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# Optical and Infrared Photometry of the Micro-quasar GRO J1655-40 in Quiescence

## 1 Introduction

The Soft X-ray Transients (SXT) are a sub-class of accreting low-mass binary systems consisting of a neutron star or black hole primary, accretion disk, and Roche lobe filling secondary star. Instabilities in mass accretion cause these sources to undergo episodic outbursts. The X-ray emission during outburst indicates the existence of an accreting compact object. During outburst, the accretion flow contributes nearly all the optical flux. In quiescence, on the other hand, the X-ray luminosity is very low, and the optical light is dominated by the contribution of the secondary star. At this time the orbital characteristics of the SXT’s may be studied in some detail (van Paradijs and McClintock, 1995). In particular, the mass function can be measured, which provides a lower limit to the mass of the compact object. Further information about the mass ratio (from line broadening) and inclination (from ellipsoidal variability) can be used to determine the mass of the compact object (Bailyn et al., 1998, and references therein) which in many cases is above the $`3M_{\mathrm{}}`$ upper limit of the mass of a neutron star (Chitre and Hartle, 1976).

While this procedure has been carried out successfully for several systems (see references in Bailyn et al. 1998), the modeling of ellipsoidal variations can be complicated by various other contributions to the observed light curves, in particular contributions from the accreting material. The accretion flow typically contributes both a constant flux offset and random flickering. The constant flux contribution of the disk decreases the observed amplitude of the ellipsoidal variations, and is thus degenerate with the inclination to first order (there are potentially observable shape differences). In systems for which the disk contribution is significant, not only is the amplitude of the variations decreased, but the aperiodic flickering may result in changes in the light curve from measurement to measurement, complicating the process of accurately modeling the light curve. One proposed method to minimize the disk contribution is the use of infrared light curves. For example, Shahbaz, Naylor, & Charles (1994) suggest that the disk contribution to the light curves of A0620–00 are minimized in the infrared. They have directly measured the disk contribution in the $`K`$–band spectroscopically, and find it to be less than $`27\%`$, smaller than in the optical (Shahbaz, Bandyopadhyay, & Charles, 1999a).

Models used to fit the ellipsoidal variations of SXT’s in quiescence have traditionally assumed accretion flow in the form of a geometrically thin, optically thick disk (e.g. Orosz and Bailyn 1997, hereafter OB97; van der Hooft et al. 1998). The standard thin $`\alpha `$-disk model corresponds to one allowed solution to the hydrodynamic equations which describe differentially rotating gas flows (Shakura and Sunyaev, 1973; Frank, King & Raine, 1992). The $`\alpha `$-disk model has been successfully used to model the outburst cycle of cataclysmic variables (e.g. Cannizzo 1993). However, recent findings have called into question the application of standard thin disk to model SXT systems. In particular, Narayan and collaborators have suggested that the accretion flow in quiescence consists of an outer disk and an optically thin advection dominated flow closer to the compact object (Narayan, McClintock, & Yi, 1996).

The SXT GRO J1655–40 (Nova Sco 1994) was discovered on July 7 1994 with the Burst and Transient Source Experiment aboard the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (Zhang et al., 1994). Because GRO J1655–40 has a relatively luminous F star secondary the quiescent light curves are dominated by star light to an unusually large extent. As a result, an unusually precise fit of the orbital parameters is possible. OB97 report values of $`P_{orb}=2.62157\pm 0.00015`$ days, $`f(M)=3.24\pm 0.09M_{\mathrm{}}`$, $`i=69.50\pm 0.08\mathrm{°}`$, and $`Q=2.99\pm 0.08`$ (where $`Q`$ is taken to be $`M_1/M_2`$) resulting in a primary mass of $`7.09\pm 0.22M_{\mathrm{}}`$. van der Hooft et al. (1998) derive a refined $`P_{orb}=2.62168\pm 0.00014`$ days from photometric and spectroscopic quiescent data taken before the April 1996 outburst. They use $`f(M)=3.16\pm 0.15`$ (Bailyn et al., 1995b), and report a range of secondary mass $`1.60M_23.10M_{\mathrm{}}`$ and i of $`63.7i70.7\mathrm{°}`$, corresponding to a primary mass range of $`6.297.60M_{\mathrm{}}`$. Shahbaz et al. (1999b) obtained improved spectroscopy, and report $`f(M)=2.73\pm 0.09M_{\mathrm{}}`$ and a range of $`q=M_2/M_1`$ of $`0.3370.436`$. They derive a primary mass of $`5.57.9M_{\mathrm{}}`$. Using Keck spectroscopy, Israelian et al. (1999) found a rotational velocity for the secondary star of v$`{}_{\mathrm{rot}}{}^{}\mathrm{sin}i=93\pm 3`$ km s-1, which implies a mass ratio of $`Q`$= $`2.48\pm 0.16`$ (assuming synchronous rotation and using the Shahbaz et al. mass function). No infrared data have been available to date.

We have obtained $`BVIJK`$ light curves in order to explore the nature of the quiescent accretion flow and to further constrain the orbital parameters of the system. In §2 we present the data and reduction techniques. In §3 we discuss the values and limits on the orbital parameters and disk contribution. Our results are summarized in §4.

## 2 Observations and Reductions

Photometry of the source was obtained from 1999 July through October with ANDICAM 111http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/ depoy/research/instrumentation/andicam/andicam.html on the 1.0 meter Yale telescope at CTIO, operated by the YALO Consortium (Bailyn et al., 1999). ANDICAM is capable of observing at an optical and an infrared wavelength simultaneously. The source was observed in the Johnson $`BVI`$ filters with a Loral $`2048\times 2048`$ CCD and the $`JK`$ infrared filters with a Rockwell $`1024\times 1024`$ HgCdTe HAWAII Array. The infrared channel of ANDICAM allows for a dither pattern of up to seven positions. An observing sequence consisted of a single 720 second exposure in $`B`$ simultaneously with seven dithered 100 second exposures in $`J`$, followed by a single 360 second exposure in $`V`$ simultaneously with seven dithered 45 second exposures in $`K`$, followed by a single 180 second exposure in $`I`$ simultaneously with 4 dithered 45 second exposures in $`K`$. We typically performed one observing sequence per night between 1999 July 7 and 1999 October 30 (HJD 2,451,376–2,451,481).

The optical images were bias and flat–field corrected using standard IRAF routines. Sky corrections for the infrared frames were constructed by median-combining all frames from a given night of the same filter. This sky field was subtracted from each image in the set. A flat–field was constructed by taking the difference between a dome flat taken with dome–lights on, and one taken with dome–lights off. Finally, the images from each set were co–added.

