such that there are two steps per resolution element.

When sky noise dominates, the Fabry-Perot procedure is equivalent to observing each planetary nebula by direct detection through an ideal filter (of bandwidth $`B/N`$) for time $`T/N`$, and the corresponding $`S/N`$ is similar to that of narrow-band imaging (with bandwidth $`B`$ and time $`T`$). However both read out noise and the poisson noise of the object being detected reduce the $`S/N`$ significantly. Neverthless, since the Fabry-Perot requires no follow-up spectroscopy, it is competitive with other techniques.

With other parameters as before we now assume an overall detection efficiency of 0.3 including the Fabry- Perot etalon, and $`N=40`$, giving a nominal resolution element of about 45 km s-1. Equation 6 then shows that 21.6 hours observing is required to cover the passband and to reach $`S/N10`$ in each resolution element for the same magnitude limit as before. In the absence of read-noise, the same limit would be reached in about 13 hours.

### 3.3 Counter-dispersed imaging (CDI)

CDI, which has antecedents in the work of Fehrenbach (e.g. Fehrenbach (1947)), is illustrated schematically in Fig. 2. The left panel shows that two images of a given field must be taken through a slitless spectrograph equipped with a \[O III\] filter. The field is identical in the two cases but the dispersion direction is reversed. This can be done simply by rotating the spectrograph sequentially between position angles differing by 180.

As shown in the right-hand panel of the Figure, stars in the field appear in the images as short segments of spectra whose extent depends upon the dispersion of the grating and on the filter bandwidth. The PN, on the other hand, are detected only on the basis of their single emission line and thus appear as point sources. The exact position at which each PN is detected in the slitless images depends upon the actual position of the PN on the sky and its precise wavelength. As the two images are counter-dispersed it can readily be seen that, after matching up the detected PN in pairs in the final images, one directly obtains relative velocities and positions. The velocities can be put on an absolute scale if the slitless observations include an arc line calibration through a slit. This discussion of the velocity solution is somewhat oversimplified, and we return to this topic later (§4.4) in more detail.

For a detected PN the S/N in each image takes the form

$$S/N=(F_{\mathrm{PN}}T_{\mathrm{on}})/\sqrt{F_{\mathrm{PN}}T_{\mathrm{on}}+A_{\mathrm{psf}}F_{\mathrm{back}}BT_{\mathrm{on}}+n_rn_pr^2}$$
(7)
where the total observing time $`T`$ is split between the two position angles ($`T_{\mathrm{on}}=T/2`$). With the same parameters as before except for an overall system efficiency of 0.3 (somewhat less than for narrow-band imaging because of the presence of a grating in the beam), each CDI image achieves $`\mathrm{S}/\mathrm{N}`$ 10 in $`T=13.1`$ hours. In the case of simultaneous CDI (§4.1) there will be twice as many images and therefore more read-noise, but this has negligible effect.

### 3.4 Advantages of CDI

The results of the previous sections are summarised in Fig. 3, which shows the S/N reached with a 4.0m diameter telescope by different techniques - CDI, direct imaging (not including the follow-up spectroscopy), and Fabry-Perot spectroscopy - as a function of integration time. The same parameters were used as before.

As can be seen, the FP technique is inferior except for very faint sources, being more sensitive to read noise on the one hand, and on the other hand not as efficient as the other techniques for the bright sources which are not background limited.

Narrow-band imaging is somewhat more efficient than CDI, but the former still requires the spectroscopic follow-up work. Multi-object spectroscopy can in principle be very efficient, but the need for several MOS configurations alone will usually mean that a campaign based on surveying and follow-up spectroscopy will require more total telescope time for a given yield than would be required with CDI.

Moreover there are additional problems. The imaging and the spectroscopy are rarely carried out on the same instrument, or even the same telescope. Observing time must be obtained twice, possibly at different telescopes and usually in different seasons, with greater risk of poor weather and incomplete data sets. Astrometric errors in transferring from the survey position to the fibre position sometimes mean that the spectrum is not obtained (e.g. Arnaboldi et al. (1996) recovered only 19 PN spectra from a survey set of 141 in NGC 4406), and the yield is further reduced by the fact, recently discovered (Kudritzki et al. (2000), Arnaboldi et al. (2002)), that the sample from the narrow-band imaging technique is sensitive to contamination from misidentified continuum objects.

CDI can be done with one instrument and at one telescope, and although still vulnerable to the possibility of incomplete or inhomogeneous datasets as a result of changes in observing conditions, this problem can be eliminated by obtaining the CDI images simultaneously.

