Fast and durable electromechanical shutter for imaging spectrometers

The presented electromechanical shutter for imaging spectrometers meets the needs of imaging spectroscopy with continuous exposure at short integration times. The shutter blocks the light during readout of the two-dimensional charge-coupled device detector to preserve the spatial resolution. Commercially available shutters have significant problems in terms of lifetime and sometimes also in speed. The developed shutter is fast with a total response time of 3 ms to open and 5 ms to close and durable since the lifetime exceeds 20x10(6) exposures. The shutter is constructed with only a few simple mechanical parts. It can therefore easily be repaired, which reduces the running cost. The construction of the shutter, the mechanical properties, and the required optical configurations will be described. Furthermore the performance for imaging spectroscopic measurements with short exposure times is demonstrated.