The program DAOPHOT II (Stetson, 1987) within IRAF was used to remove near neighbors of the program object and all comparison stars. Aperture photometry was then performed on the cleaned images. The magnitudes of at least 30 nearby stable stars were combined to form a comparison sequence for the differential photometry. Time-series were constructed in each filter (see Figure 1). In order to estimate the accuracy of our photometry, we extracted $`5`$ stable comparison stars which span the magnitude range of the source. We measured the scatter of each comparison star about its mean, and use the average rms of all the comparison stars as our estimate for the scatter in the program object photometry. We find the average rms of these comparison stars to be $`0.017`$ mag in the $`B`$ and $`V`$ filters, 0.014 mag in the $`I`$, $`0.023`$ mag in $`J`$ and 0.032 mag in $`K`$.

Our $`BVIJK`$ light curves are presented in Figure 1 phased on our current best period of $`2.62191\pm 0.00020`$ days (1 $`\sigma `$ error). They are plotted with a stable comparison star of similar magnitude in order to demonstrate the scatter in the photometry. The data have been phased following the convention of OB97 in which phase 0 corresponds to the closest approach of the secondary star to the observer. The light curves are dominated by ellipsoidal variations, demonstrating two minima per orbit. We observe a deeper minimum at phase 0.5, which is explained by increased gravity darkening near the inner Lagrangian point. The optical light curves are quantitatively indistinguishable from those reported by OB97 and van der Hooft et al. (1998). This result confirms that the data obtained in March 1996 was truly in full quiescence, and demonstrates that the source has returned to the same state after the outburst which began in April 1996 (Orosz et al. 1997). The $`JK`$ light curves are similar in shape to the optical curves. The increased scatter in the $`K`$ band is consistent with the increased scatter in the comparison stars, and does not require intrinsic source variability.

We find a deviant high point corresponding to HJD $`2,451,476.5`$. In all cases but the $`V`$ band, data from this date lie significantly above the rest of the light curve, possibly due to a flare or a hot spot. This is unexpected, given the small contribution of the accretion flow. We removed this point for purposes of model fitting.

In order to find an improved value for the orbital period we combined our data with the OB97 quiescent data (Figure 2). We were unable to phase the combined data set on the OB97 spectroscopic period of $`2.62157\pm 0.00015`$ days. However, OB97 used both quiescent and outburst radial velocity data to calculate this period. As pointed out by Shahbaz et al. (1999b), X–ray heating of the secondary star can cause the ‘effective center’ of the secondary to shift, making a sinusoidal fit inadequate. The OB97 period is therefore suspect. Using our data set in conjunction with only the photometric data set of OB97, we found a preferred photometric period of $`2.62191\pm 0.00020`$ days from the Phase Dispersion Minimization (Stellingwerf, 1978) package in IRAF. The Lomb-Scargle (Press and Rybicki, 1989) and Clean (Roberts, Lehár, and Dreher, 1987) algorithms within the Period package 222http://www.starlink.rl.ac.uk/star/docs/sun167.htx/sun167.htmlstardoccontents gave similar results. This period is consistent with the published photometric period of $`2.62168\pm 0.00014`$ days of van der Hooft et al. (1998).

## 3 Discussion

Our primary purpose in measuring multiwavelength quiescent light curves of SXT’s is to constrain the disk contribution in quiescence. This is not only interesting in itself but provides a crucial input into the determination of inclination and therefore to the determination of the mass of the primary as well as other binary system parameters.

Past work on GRO J1655–40 has consistently found a model with an extended cool disk to best fit the data. In particular, the depth of the minimum at phase 0.5 (OB97 convention) in the $`B`$ light curve could not be fit without a grazing eclipse of the star by the disk. Since the size of such an eclipse is a very strong function of inclination, very tight limits on $`i`$ were derived (OB97, van der Hooft et al. 1998). At the same time, the small relative contribution of light from the disk in the optical wavebands required a very cool outer disk. The current work has improved on previous studies in two significant ways. We use an improved modeling code which uses model atmosphere tables to compute local intensities, providing significantly improved limb darkening calculations. In addition we have obtained infrared data, allowing us to better constrain the contribution of the outer parts of the disk, which are cooler than the star.

We used the recently developed ELC code (Orosz & Hauschildt 2000, hereafter OH2000) to model the light curves. This code, which is loosely based on the code described in OB97, uses model atmosphere specific intensities rather than specific intensities computed using black bodies and a one- or two-parameter limb darkening law. For the present problem we used the NextGen grid for cool giants (Hauschildt et al., 1999). The NextGen models are the most comprehensive and detailed models available for cool stars. The model atmospheres are computed using spherical geometry, rather than the usual plane-parallel approximation. OH2000 show that for low gravity stars ($`\mathrm{log}g3.5`$) the limb darkening behavior of the extended spherical models deviates significantly from a simple linear law. Since the secondary star in GRO J1655-40 has a relatively low gravity ($`\mathrm{log}g3.5`$ in general, and formally reaching zero at the $`L_1`$ point itself) the consequences of the nonlinear limb darkening are likely to be important. In general, the NextGen models predict a lower intensity near the limb of the star. The overall result is that in most cases the amplitude of the ellipsoidal light curve is larger when the NextGen intensities are used compared to the light curve computed using black body intensities (see OH2000 for a detailed discussion of this point). This effect is maximized in the bluest band passes, where a small downward shift in temperature makes the biggest decrease in flux. Note that it is precisely the $`B`$ band lightcurve near phase $`0.5`$ which OB97 suggest requires the partial eclipse.

Our primary conclusion based on modeling the new data with the new code is that the large, cool disk and partial eclipse advocated in our previous study (OB97) and that of van der Hooft et al. (1998) is no longer viable. Indeed, we find no evidence for any contribution from the accretion flow to the optical/IR lightcurves. In Figure 1 we have plotted our data with the large disk model (computed with the improved model atmosphere code) which provides the best fit to the OB97 data. While this model fits our optical data as well as it fits the OB97 data, it fails dramatically in the IR, where the large contribution from the cool disk dilutes the ellipsoidal light curves too much. In fact, a model with an eclipsing cool outer disk would require an outer disk temperature on the order of $`100K`$ as found by van der Hooft et al. (1998). We argue below that such a low outer disk temperature is physically implausible, due to the radiation field of the F–star companion. Alternatively, all bandpasses are well fit by a model with no disk contribution or eclipses (see Fig. 2). The two models (with or without disk) are statistically indistinguishable in terms of their fit to the $`B`$ band at phase 0.5. There is still a small residual discrepancy, but it is similar in size for both models, in contrast with the results of OB97 who found that with their cruder modeling of limb darkening the partial eclipse model fit significantly better.