In CDI the relative velocities are extremely accurate, being determined by the centroiding of images on the stable medium of a CCD. The radial velocity precision is comparable to that of fibre spectrographs of similar spectral resolution. We note that multi-slit velocities are typically less precise: they are subject to significant errors resulting from object positioning within the slit.

Accurate photometry requires, amongst other things, knowledge of the filter profile. Generally manufacturer’s curves are generated with very high focal ratio beams and at laboratory temperatures. In CDI the filter profile can be determined from the dispersed images of foreground stars, at the focal ratio and temperature appropriate to the observations and as a function of position on the detector, so accurate photometry is possible. It is more difficult to determine the filter characteristics in direct imaging mode. Note also that with the assumptions made earlier, that a given object is detected in each image with the same value of S/N, the effective integration time on which PN fluxes are based in CDI is twice that of the narrow-band image.

One disadvantage of CDI, relative to more conventional spectroscopic techniques, is its limited ability to distinguish between PN and other emission-line objects like unresolved HII regions, Ly$`\alpha `$ emitters at redshift $`z3.1`$ and starburst galaxies at $`z0.3`$. However on average the number of expected high-$`z`$ contaminants in a field of our size (100 arcmin2) is only 2-3 (Ciardullo et al., 2002b), and these can usually be recognised by their large linewidth, which the PN.S has some ability to resolve. Further identification of these objects, and HII regions (rare in early-type galaxies) could be accomplished with an Halpha arm (see §7).

### 3.5 Results with CDI

The CDI idea was systematically investigated in 1994-95 by Douglas and Taylor (at that time both at the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO)) and Freeman. The first published experiments, confirming with high accuracy positions and velocities for PN which had previously been detected in Cen A, were carried out by removing the slit unit from the RGO spectrograph at the 3.9 m AAT (Douglas and Taylor, 1999). Subsequently the ISIS spectrograph at the 4.2 m WHT was used between 1997 and 2000 to obtain the kinematics of M94 (Douglas et al., 2000) and several S0 galaxies, and in 1998 an attempt was made to reach planetaries in the E5 galaxy NGC 1344 using CDI at the ESO 3.6 m. In these cases the counter-dispersed images were obtained by rotating the spectrograph. We note the related technique used by Méndez et al. (2001), who used an undispersed narrow-band image and a single slitless dispersed image to detect extragalactic PN and to measure their velocities.

The principal gain in designing a dedicated instrument is the possibility of increasing both the optical efficiency and field size. The use of such an instrument can enable projects to be carried out at a 4m telescope which would otherwise require an 8m telescope with general-purpose instrumentation.

## 4 The PN.Spectrograph project

These considerations led us to consider the construction of a purpose-built instrument. In this section we present first the design philosophy, then optical and mechanical details, before returning to the issue of calibration. A chronology of the PN.Spectrograph project is given, and the first observational results are presented.

### 4.1 Design considerations

An important and unique driver of our PN.S design was that it should deliver simultaneous counter-dispersed imaging, avoiding the need to rotate the instrument between the two position angles. As described later in this section, this was achieved by using a matched pair of gratings and cameras, creating what is in effect two spectrographs back-to-back111One may ask whether two is in fact the optimum number of images to use. For example an undispersed third image could easily be generated by replacing the grating(s) with a mirror for part of the observing time, and a third detection would seem to provide a much more robust rejection of false identifications arising because of noise peaks. We investigated this, and other performance characteristics, with simulated images, and found that varying the distribution of observing time between the three arms can easily give worse performance than for the two-arm case, but apparently never better.. The increased complexity is compensated by several advantages: the CDI data sets are always matched in quality and integration time, and the velocity determination is more accurate since all calibrations are done at the same time. Differential flexure is less and can be more easily monitored.

The original PN.S design studies were for an f/15 instrument to operate at the Anglo-Australian Telescope (3.9m aperture) and/or the ESO VLT (8m). However, driven by considerations of cost and telescope access, we decided instead to design the instrument to operate at both the UK/NL William Herschel Telescope (4.2m) and the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (3.5m), both located on the island of La Palma. The TNG is based on the ESO NTT and has two f/11 Nasmyth focal stations with instrument derotators. The WHT also has a Nasmyth platform for interchangeable instrumentation but there the field of view is rather restricted owing to the use of an optical derotator. We therefore opted for the WHT f/11 Cassegrain focus with instrument derotator. This station also includes a suite of calibration lamps. Consistent with this choice of telescopes and focal stations, the field-of-view was chosen to be $`10`$′ square. To be able to optimize the throughput as much as possible, we designed for the smallest wavelength range consistent with the range of galaxy systemic velocities likely to be of interest ($`\pm 1800`$ km s-1).

