First light of the near-infrared narrow-band tunable birefringent filter at Big Bear Solar Observatory

We discuss a near-infrared (NIR) narrow-band tunable birefringent filter system newly developed by the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). This is one of the first narrow-bandpass NIR filter systems working at 1.56 mu m which is used for the observation of the deepest solar photosphere. Four stages of calcite were used to obtain a bandpass of 2.5 angstrom along with a free spectral range (FSR) of 40 angstrom. Some unique techniques were implemented in the design, including liquid crystal variable retarders (LCVRs) to tune the bandpass in a range of +/- 100 angstrom, a wide field configuration to provide up to 2 degrees incident angle, and oil-free structure to make it more compact and handy. After performing calibration and characteristic evaluation at the Evans Facility of the National Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak (NSO/SP), a series of high-resolution filtergrams and imaging polarimetry observations were carried out with the Dunn Solar Telescope of NSO/SP and the 65-cm telescope of BBSO, in conjunction with the high-order adaptive optics system and the Fabry - Perot Interferometer (FPI). In this paper, we describe the optical design and discuss the calibration method. Preliminary observations show that it is capable of serving as either a stand-alone narrow-band filter for NIR filtergram observations or an order-sorting filter of a FPI applied to NIR two-dimensional imaging spectro-polarimetry.