A large cool disk with an outer temperature of $`100K`$ also seems improbable given the proximity of an F-star companion. While it is beyond the scope of this paper to solve the detailed equations of gas dynamics and radiative transfer to determine the outer disk temperature, it seems reasonable to derive an approximate lower limit on this temperature due to the radiation field of the companion star. The ratio of flux from the companion star at the point of the disk nearest the $`L_1`$ point to that at the surface of the star itself is approximately $`(R_{star}/D_{disk})^2`$ where $`R_{star}`$ is the effective radius of the secondary star calculated using the Eggleton approximation (Eggleton, 1983) and $`D_{disk}`$ is the closest distance between the center of the secondary star and the outer edge of the accretion disk. Thus the black-body temperature generated by the star’s radiation field when it impacts the outer edge of the (presumably optically thick) disk would be

$$T_{edge}=\sqrt{\frac{R_{star}}{D_{disk}}}\times T_{star}.$$

where $`T_{edge}`$ is the temperature due to the radiation field of the star at that point and $`T_{star}`$ is the mean surface temperature of the star. Since all the gas in the outermost regions of the disk originated on the secondary star and continues to be irradiated by the secondary at least some of the time as it orbits the primary, $`T_{edge}`$ may provide a rough lower limit to $`T_{outer}`$. We emphasize that the actual value of of $`T_{outer}`$ depends on the temperature of the gas as it leaves the L1 point (which may be considerably cooler than the average temperature of the star), the gravitational potential energy gained by the gas as it falls toward the disk, and any density change or thermal energy transfer which may occur upon the impact of the gas with the accretion disk.

Figure 3 displays limits on the extent and outer temperature of the quiescent disk. The allowed region is bounded at low $`T_{outer}`$ by $`T_{edge}`$. An upper limit on $`T_{outer}`$ can be derived empirically by computing the limits on the disk contamination of the ellipsoidal lightcurves. We have done this by approximating the accretion flow as a black–body disk with a single temperature equal to that at the outer edge. This provides an appropriate limiting case, as any temperature rise toward the center of the disk will increase the total flux contribution of the disk resulting in more stringent limits. We model the disk flux contribution as a constant dilution factor to the ellipsoidal lightcurves, taking into account the system inclination and an assumed outer disk radius. The f-statistic is used to compare the resulting lightcurves with our data, and determine whether they are statistically different at the one and three $`\sigma `$ level. Table 1 lists the allowed one and three $`\sigma `$ disk dilution limits for each filter computed from the model fits. The curves shown in Figure 3 are derived from the $`V`$ band data, which provided the tightest constraint on the allowed disk region. Note that the limits for the combined light curves are much more severe than for any one filter, both because there are many more data points involved and because any contribution from the disk would be maximized in one particular bandpass, and thus would have to be much lower in most of the others. Finally, Figure 3 also shows the disk size at which partial eclipses of the star by the disk would occur. Note that this is a somewhat porous limit, since it varies with $`i`$ and $`Q`$, but it demonstrates the qualitative effect of the lack of evidence for such eclipses.

Based on the arguments presented above, we adopted a model which consists only of ellipsoidal variations from the Roche-lobe filling secondary. Hence the only free parameters are the mass ratio $`Q`$ and the inclination $`i`$. We adopted a spectral type of F6III (Shahbaz et al., 1999b), which corresponds to a mean secondary star temperature of $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}=6336`$ K (Gray, 1992). We had three basic binary system observables, namely the photometric light curves in the five filters, the radial velocity curve (Shahbaz et al., 1999b), and the measurement of the mean projected rotational velocity of the secondary star v$`{}_{\mathrm{rot}}{}^{}\mathrm{sin}i`$ (Israelian et al., 1999). All of these observables were obtained when the source was in complete X-ray quiescence ($`L_x10^3L_{\mathrm{opt}}`$). Thus the light curves and the velocity curve did not suffer any biases caused by X-ray heating. It is well known that tidal distortion of the secondary star can cause distortions in the line profiles from which the rotational velocity is measured, leading to a systematic error in v$`{}_{\mathrm{rot}}{}^{}\mathrm{sin}i`$ (e.g. Kopal 1959; Marsh, Robinson, & Wood 1994; Shahbaz 1998; OH2000). However, the measurement of the rotational velocity was obtained at the photometric phase 0 (i.e. the closest approach of the F-star), which is the phase when the potential distortions to the line profiles are minimized. We computed numerical broadening kernels for phase 0 and compared them to the analytic kernel commonly used and found almost no systematic biases. We conclude that the Israelian et al. (1999) value of of v$`{}_{\mathrm{rot}}{}^{}\mathrm{sin}i`$ represents the true mean projected rotational velocity of the F-star.

Our fitting procedure makes use of all of the binary system observables and their uncertainties. We will analyze three different data sets together. First are the photometric light curves reported in this paper. There are a total of 227 observations in the five filters (48, 48, 47, 43 and 41 in B, V, I, J, and K respectively). The second data set is the radial velocity curve of Shahbaz et al. (1999), which has 29 points. Finally, the single measurement of $`v_{\mathrm{rot}}\mathrm{sin}i=93\pm 3`$ kms-1 provided by Israelian et al. (1999) is our third data set. We seek a binary system model which best fits all three basic observables simultaneously, i.e. we minimize the total $`\chi ^2`$: $`\chi _{\mathrm{tot}}^2=\chi _{\mathrm{photo}}^2+\chi _{rmRV}^2+\chi _{\mathrm{rot}}^2`$.

There is some ambiguity in assigning weights to the various observations when fitting several quantities simultaneously. In this case, we simply assigned equal weights to each of the three data sets. For the data sets to be weighted equally requires that the values of $`\chi ^2`$ associated with the best fit to each one be the same. A three-parameter sinusoid fit to the Shahbaz et al. (1999) radial velocities yields $`\chi _{\mathrm{RV}}^2/\nu =0.98`$. We therefore take the quoted uncertainties on each radial velocity measurement at face value. We also adopted the $`1\sigma `$ uncertainty in $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ quoted by Israelian et al. (1999). In the case of our photometry, however, using the observational uncertainties derived from comparison stars resulted in $`\chi ^2/\nu >1`$ for our best fits. Therefore we have arbitrarily increased the errors used for each point by a factor of $`1.27`$, which yields $`\chi ^2/\nu =1`$ for the best fits.