The most critical component in maximising the instrument efficiency over a narrow wavelength range is the grating. The performance of standard commercial blazed gratings were examined with the assistance of computer codes222Optimization studies were carried out using the code gtgr4, developed by T.C. McPhedran at the University of Sydney and L.C. Botten at the University of Technology, Sydney. This gave good results for gratings of infinite conductivity. Later we used results kindly provided by Daniel Maystre using code based on his integral theory, which allows for the finite conductivity of the aluminium layer (Maystre, 1978)..

For the CDI detection of PN the dispersion should not be too high because of three effects: firstly, field is lost since PN whose images are dispersed outside either of the counter-dispersed frames cannot be used, secondly the dispersed images of foreground stars obliterate a fraction of the field, and thirdly the increased separation between CDI pairs increases the degree of confusion, making it more likely that some objects cannot be unambiguously paired up. On the other hand, the dispersion should be high enough for the required velocity precision. Calculations show that it should be possible to centroid a well-sampled PSF with given $`S/N`$ to an accuracy of $`\delta _{\mathrm{psf}}\frac{0.7}{S/N}\mathrm{FWHM}`$ (see Appendix 9). Given a detection (in each arm) with $`S/N=5`$ it follows that the separation of the two centroids can be determined with an accuracy of $`\sqrt{2}\delta _{\mathrm{psf}}0.2`$FWHM. Assuming a required velocity precision of $`20`$ km s-1, which is less than the internal velocity width of the PN emission lines, the dispersion should be chosen such that the FWHM corresponds to $`200`$ km s-1 or 3.3Å (recall that the dispersion is effectively doubled in CDI – see Fig. 2). For FWHM $`3`$ pixels it follows that the dispersion should be about 1.0 pixel/Å. For a filter of width 100Å at the 10% level (FWHM $`35`$Å) the stellar trails will extend over an acceptable $`100`$ pixels.

### 4.2 Optics

The optical system of the PN.S (see Fig. 4) consists of a collimator with 5 elements in 4 groups, the largest lens being 240 mm in diameter, a narrow-band filter, twin 600 l/mm gratings, and a pair of nominally identical cameras (6 elements in 5 groups) in which the largest element has 210 mm diameter. For ease of manufacture the design was restricted to spherical surfaces, despite the fact that the anamorphic reflection at the gratings (transforming a nominally square field into one with with an aspect ratio of 0.9) presented a significant challenge.

Table 3 lists the optical parameters of the instrument as built. The indicated operating range is nominal – chromatic effects are not severe and the instrument will function slightly outside this band, though the coatings will not be optimal. The computed imagery (Fig. 5) is valid over this range.

The gratings are standard items except that we requested 140 x 80 x 24 mm substrates replicated to the very edge, and bevelled at the grating input angle so as to facilitate butting with minimal ‘dead’ area. We required tight tolerance on the alignment of the grooves with the substrate edges so as to keep the dispersion directions in the two cameras parallel.

The grating input angle between the collimator axis and the grating normal is such that at a wavelength of 5010Å the centre of the field is centered on the CCD. The gratings are in principle at a fixed angle, and the detectors at a fixed position, so that as the wavelength is changed the centre of the field moves laterally across the chip. As the imaging quality of the spectrograph is rather closely matched to the size of the chip, it may be said that the usable field gradually “walks off” the detector. The “walkoff rate” is about the same as the dispersion, i.e. 17.4 µm per Å, or $`\pm 1.04`$ mm over the full operating range of the instrument ($`\pm 60`$Å). This is only 3.8% of the field, however, so although the grating tilts could be manually adjusted to recentre the image it is not anticipated that this will be done regularly.

The design goal was for a total system efficiency of at least 30% at the WHT, about twice that of the general-purpose spectrograph (ISIS) at that telescope, with $`5`$ times larger field. The estimates in Table 4, based on the final optical design, published data and calculations, suggested that this was feasible.

Although the two telescopes for which the instrument has been designed (§4.1) are of similar diameter and have the same focal ratio, the optics are sufficiently different in detail that it was difficult to produce a single PN.S design for both. Full control of the aberrations appeared to require interchangeable optical elements, which introduced too much cost and complexity. We agreed on a single design in which the imaging quality is compromised, but not noticeably so under normal observing conditions (see Fig. 5).

