A spectro-polarimetric integral field spectrograph for EPICS-EPOL

Abstract

Imaging polarimetry offers a way to increase the contrast of light scattered from circumstellar material, enabling direct observation of exoplanets -possibly rocky- with the E-ELT. To actually characterize these planets, some spectral resolution is essential. With sufficient resolution -both spectral and spatial- the spectral differential imaging technique can be used in addition to the polarimetry to detect circumstellar point sources. We present the concept for a spectro-polarimetric integral field spectrograph for the EPICS-EPOL instrument and our current efforts to demonstrate this concept with our existing imaging polarimeter ExPo.

Publication
procspie