We then defined a grid of points in the $`Q`$-$`i`$ plane where $`2.0Q3.65`$ in steps of 0.05 and $`66^{}i74.8^{}`$ in steps of $`0.2^{}`$. At each point in this grid the orbital separation $`a`$ was adjusted to minimize the total $`\chi ^2`$. The orbital separation is needed to convert the model velocity curve and rotational velocity into physical units, and is also needed for the computation of the light curve, since the model atmosphere intensities are tabulated as a function of the gravity in physical units.

Using this procedure, we find a minimum overall $`\chi _{\mathrm{tot}}^2`$ at $`Q=2.6`$ and $`i=70.2^{}`$ (see Table 2). This point and $`\chi ^2`$ contours denoting the one and three $`\sigma `$ confidence limits are shown in Figure 4. Combining the allowed regions in $`Q`$ and $`i`$ shown in Figure 4 with the Shahbaz et al. (1999b) mass function $`f(M)`$, we find the probability distribution for $`M_1`$ shown in Figure 5. To obtain this curve we divided the $`Qi`$ plane into 50 confidence regions corresponding to the probability associated with $`\chi _{\mathrm{tot}}^2`$. Then we selected equal numbers of $`Q,i`$ pairs in each confidence region, and for each $`Q,i`$ pair chose values of $`f(M)`$ based on the Shahbaz et al. (1999b) value and error. A more detailed discussion of this procedure may be found in Orosz & Wade (1999). The probability density shown in Figure 5 is obtained by calculating an $`M_1`$ for each point in the $`(Q,i,f(M))`$ space, and summing the resulting values of $`M_1`$ weighted by an appropriate likelihood. The likelihood $`L_{Qif}`$ of each combination of $`Q`$, $`i`$, and $`f(M)`$ is determined by

$$L_{Qif}=\mathrm{exp}[\chi _{Qi}^2\chi _f^2]$$

where $`\chi _{Qi}^2`$ is the reduced $`\chi ^2`$ determined for the relevant values of $`Q`$ and $`i`$ as described above, and $`\chi _f=(ff_m)/\sigma _f`$, where $`f_m`$ is the value of $`f(M)`$ measured by Shahbaz et al. (1999b) and $`\sigma _f`$ is their quoted error. The distribution shown in Figure 5 is then the normalized probability distribution created by summing all the values of $`M_1`$ weighted by their likelihoods. We find a preferred $`M_1`$ value of $`6.3\pm 0.5M_{\mathrm{}}`$ ($`95\%`$ confidence). The peak of this distribution is lower than the result quoted in OB97 due to the lower value of $`f(M)`$ determined by Shahbaz et al. (1999b), and the distribution is wider than the errors quoted by OB97 because the limits on the inclination are less stringent without the requirement for a partial eclipse.

## 4 Summary

We present $`BVIJK`$ quiescent light curves of the SXT GRO J1655–40. The shape of our light curves is consistent with that of previously published results, supporting the assumption that the source truly went into quiescence in 1996 before its most recent outburst. We report a refined photometric period of $`2.62191\pm 0.00020`$ days. We find that our best fit to the data at all wavelengths is provided by a model with no contribution from an accretion flow. For this fit we find a range in i and Q shown in Figure 4, which is consistent with, but somewhat wider than, previous findings. We also find a probability distribution of $`M_1`$ shown in Figure 5 where $`M_1=6.3\pm 0.5M_{\mathrm{}}(95\%`$ confidence). We have placed limits on the temperature and physical size of any accretion disk component.

This research was supported by NSF grant AST–9730774. Construction of the ANDICAM was carried out by the Ohio State University astronomical instrumentation group and sponsored by the NSF grant AST–9530619. We are grateful for conversations with Darren Depoy and Rick Pogge about the performance of the instrument, and with Nick Suntzeff about the calibration of the IR channel. David Gonzalez and Juan Espinoza provided their usual expert services as mountain-top obvservers, and Suzanne Tourtellotte managed the data processing with her usual aplomb. Shahbaz et al. (1999b) were kind enough to provide the RV data. We thank Elene Terry for development of the data processing software and Raj Jain for his software expertise and endless patience.


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# The VLT-VIRMOS Mask Manufacturing Unit

## 1 Introduction

The VIRMOS (Visible and InfraRed Multi-Object Spectrographs) project is the response by a French-Italian Consortium of astronomical institutes to the ESO request for two spectrographs with enhanced survey capabilities to be installed at the Very Large Telescope (VLT). It consists of the twin instruments VIMOS (VIsible Multi-Object Spectrograph) and NIRMOS (Near InfraRed Multi-Object Spectrograph), with a large field of view split into four quadrants and a high multiplexing factor in their Multi-Object Spectroscopy (MOS) observing modes (Le Fèvre et al., 1998, 2000). VIMOS is going to be offered to the European astronomical community starting July 2001 at VLT-UT3, and NIRMOS is expected to be operational at the end of 2002 at VLT-UT4. In MOS mode, both instruments make use of slit masks which the astronomer can design following the observational requirements. Thus, the VIRMOS project includes the delivery to ESO of a complete, independent, off-line facility to manufacture and handle the masks needed by the two spectrographs.

Multi-object spectrographs currently operational or forthcoming at other telescopes have adopted machining solutions ranging from laser to punching to milling machines and either aluminum or carbon fiber as masks: the MOS/OSIS instrument at CFHT (Canada France Hawaii Telescope) uses $`75\mu `$m thick black anodized aluminum masks cut by a laser machine (Di Biagio et al., 1990); at the KECK telescopes the LRIS instrument uses mechanically punched 0.4 mm thick aluminum masks (Oke et al., 1995) while the DEIMOS instrument111http://www.ucolick.org/ phillips/deimos/masks.html will use 0.25 mm masks prepared by a milling machine; the GMOS spectrograph for the Gemini telescopes uses 0.2 mm thick carbon fiber masks cut by a laser machine (Szeto et al., 1997).