Parameters which depend on the telescope are listed in Table 5. In this table a pixel size of 13.5 µm has been assumed, in agreement with the detectors used for commissioning. The images are slightly better sampled at the WHT owing to the longer focal length, but with this pixel size would still be adequately sampled at the TNG down to 0.7″ seeing. The field sizes indicated correspond to the projected extent of the 2048 x 2048 element detector currently in use. At both telescopes the unvignetted field is about 10′ square.

Details of the optical design (ZEMAX files) “as built” can be obtained from the project website333www.astro.rug.nl/$``$pns or on request to the team. In addition, optimised designs for the WHT and for the TNG are also available.

The V-type coatings on the camera optics (10 surfaces in each camera) were specified as having maximum reflectance of 0.1% within the operating range. For the collimator (8 surfaces) a W-type coating was specified with a maximum reflectance of 0.2% over the operating range and 0.3% over a secondary range covering 6488 - 6645Å. This was to allow the possibility of the addition of a H$`\alpha `$-camera (§7), and is also the reason that the \[O III\] filter has been placed “downstream” of the collimator. The manufacturer’s calculations for the residual reflection were consistent with these specifications for normal incidence.

The science goals of the instrument led us to an initial choice of narrow-band \[O III\] filters centred at around 5000Å, 5034Å and 5058Å. The FWHM of 31-35Å is deliberately small to minimize the background noise, and the filters are designed to be tiltable by up to 6 so that they can be tuned to the systemic velocity of each target. Optical tolerances on the 195 mm diameter circular filters were held tight in order to achieve maximum homogeneity across the field and at large tilt angles. However, as the filters are rather near the pupil for the reason mentioned in the previous paragraph, there is significant shift in the bandpass over the field and this effect is amplified when the filters are tilted, setting limits on the usable field size in the direction of tilt.

For the 5034/31.4Å filter at 0 incidence the shift in bandpass over the field reduces the useful bandpass, in the sense of unbiassed velocity coverage, to about 29.6Å. At 6 incidence this quantity is reduced to 17.0Å, or 1000 km s-1 in velocity. The bandpass becomes even smaller when the diagonals of the field are considered. Whether the reduced bandpass is acceptable depends on parameters of the object under study, most obviously its size.

### 4.3 Mechanical design

The mechanical design is in most respects straightforward, the main priority being rigidity. Stiffness is vital since relative displacement of the two images by a few microns causes tens of km s-1 shift in velocity. Structural analysis444JH, July 1999. predicts that the maximum flexure in either spectral or spatial directions should correspond to an image displacement of only about 0.02 pixel (0.01″ on sky) when the spectrograph is moved through the full range of positions encountered at either the Cassegrain or Nasmyth focus. This degree of rigidity is more than sufficient since small movements of the detector are likely to be considerably more significant.

A second problem to be addressed was that of butting together the gratings. An earlier “convex” arrangement in which the gratings would be replicated on a prism-shaped substrate was rejected on the grounds that the fabrication was too critical: once constructed, no adjustment of the parallism of the two sets of grooves would have been possible, and of course the angle between the two grating normals would have been fixed also. In the “concave” arrangement chosen (Fig. 6) the butted edges are bevelled at the appropriate angle to minimise light loss at the join, and the two gratings held in place by the mount.

The spectrograph incorporates just two (d.c.) motors, one to move the calibration mask (Fig. 8) into the focal plane and one to drive a plate across the beam to serve as a shutter. Tilting of the \[O III\] filter has to be done by hand, after opening an access hatch. Tilting is achieved by rotating one wedged surface against another, facilitated by a tool on which the corresponding tilt angle is marked (Fig. 7). The operation requires the telescope (in the case of the WHT) to be parked at the zenith and takes about 5 minutes, including slewing. A complete filter change requires considerably more time and targets have so far been scheduled to avoid the neccessity of this being done during the night.

### 4.4 Calibration

As discussed in the references in §3.5, calibration of CDI data requires taking account of the internal distortions, which are dominated by the approximately parabolic distortion resulting from the reflection at the grating (“slit curvature”), which is an additive effect when one compares counter-dispersed image pairs. Other, smaller, effects include the discrepancies in the position of objects in the two images as a result of the inevitable differences between the optics in the two cameras.

