Integral field spectroscopy with the gemini multiobject spectrograph. I. Design, construction, and testing

The Gemini Multiobject Spectrograph (GMOS) installed on the Gemini-North telescope has a facility for integral field spectroscopy over the wavelength range 0.4-1.0 mum. GMOS is converted to this mode by the remote insertion of an integral field unit (IFU) into the beam in place of the masks used for the multiobject mode. With the IFU deployed, integral field spectroscopy is available over a fully filled contiguous field of 5 x 7 with a sampling of 0.2. A separate field of half the area, but otherwise identical, is also provided to improve background subtraction. The IFU contains 1500 lenslet-coupled fibers and is the first facility of any type for integral field spectroscopy employed on an 8-10 m telescope. We describe the design, construction, and testing of the GMOS IFU and present measurements of the throughput both in the laboratory and at the telescope. We compare these with a theoretical prediction made before construction started. All are in good agreement with each other, with the on-telescope throughput exceeding 60% (averaged over wavelength). A second paper will verify the scientific performance by comparison with existing one- and two-dimensional data sets.