In the VIMOS case we selected the laser technique to cut the masks into 0.2 mm thick invar sheets. In this paper, we will describe our Mask Manufacturing Unit (MMU), which is operational at the Paranal Observatory since August 2000. The MMU is presently used to provide the instrument FORS2 with the masks to be used in its Mask eXchange Unit (MXU) (Schink et al., 2000) and will be used with VIMOS as it arrives in Paranal in early 2001. In section 2 we illustrate the requirements and specifications the MMU had to satisfy and in section 3 the adopted hardware configurations. Sections 4 and 5 respectively describe the tests and tuning of the Mask Manufacturing Machine (MMM) and the resulting performances. Finally, Section 6 outlines the MMU operational concepts.

## 2 MMU Requirements and Specifications

### 2.1 Masks

The VIMOS (and NIRMOS) focal plane is divided into 4 quadrants, therefore 4 masks (1 mask set) are needed for every MOS observation. The scale at the focal plane where masks must be inserted is 0.578 mm arcsec-1 and each quadrant has a field of view of $`7\mathrm{}\times 8\mathrm{}`$ ($`8\mathrm{}\times 6\mathrm{}`$ NIRMOS). This defines the gross dimensions of the masks, and together with the expected best seeing at the VLT ($`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.3}\mathrm{}`$), the minimum slit width. Although the VLT Nasmyth focal plane has a curvature radius of 2 m, the VIMOS Focal Plane Adaptation Lens brings this radius to 4 m and the tilting of the quadrants optical axes by $`2\mathrm{°}`$ makes possible to use flat masks with a maximum allowed thickness of 0.4 mm. Fig. 1 shows an outline of the VIMOS focal plane with its reference system. The size of the masks is $`305\times 305`$ mm, and the contour geometry is determined by the mechanical interface with the focal plane and with the automatic mask insertion mechanism.

The number of slits in each mask can be more than 200, depending on slit length and spectral coverage. The highest multiplexing factor can be attained observing with the low resolution ($`R200`$) VIMOS grisms, when up to 5 rows of spectra can be stacked on each CCD. Typical slits are rectangular with width $`200\mu `$m ($`0.35\mathrm{}`$), but the possibility to cut also curved slits must be supported.

The roughness of the slit edges must be as low as possible on spatial scales between the detector pixel size (0.12 mm at the focal plane for VIMOS) and the slit length (typically 6 mm, equivalent to $`10\mathrm{}`$), to optimize sky subtraction in spectroscopic data reduction. This specification has been quantified as follows: the $`rms`$ roughness at pixel-size scales must be $`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}\mu `$m and the slit edge waviness must be $`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}3}\mu `$m. The slit edge roughness shall be regularly inspected to verify the machine performances.

The mask cutting speed shall be sufficient to allow the production of the masks for 8 observing fields (32 masks) in an 8 hour work shift (15 min per mask). For a typical 200 slit mask the total length to be cut is about 4500 mm (including the overhead for the mechanical interface) and therefore the requirement translates in a cutting speed $`6`$ mm s-1.

One of the most critical items is the slit positioning accuracy in the focal plane, which eventually determines whether the chosen set of objects is going to be found in the slits when pointing the telescope. The error budget is made of several components: (1) the mapping accuracy of the CCD into the focal plane, i.e. the accuracy with which optical distortions are taken into account; (2) the mask scale variations, i.e. the thermal expansion of the mask material due to the temperature variations between mask manufacturing and spectroscopic observation; (3) the positioning accuracy of the slit cutting machine; (4) the accuracy of the positioning of the mask in the focal plane and its repeatibility. The overall acceptable positioning accuracy is 1/3 of a pixel (slits of $`1\mathrm{}`$ width project onto 5 pixels), which means $`30\mu `$m. Component (1) contributes for 3 $`\mu `$m, the $`rms`$ of the fit of the transformation matrix from pixels to mm in the focal plane; component (4) is estimated to be $`10\mu `$m, since the mask contours can be customized to the as-built focal plane mechanical interface. Thus, $`17\mu `$m are allowed for component (2) and (3).

The mask surfaces shall have the lowest possible reflectivity at the operating wavelengths (370 to 1850 nm).

### 2.2 Mask Handling

To minimize observing overheads, and to avoid people inside the domes during the night, MOS instruments at the VLT must be able to change the mask configuration through remote control: in our case, both VIMOS and NIRMOS can have 15 different mask sets at any time. For each instrument and for each quadrant there is a demountable Instrument Cabinet (IC) that must be prepared by the MMU operator by inserting the requested masks as much in advance of the spectroscopic observations as possible. These requirements imply that a large number of masks is kept available at any time, from which to choose the ones to be inserted in the ICs for the following night(s) of observation. Storage for 100 mask sets (400 masks) has to be provided. The masks must thus be uniquely identified, must be traceable and their position in each IC must be certain and made known to instrument control software. A mask handling system, providing hardware and software tools to reach the goal of having the right mask in the focal plane at the right time, must be implemented.

## 3 Adopted solutions and MMU configuration

### 3.1 Short history

In the initial concept (1997), the MMM was intended as a milling machine which would cut the slits in a 0.1 mm thin brass sheet, supported by a 10 mm thick aluminum frame. We assembled a small milling machine and we proved that the roughness and speed requirements were fulfilled. The minimum obtainable slit width was $`300\mu `$m. This solution was discarded because the ICs were too large and the accuracy in the slit positioning was hampered by the thermal expansion of brass, given the possible temperature differences between the time a mask was manufactured and used in the instrument or the temperature variations during the observations. Furthermore the lifetime of the cutting tools was short due to breaking and to wear (that caused a slit width variation). Subsequent developments (1998) were aimed at minimising the sources of errors, by making use of aluminum and thicker (but still $`<\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.3}`$ mm), frameless masks, which had the advantage of reducing the size and the weight of the ICs. The next natural step was the use of a material with a low thermal expansion coefficient: we tested carbon fiber, kevlar, graphite and invar, but it was impossible to obtain the required slit edge quality with a milling machine. Only recently a new type of laser cutting machines, called Stencil Laser, became available on the market. In particular, one machine could meet the specifications by making use of 0.2 mm thick invar sheets. The cutting speed makes possible to cut the mask contour on the machine itself, thus the masks can be frameless and customised to the quadrant interface where will have to be mounted, and, as a further bonus, also any slit width $`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}80}\mu `$m became a possibility. For a full account of the trade-off between the two solutions (milling and laser cutting) and for the choice of the laser machine manufacturer, see Conti et al. (1999).