A map of all the distortion terms, including wavelength dependences, can be determined by the use of a calibration mask (Fig. 8) which can be placed in the focal plane. In combination with spectral line lamps (typically CuAr and CuNe) and continuum lamps a spectrum-dependent calibration over the whole field can be obtained. On-sky calibrations are only necessary to check photometry, though Galactic PN (with catalogued radial velocities) are regularly observed to cross-check procedures. Although we are still refining these procedures the velocity residuals are currently no greater than 28 km s-1 (see §4.6).

The final step in the calibration is to obtain accurate astrometry for the newly-found PN. This is done by defining a cartesian coordinate system in which the positions of a number of foreground stars are defined by the coordinates about which the counter-dispersed spectra are symmetric. For example if the intensity-weighted average position of a stellar spectrum in one image is $`(x_L,y)`$ and in the other $`(x_R,y)`$, then $`((x_L+x_R)/2,y)`$ can be taken as the stellar position. These positions are then compared with astrometric catalogues to obtain a plate solution in the usual way. The sky co-ordinates of the PN calculated on this basis will be correct, but the velocities will have an offset, in this example, corresponding to the intensity-weighted mean wavelength of the filter. But this offset does not need to be determined explicitly since the calibration mask fixes the absolute wavelength scale for each pair of PN detections.

### 4.5 Project overview

The PN.Spectrograph consortium, whose members are listed on the project website4 was formed in 1997. The project is funded by means of grants received from the national funding agencies of the participating institutes, and from ESO. Total expenditure up to the commissioning of the instrument was EUR 212k, which includes seven man-months of mechanical workshop effort provided directly by the Dutch astronomy foundation ASTRON. Academic labour and travel costs were not charged to the project. Also, CCD detectors and cryostats are not included in the budget. By prior agreement the spectrograph makes use of the observatory detectors and data management systems.

The optical design was contracted to Prime Optics (Australia) who worked closely with the workshops of the RSAA where the mechanical design was carried out. Contracts for the construction of the camera optics and the collimator optics went out to INAOE (Mexico) and to the RSAA optical workshop, respectively, in March 1999. Acceptance testing was carried out in May 2000 but this was inconclusive and the optics could not be accepted until December, following further tests and corrective work by RSAA. The optics were then coated by the Australian company Rofin during February-March 2001.

In the meantime a Phase B study, to identify any remaining problems such as stray light and flexure, had been carried out by RSAA and project members. Completed in July 1999, it showed that a double specular reflection (zeroth order) between the gratings (which ‘face’ each other in the concave arrangement chosen - see Fig. 4) would give rise to a significant ghost image. This problem was solved by chosing different gratings, which were then ordered from the Richardson Grating Laboratory.

ASTRON constructed the instrument housing and many of the component mountings, which were shipped to Australia in July 2000 for assembly. The first of the filters, from BARR associates, arrived in mid-May.

The RSAA workshops also manufactured the adapter flange for the WHT Cassegrain (a different one is required for the TNG), the adapters for the WHT cryostats, the tilt-tunable filter holder, the grating assembly and the two motorized units (shutter and calibration mask). Finally, the RSAA was contracted to correct any residual mechanical errors, and to integrate and align the instrument.

During final testing, conducted by RSAA and Prime Optics staff, a subtle scattered-light problem appeared which had not been identified during the Phase B study. It again involved multiple reflections from the grating assembly and appeared when the (small) reflectance of the CCD detectors was included. The problem was solved by an additional baffle.

### 4.6 The PN.S in operation

The instrument was shipped to La Palma in the Canary Islands in June 2001, but unfortunately misdirected to Las Palmas, before arriving at the Observatory555Observatorio de la Roque de los Muchachos. on July 10. The PN.S was commissioned at the 4.2m WHT of the ING666Isaac Newton Group of telescopes. on July 16, 2001 (Merrifield et al., 2001). It was then operated for a further three nights and has since been used in two observing runs (September 2001 and March 2002). All observations were made with the EEV-12 and EEV-13 detectors, and to date only the 5034Å filter has been used, at either 0 tilt ($`\lambda _c`$ = 5034.3) or 6 tilt ($`\lambda _c`$ = 5027.1).

From measurements of galactic PN with catalogued fluxes and of spectrophotometric standard stars we were able to determine the system efficiency (corrected for atmospheric losses) to be 33.3%, in good agreement with the design expectations (Table 4). Here the “system efficiency” includes telescope, instrument including filter, and detector, and represents the throughput at the peak of the filter profile. Since the dispersion has been determined, it is easy to establish the peak throughput per Ångstrom by measuring the flux in a slice through the peak of the spectrum of a standard star and comparing this with the expected flux.