### 3.2 The mask manufacturing machine

Our choice for the MMM has been the StencilLaser 600 by LPKF whose main characteristics are given in Table 1. The machine uses a pulsed Nd:YAG laser head, that, for normal operation, is classified for safety as a class 1 laser product (as safe as a compact disk player). The laser head is fixed while the working platform, on which the invar sheet is mounted, is moved in XY by two servo-motors over 4 air pads. Cutting occurs under 16 bars compressed air jet. The whole cutting process is controlled by the LPKF StencilMaster software running on a PC called Mask Manufacturing Control Unit (MMCU). A picture of the machine can be seen in Fig. 2.

### 3.3 The mask material and the raw mask preparation

The chosen mask material is invar, a 36%Ni-64%Fe alloy222by Krupp VDM, Werdohl, Germany, trade name Pernifer 36 with a thickness of 0.2 mm. The main mechanical and thermal characteristic of invar compared with aluminum and stainless steel are given in Table 2.

Mask manufacturing includes, as a last operation, the cutting of the contour, therefore the raw invar sheets shall have larger dimensions than the masks, to fix them on the working platform of the laser cutting machine. We adopted $`450\times 340`$ mm sheets, that weigh 0.250 kg each.

The yearly mask need for VIMOS is estimated to be $`2000`$. One aim of our work was to find a method to prepare a large quantity of raw masks at the lowest cost. Invar is delivered in rolls with the requested width and must be coated with a black anti-reflection paint. The requested characteristics for the coating are: thickness $`<\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}20}\mu `$m; good adhesion to the metallic substrate; dull black color; uniformity of the coating over the 2 surfaces. The adopted procedure333implemented by CEM Lavorazioni Elettrochimiche srl, Milano, Italy for the raw mask preparation consists of: chemical and mechanical cleaning; black coating of the two sides of the strip, using a roller system; warm curing of the varnish; insertion of a low adhesion plastic protective film; straightening and de-stressing to eliminate the roll curvature; cutting to the requested dimensions; visual inspection for absence of wrinkles and scratches; packing in folders of 20 sheets each. This industrial procedure has the disadvantage that the first and the last part of the strip must be discarded because mechanically damaged. For a 450 mm wide strip this loss can be quantified in about 100 kg of material. However, we obtained 4400 sheets out of 1200 kg of invar, at a cost of $`11`$ DM per sheet. Fig. 3 shows a typical VIMOS mask.

Measurements of the specular and diffuse reflectance of coated invar samples at 633 and 1150 nm give the results shown in Table 3.

### 3.4 The Mask Handling System

The concept of the Mask Handling System (MHS) is to provide the hardware and software necessary to control the mask flow.

Mask identification is done by direct cutting of a 6 digits bar code at 3 mm from the edge of the masks using the European standard 2/5 Interleaved Code (EN 801). The most significant digit of the code identifies the quadrant (from 1 to 4 for VIMOS and from 5 to 8 for NIRMOS). Two bar code scanners444Datalogic, Bologna, Italy, mod. DS2100-1000 provide the decoding during all the operations of the MHS.

All the masks that, at a given time, are not inserted into the ICs are stored in the Storage Cabinet (SC) of the relative instrument.

Fig. 4 shows a picture of the in house manufactured VIMOS SC. It can store 400 masks (100 mask sets) inserted vertically into transparent polycarbonate slots in such a way that the bar code can be read by the scanner mounted on a sliding stage. Because of space constraint, the VIMOS SC has 2 quadrants per side and the bar code scanner must be moved from one side to the other with the connection cable suspended on the ceiling by a rotating pivot.

The 15 masks in each Instrument Cabinet (which is part of the instrument and not of the MMU), are packed with a pitch of 4.5 mm. Before observations the ICs must be prepared by unloading the masks no longer necessary and by loading the requested new ones. This operation is quite delicate because a mask in a wrong IC or in a wrong slot in the IC will jeopardise the observation. Mask insertion is thus controlled by a robot555produced by ANTIL srl, S. Giuliano Milanese, Italy, shown in Fig. 5, that performs a software controlled Z–displacement. The 4 ICs are mounted in fixed order (constrained by the mechanical interfaces) into an IC box that is placed on the robot platform. The robot moves it with an accuracy of about 0.1 mm, in order to place the appropriate IC slot in front of a mask stand (see Fig. 5). The Z positions of the slots are calibrated and stored in a table used by software to command the robot displacement. Then the unloading/loading operation is done manually by means of a moving clamp, with the assistance of a bar code scanner identical to the one used in the SC. This bar code scanner is also used for off-line mask identification (storage after manufacturing).

The third part of the MHS is the Mask Handling Control Unit (MHCU), a PC that runs the Mask Handling Software (MHSw), the LPKF CircuitCam software and connects the bar code scanners and the IC Robot.

### 3.5 Software components

The MMU software components developed in house to support the operational procedures described in section 6 are:

* The MHSw running on MHCU which provides a Graphical User Interface (GUI) (see Fig. 6) for all mask handling functions except the actual manufacturing, records where masks are stored, handles the communication with Instrument/VLT software and acts as a front end to the LPKF CircuitCam software (see 6.1)
* Cut Manager software running on MMCU which is a simple GUI which assists orderly usage (and archiving) of mask files and acts as a front end to LPKF StencilMaster, used to cut the masks
* a Mirroring Module that runs on both computers to keep synchronised the various data files on the disks, allowing easy recovery in case of failure of one.

All software is developed using Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 under Windows NT operating system.

### 3.6 The quality control equipment

The cutting performance of the laser machine from the point of view of the slit edge roughness must be periodically controlled to be inside the specifications reported in 2.1. We have defined the following quality control procedure: 9 square samples (30 mm side) are cut from an invar sheet under the same laser machine settings as the mask slits. The roughness of the sample borders is measured by a mechanical roughness meter.666Taylor Hobson Ltd, Leicester, UK, mod. Talysurf Plus The samples are placed vertically under the measuring probe, which is a 1 mm wide chisel edge stylus with $`5\mu `$m tip radius, that measures the roughness over the full thickness of the 0.2 mm samples. The roughness can be due to both the laser cutting process itself and the residual invar melting flashes. The instrument is connected to a third PC where all measurements carried out during the lifetime of the MMU can be acquired, analyzed and archived. The slit width is checked by a microscope with a calibrated reticle.

## 4 Test and tuning of the laser cutting machine

### 4.1 Performance verification

The StencilMaster software by LPKF controls the whole cutting process, i.e. the displacement of the working platform, and the laser parameter settings and switching. The XY motion system is controlled by rotary encoders on the motor shafts, but a calibration of the system itself can be done using the linear glass rules provided on the two axes. During such procedure the working platform moves, backwards and forwards, along the Y and X direction, with a predefined step to cover the whole traveling range. After each step the displacement is read on the rules and the difference between the requested and the actual positions is stored in a calibration file. During normal cutting operation such correction is applied to the requested position to take into account this difference. A new calibration of the motion system is recommended if a significant temperature variation occurres or if the machine is switched off for some days. A typical calibration file is plotted in Fig. 7.

To verify the accuracy of the working platform displacements after calibration, we used a laser interferometer system777Hewlett Packard mod.5526A with a resolution of $`0.1\mu `$m and an accuracy of $`\pm \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.5}ppm`$. Normally the readings from internal linear glass rules are not accessible while the machine is moving. For this reason a single (uncalibrated) step displacement was commanded manually and, when done, the internal rule reading was recorded together with the interferometer displacement measurement. The agreement between the two measures was within $`\pm \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}\mu `$m, that confirms the accuracy of the LPKF machine displacements. We did further tests asking for selected linear cuts along the interferometer beam (alternately mounted along X and Y) and reading the interferometer readout and the glass rules at the starting and ending positions. We have verified that, during cutting, the movements are commanded in calibrated units, with the expected accuracy.

The laser beam correctly focalised has a diameter of $`40\mu `$m. The CircuitCam program that calculates the cutting paths, takes into account this value to obtain the requested slit dimensions. The slit width measurements show an error of $`\pm \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}\mu `$m, independently of the slit width.

### 4.2 Cutting tool tuning

The file describing each mask (see 6.1) contains the mask slit pattern, the bar code, the other features and the appropriate quadrant contour, associated to different ”layers”. To each layer corresponds a cutting tool, i.e. a particular cutting speed and laser set-up parameters. Among several possible choices, we carried out a series of tests to find the best tool (called ”cutting fine”) which would satisfy the edge roughness specifications while working at the necessary speed, while a faster but rougher ”cutting” tool is used for contour and lower precision features. Table 4 gives the adopted tool settings.

The speed and frequency are fixed parameters while the others are adjusted at each laser lamp change to keep the power constant. The best focus of the laser beam must be positioned inside the thickness of the cutting material. It can be adjusted by a micrometer that determines the distance of the focusing lens from the sheet during cutting; we have verified that also this parameter influences the edge roughness and we have optimized it (this tuning has been repeated after the installation in Paranal).

## 5 Resulting Performances

### 5.1 Mask cutting time

The time needed for mask manufacturing includes a fixed overhead of about 460 s for invar sheet mounting operations, connection set-up, bar code and contour cutting, and scales up to 950 s for a mask with 200 slits. Thus, at most two 8 hours shifts are necessary to cut the 60 masks which would fill the 4 ICs of one instrument.

### 5.2 Slit positioning accuracy

Having made allowance for the accuracy of the CCD mapping onto the focal plane and for the repeatability of the mask positioning in the focal plane (see 2.1), we must verify that the invar thermal expansion and the positioning accuracy of the laser machine allow us to place slits within $`17\mu `$m. Mask manufacturing occurs at a controlled temperature of $`20^{}`$C while the average temperature at Paranal is $`10^{}`$C, thus the (negative) invar expansion over the mask size is only $`2\mu `$m.

To verify the real accuracy of the slit positioning we cut several masks with a pattern of square holes 3 mm wide and with the usual contour. We used the LPKF machine itself to measure the aperture positions, by mounting a microscope fixed to the laser head. The mask was laid on an invar sheet secured to the working platform and, after a preliminary alignment, the procedure was to move it in small steps until the hole edges were centered under the eyepiece reticle and to read the displacements using the internal glass rules. When a mask has to be cut, the invar sheet is fixed on the working platform by means of manual clamps and two pneumatic pistons apply an adjustable force to keep it flat. The results obtained from the measures show that the accuracy of the aperture positioning on cut masks depends mainly on the tension applied during cutting: a high force (50 kg) means an elastic elongation of the sheet that is released when the contour is cut and smaller distances with respect to the nominal ones are systematically measured. A low force ($`<10`$ kg) is not sufficient to straighten the sheet and produces higher distance values. At the end of an optimization process, which required a long series of measurements, we adopted a tensioning force of $`18`$ kg as the best trade-off. To have a more repeatable and stable tensioning force we have substituted the pneumatic pistons with 9 mechanical springs, applying 2 kg each. The final evaluation is that a positioning accuracy $`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}15}\mu `$m is verified.

### 5.3 Slit edge roughness

The fine tuning of the laser cutting machine was carried out having the slit edge roughness as driving parameter. A protocol was thus established implying the cutting of a number of samples suitable for roughness measurements, performed using the Talysurf instrument described in 3.6. The sample sides are scanned one at a time on its thickness by the chisel edge stylus and the roughness profiles are acquired and stored for off-line analysis. First the slope introduced by the sample non-horizontal mounting is removed, by a linear fit, and then the rectified profile is successively filtered by two high pass gaussian filters. First, with a cut-off length of 0.12 mm (1 pixel of the CCD), the parameter $`W_q`$, that is the $`rms`$ of the roughness at pixel-size scales, is computed from the filtered profile, over a scan length of 25 mm. Second, with a cut-off length of 2.5 mm, to calculate the parameter $`W_t`$, that is the maximum peak to valley of the edge waviness. The samples prepared for roughness measurements must be handled and mounted under the the probe very carefully because any mechanical shock makes the sample unusable; we discovered that dust and any dirt deposited on the sample border can easily mimic a bad cutting performance: thus samples measurements representative of the slit edge roughness which will be found in the masks, must be carried out in the same environmental conditions as mask manufacturing, i.e. in an air conditioned, reasonably clean room. The quality control protocol was applied before and after the shipment of the MMU to Paranal. The roughness measurements obtained on 9 samples in Europe and in Chile showed no significant difference. The obtained mean values are shown in Table 5 and a typical roughness meter plot is shown in Fig. 8.

### 5.4 Scientific implications

The results obtained not only meet the specifications, but, even more important, guarantee that observations will yield good quality data. Thanks to the slit positioning accuracy we obtained through the choice of the mask material and the fine tuning of the cutting operations, objects on the sky can be placed in slits all over the unvignetted Nasmyth focus covered by VIMOS, making really possible to obtain several hundreds of meaningful spectra of faint objects in one exposure. The excellent slit edge roughness quality guarantees optimum sky subtraction, especially of bright sky lines regions, even in case of low signal-to-noise.