To use this information to establish a magnitude limit, we refer to §2 from which we can see that at the distance of the Virgo cluster (15 Mpc) the brightest PN have $`m^{}26.6`$. At the above efficiency, in a one-hour observation with 1″ seeing, this corresponds to about 1200 detected photons and a S/N of about 10.1 in each arm of the spectrograph, using Equation 7. PN which are 1.4 magnitudes fainter reach $`S/N10`$ in 12.0 hours. Even at a distance of 25 Mpc ($`m^{}27.7`$), significant sampling of the PNLF can be achieved ($`S/N7`$ for $`m^{}+0.6`$ mag in 14.6 hours).

Preliminary measurements show a differential displacement between the left and right images of up to 3 pixels ($`40`$µm) when the telescope is rapidly slewed through the full range of azimuth and elevation, which is much more than that expected from flexure calculations (§4.3). Most of this effect seems to be due to residual movements of the CCD detectors within the cryostats, which was not included in the calculation.

Fortunately, by taking arc lamp images of the focal plane mask at regular intervals during observations, we are able to ensure that the velocity calibration is not affected by flexure. After slewing to each new target the zero point of the flexure is determined by registration of the calibration mask in the two cameras. Measurements have also shown that the displacements in either image are negligibly small during normal guiding ($`\pm 0.5`$ pixel r.m.s.) so the imaging is not compromised.

The wavelength calibration, still being optimised, has tested out quite satisfactorily during observations of objects with known velocities. For example, a comparison of 25 of our measured PN velocities in NGC 3379 ($`D`$ = 10 Mpc) with measurements from the NESSIE multi-fibre spectrograph on the KPNO 4-m telescope (Ciardullo et al., 1993) shows good agreement, indicating our measurement uncertainty at this stage to be 28 km s-1 (Fig. 10).

For conditions under which the seeing was worse than $`0.8`$″ the image quality was uniform over the field. Under better conditions, it becomes evident that the image quality is slightly poorer towards the corners of the field, as expected (see Fig. 5). Under very good conditions the imaging quality is limited by the spectrograph optics to $`0.7`$″.

Images from one of the first observing sessions at the WHT are shown in Fig. 11. The left- and right-arm images appear nearly identical, since they are visually dominated by the short, symmetric spectra of stars and by the broad, integrated light of the galaxy (NGC 7457). However the positions of the PN, some of which can be seen as point-like sources in the zoomed-in images, are displaced between left and right images, as can be seen by comparing them with the stellar features (cf Fig. 2).

## 5 Conclusion

We have constructed an instrument which can efficiently detect extragalactic PN and measure their velocities. Using a novel application of slitless spectroscopy, the data can be obtained in a single observation with a single instrument, rather than the more complex procedures previously necessary. We have presented design information for the highly optimised, dedicated instrument now in use at La Palma, and first results have been presented. In effect the telescope efficiency can be nearly doubled by this approach, opening up the prospect of routine observations of galaxy kinematics at a distance of up to 25 Mpc with 4m-class telescopes. The technique is applicable to larger telescopes.

## 6 Acknowledgements

The PN.S would not have seen the green light of day without the generous financial support of: the Australian Research Council, the European Southern Observatory, the Italian C.N.A.A. (Consiglio Nazionale per l’Astronomia e l’Astrofisica), the Dutch N.W.O. (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek), the Observatory of Capodimonte and in Britain the Royal Society and PPARC.

We thank the ING (operating the William Herschel Telescope on La Palma) for their enthusiastic support, the Mt Stromlo workshops of the R.S.S.A. for their untiring efforts, and the Anglo-Australian Observatory. We also wish to thank Steve Rawlings, who generously assisted by swapping his telescope time allocation after delays caused planning problems for the project, and Rob Hammerschlag and and Felix Bettonvil for technical advice.

## 7 Appendix A: Undispersed H$`\alpha `$ arm

An H$`\alpha `$ imaging camera was included as a future option in the PN.S design. A dichroic can be placed after the last element of the collimator, bringing an undispersed image to a third CCD detector via a H$`\alpha `$ filter and camera. We are now seeking to fund this option. The motivation is to improve the detection efficiency of PN and to permit deep Halpha imaging of galaxies which we are already surveying for PN.

For those PN which are detected in H$`\alpha `$, the H$`\alpha `$ image constitute a cross-check of the velocity measurement. The image will also serve as a check on the astrometric procedures used on the CDI images, and as an indicator of contaminating objects. For example, the absence of an H$`\alpha `$ counterpart to an \[O III\] detection will indicate a background object instead of a PN: Ly-$`\alpha `$ emitters redshifted to the \[O III\] band are detected in significant numbers in \[O III\] surveys (e.g. Freeman et al. (2000)). Objects which are relatively bright in H$`\alpha `$ may be unresolved HII regions. Although the \[N II$`\lambda 6584`$Å line will often be included in the H$`\alpha `$ image, some information on the H$`\alpha `$/\[O III\] ratio would be obtained.

While elliptical galaxies harbour much less cold and warm gas than spirals, with deep enough exposures they mostly show extended H$`\alpha `$ emission (Macchetto et al., 1996)). With our long integration times (typically 10 hours on each galaxy, and with an optical efficiency higher than that obtained with multi-purpose instruments), we expect to achieve some of the deepest H$`\alpha `$ images yet (for example, about a factor of 6 deeper than the images of Macchetto et al. (op. cit.) in their survey at the ESO 3.6m and 3.5m NTT). These new emission maps may provide useful insight into the ionization processes in elliptical galaxies. Similar deep H$`\alpha `$ images can be acquired in the outer regions of S0 galaxies, where any remaining interstellar gas is probably ionized by the intergalactic UV radiation. Long integration times are required to detect this diffuse ionized gas (see Bland-Hawthorn et al. (1997)), which may help to constrain the ionizing flux and gas density (Maloney and Bland-Hawthorn, 1999).

## 8 Appendix B: Rejected design solutions

Several other possibilities exist for the construction of a simultaneous CDI instrument such as the PN.S. For future reference we briefly summarise some that we have investigated.

### 8.1 Amplitude splitting

Instead of a pair of gratings butted together (pupil splitting) we consider a single grating illuminated at normal incidence (Fig. 12). By choice of grating constant, only the orders $`m=`$ -1, 0 and 1 are propagating. Therefore, the only possible source of stray light is from the $`m=0`$ order, which in this case would not be a great problem. This is an elegant construction since symmetry is guaranteed, there is no join between the two gratings, and the mechanical mounting is trivial.

Connes (1959) explored this approach in various interferometer designs, and believed on the grounds of a scalar analysis that a grating with a suitable symmetric triangular profile would split light at normal incidence into two beams with nearly 50% efficiency in each. Using electromagnetic code we discovered that for a 1800l/mm grating the optimum efficiency (averaged over both polarisations) is only 64% (in aluminium) at a blaze angle of 34, slightly displaced with respect to the 32 expected on the basis of geometric. This is well short of the nearly 100% optical efficiency expected by Connes, and the difficulty of construction does not justify its use when compared with a holographically produced grating. Incidentally Connes’ expectation does work out correctly for the S-polarised component.

We performed an efficiency optimisation for a holographic grating, assuming a sinusoidal profile again in aluminium. A regime of high ($`>80`$%) efficiency is found near 1250l/mm and a groove depth of 0.165 µm (the p- and s-polarisation efficiencies are about equal). The cost of a custom-made grating would have been prohibitive though, while the highest efficiency for an industry standard holographic grating was found to be around 66% in unpolarised light, with 1800l/mm and a groove depth of 0.16 µm777This calculation, using the gtgr4 code mentioned earlier, was kindly confirmed by Jobin-Yvon, a French manufacturer..

### 8.2 Polarization splitting

The problem of obtaining high efficiency from a grating is made much easier if the grating is illuminated by light of only one polarization. A CDI instrument arises if the light is split into two linearly-polarized beams, each of which is fed to a separate grating Fig. 13). The idea calls for a more complicated mechanical design though, and the resulting asymmetries were feared to lead to flexure problems.

### 8.3 Transmissive gratings

The transmissive equivalent of pupil splitting would correspond to two grisms, side-by-side. This would make it possible to use one camera instead of two, the two images falling side-by-side on a single large format CCD. During our study we were unable to find a grism with sufficient dispersion and efficiency.

We did investigate the idea of a transmissive phase mask, in which the collimated beam is passed through a crenellated dielectric structure which causes it to diffract into pairs of orders (similar to the case in §8.1). Provided the zeroth order is minimised by selecting the groove depth, and higher orders are cut off, high efficiency can be achieved in the –1 and +1 orders. A review is given by Walker et al. (1993), who show the effect of varying all parameters including the duty cycle of the structure, indicating that high efficiency can be obtained.