## 6 MMU operation concepts

The MMU operation concepts have been devised to provide a smooth and orderly mask flow. At least for some time since after VIMOS commissioning, pre-imaging is a requirement to be able to design masks. Once the files describing a mask set have been prepared by the astronomer, they must reach the MMU so that mask production can start. Since the spectroscopic observations can be scheduled up to a few months later, masks must be identified and stored so that they can be univocally retrieved when they must be inserted in the ICs just before the observations. The instrument control software must be made aware of the IC position in which a specific mask is to be found. Furthermore, the SCs have a limited capacity and from time to time it is necessary to discard masks which have a low probability of being used in order to leave room for new masks.

MMU routine operations will be totally slaved to orders issued by Instrument software modules running on separate workstations. The only module actually talking to MMU is, in the case of VIRMOS, an instrument specific Mask Conversion Software (MCS module) whose purpose, besides transmitting Job orders and retrieving Termination reports for all activities, is also, for the mask manufacturing case, to translate the slit positions on the sky (selected by the astronomer using the Mask Preparation Software, see Garilli et al. (1999)) from pixel to mm with respect to the quadrant optical axis using the CCD to mask transformation matrix.

The purpose of the entire MMU system is to perform the following operations:

* to manufacture the masks on the laser machine requested via a Mask Manufacturing Job order (MMJ), and to store the manufactured masks in the SCs
* to load the masks requested via a Mask Insert Job order (MIJ) into the ICs
* to get rid of masks and related files no longer needed as requested via a Mask Discard Job order (MDJ)
* to manage and recover contingency conditions which may occur during the above tasks.

In all operations the MMU will only know masks by their individual six-digit code, and will normally handle entire mask sets. A mask set is defined as a set of four masks, with the same last 5 digits in the id, used for the same observation in the 4 VIMOS or NIRMOS quadrants. All operations (except contingency recovery and maintenance operations managed autonomously by the MMU operator) are executed after receipt from MCS of a Job order in the form of a file transferred into a staging area of the MHCU, and terminate upon placing a Termination report in the same staging area, to be retrieved by MCS that has also access to the tables describing the current content of the SC (SCT) and of the ICs (ICT). The SCT, for each quadrant, is a list of 100 items containing the codes of the masks currently stored or ”empty”, with no information about the slot where the mask are located. The ICT, for each Instrument Cabinet, is a list of 15 items which combine the slot number with the code of the contained mask.

### 6.1 Mask manufacturing and storing

The information about the slit positions and sizes is contained in the Machine Slit Files (MSF) transmitted together with a MMJ. The full manufacturing cycle is a 4–step operation (Fig. 9).

1. The MHSw function convert selects an MMJ and converts the MSF files into the Gerber (Gerber, 1997) CAD format, accepted in input by the LPFK CircuitCam software. The MSF to Gerber conversion takes care of items relevant for masks, like the correction for the calibrated offsets of the optical axis with respect to the mask centre, and the insertion of the mask contour, fixing holes and other control apertures (see Fig. 3) which are merged from template files and assigned to appropriate layers. This arrangement is highly modular and allows to tune and replace such characteristics without recompiling the code, while at the same time keeps effectively decoupled the parameters specific of mask manufacturing from those specific of the astronomical observation.
2. LPKF CircuitCam software converts the Gerber files into proprietary format (lmd) files, transferred to MMCU and accepted by the StencilMaster software, at the same time optimizing the cutting path for the laser beam, and associating the layers with the cutting tools and manufacturing phases.
3. The operator places an invar sheet on the working platform of the laser machine, and runs the function Cut Manager on the MMCU, which gives him access to StencilMaster to cut the mask.
4. At the same time, the operator runs the MHSw function store on the MHCU, which, by reading the bar code, indicates in which quadrant section of the SC the mask must be placed. Acknowledgement of these operations will automatically update the SC table and write the MMT (Mask Manufacturing Termination report) which will eventually be retrieved by the MCS.

### 6.2 Instrument cabinets preparation

When the ICs must be loaded with a new set of masks, the operator finds a MIJ on the MHCU. The ICs coming from the telescope are inserted in the IC box which is placed on the robot and the operator runs the IC preparation function of the MHSw. Loading the ICs is a 2 step process: this is accomplished by running first the unload (sub)function, at the end of which the no-longer needed masks are returned to the SC while the masks still needed are left in place; the IC and the SC tables are updated. Then the load (sub)function is started, which allows to search the requested mask in the SC and to insert the masks in free IC slots, by appropriately moving the IC box. The search in the SC occurs manually, moving the bar code scanner until the requested mask is located (computer gives an audio signal as long as the scanner beam is located in front of the wished mask). The bar code is double checked by the scanner located on the robot stand before inserting the mask into the IC. The SC and IC tables are updated again and a report (MIT) is made available to MCS. The report and the updated tables are propagated to be used for mask insertion management at the instrument focal plane.

### 6.3 Mask discarding

To make room in the SC for newly manufactured masks, a MDJ must be issued whenever a mask set is no longer required (either the observation has been executed or expired because of celestial constraints). The discard function should normally have priority with respect to any other. It allows the operator to search (as described in 6.2) for the masks to be discarded and to remove them from the SC, thus deleting the files of the mask from the archives, updating the SC table and issuing the final report.

### 6.4 Recovery functions and error handling

Great care has been dedicated to manage the possible errors during mask handling (e.g. mask dropped or damaged during manual displacements, wrong insertion into the SCs or ICs, problems in bar code scanner or robot connection etc.). All the error messages are listed in the user’s manual and contain the suggested recovery procedure using the 8 provided recovery functions.

## 7 Summary

The VIRMOS Mask Manufacturing Unit is now operational at Paranal Observatory, following verification that the specifications set at the beginning of the project have been met. The laser cutting machine has been finely tuned with an optimal choice of the parameters, and, although the MMU is largely assembled from industrial products, every effort has been made to design and implement software tools which would make the mask flow nicely fit in the VLT data flow system. The slit quality that the VIRMOS MMU provides makes it the best operational tool for multi-object spectroscopy applications.

The VIRMOS-MMU manufacturing is done under ESO contract 50979/INS/97/7569/GWI. The MMU development was aided by financial support from Italian CNR and CNAA. We warmly thank LPKF technical staff (T. Nagel, A. Müller and S. Bönigk) for their appreciated collaboration during the tuning of the laser cutting machine and N. D’Addea (CNR-ITIA) for lending us the laser interferometer system. We also thank G. Avila, and the Paranal ESO Engineering staff for their help during installation of the MMU at the Observatory.