In an early (1994) scaled experiment using a microlithographically produced mask and UV light, we verified that high transmitted efficiencies ($`75`$%) can be reached888This was performed by NGD at the University of Sydney, Australia, assisted by Dr P. Krug. At the time, it was difficult to obtain these structures in large sizes. Since then, the closely related VPH (volume phase holographic) gratings have become available, and transmissive gratings may be a more viable option.

## 9 Appendix C: Accuracy of PSF-fitting photometry and positions

Here we calculate the accuracy of object centroids derived by means of PSF fitting.

Let $`f_i`$ be the data: intensities on the pixels $`i`$ at positions $`x_i,y_i`$ (in units of pixels) on the image plane. We try to model these data as $`AP(x_i\mu _x,y_i\mu _y)\mathrm{\Delta }^2`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the pixel width, and $`P`$ is the PSF normalized to total intensity 1. $`A`$ is the intensity of the star, and $`(\mu _x,\mu _y)`$ are the position of the star, to be fitted for. Write

$$\chi ^2=\underset{i}{}\left(f_iAP(x_i\mu _x,y_i\mu _y)\mathrm{\Delta }^2\right)^2/\sigma _i^2$$

where $`\sigma _i`$ is the error on the measured intensity in pixel $`i`$. Then the minimum of $`\chi ^2`$ gives the best-fit PSF, and the second partial derivatives of $`\chi ^2`$ with respect to any two parameters give twice the inverse covariance matrix. In what follows we ignore covariances between the different variables $`A`$, $`\mu _x`$ and $`\mu _y`$, as is appropriate for bisymmetric PSF’s.

At the best-fit value (we may assume without loss of generality that $`\mu _x=\mu _y=0`$) we obtain the inverse variance on the star’s intensity $`A`$ as

$$\text{Var}(A)^1=0.5^2\chi ^2/A^2=\underset{i}{}P(x_i,y_i)^2\mathrm{\Delta }^4/\sigma _i^2$$

which reduces to

$$=\left(P^2𝑑x𝑑y\right)\mathrm{\Delta }^2/\sigma ^2$$

if the PSF is fully sampled and $`\sigma _i`$ constant (i.e., background-limited data). All integrals are over the range $`0\mathrm{}`$.

The inverse variance of the best-fit position is similarly (removing terms which go to zero at the best fit)

$$\text{Var}(\mu _x)^1=0.5^2\chi ^2/\mu _x^2=\underset{i}{}A^2(P/x)^2\mathrm{\Delta }^4/\sigma ^2=\left((P/x)^2𝑑x𝑑y\right)A^2\mathrm{\Delta }^2/\sigma ^2$$

(and similarly for $`\mu _y`$). These two relations can be combined to give

$$\delta \mu _x=\frac{\delta A}{A}\times \sqrt{\frac{P^2𝑑x𝑑y}{(P/x)^2𝑑x𝑑y}}$$

where $`\delta A=\text{Var}(A)^{1/2}`$ is the 1-$`\sigma `$ error on $`A`$, etc.

The centroid error therefore depends on the significance $`A/\delta A`$ of the detection of the star, and on a geometric factor governed only by the shape of the PSF.

For a gaussian PSF, dispersion $`s`$, we find

$$\text{Var}(A)^1=\mathrm{\Delta }^2/(4\pi s^2\sigma ^2)$$

hence

$$\delta A=\sqrt{4\pi }s\sigma /\mathrm{\Delta }$$

and

$$\text{Var}(\mu _x)^1=A^2\mathrm{\Delta }^2/(8\pi s^4\sigma ^2)$$

hence

$$\delta \mu _x=\sqrt{8\pi }s^2\sigma /(\mathrm{\Delta }A)=\sqrt{2}s\frac{\delta A}{A}$$

For a Moffat function PSF of the form

$$P=\frac{\beta 1}{\pi a^2}\left(1+\frac{r^2}{a^2}\right)^\beta $$

we get

$$\delta \mu _x=a\frac{\delta A}{A}\sqrt{\frac{2\beta +1}{\beta (2\beta 1)}}$$

If we write $`a`$ as $`\frac{1}{2}\text{FWHM}/\sqrt{2^{1/\beta }1}`$, we find that for $`\beta >1.5`$, which covers PSF’s with tails as shallow as $`r^3`$

$$\delta \mu _x=\frac{\delta A}{A}\times 0.67\times \text{FWHM}\pm 10\%.$$

(The gaussian is the limit $`\beta \mathrm{}`$; in this case the coefficient is 0.6.)