We present the manufacturing and optical verification of the germanium immersed grating for the L/M band high resolution spectrograph (LMS). The LMS is one of the science subsystems of the Mid-infrared ELT Imager and Spectrograph, METIS. The immersed grating has very demanding requirement specifications: <100 nm RMS transmitted Wave Front Error (WFE) after double pass, and >70% peak throughput in all orders within the 2.9-5.3 μm wavelength range over the pupil. The grating has a period of 18.2 μm, a sawtooth groove profile with 89.6 degrees apex angle and a grating area of 150mm x 60mm. The germanium immersed grating was produced by Canon's high precision mechanical cutting technology. We present the interferometric tests that were performed in order to verify WFE and two different measurements (based on cascade laser and Fourier Transform Spectrometer, respectively) for throughput verification.

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METIS, a mid-infrared imager and spectrograph for the wavelength range 2.9-19μm (astronomical L-, M-, N- and Q-band), will be one of the first three science instruments at the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). It will provide diffraction limited imaging, coronagraphy, high resolution integral field spectroscopy and low and medium resolution slit spectroscopy. Within the international METIS consortium, the 1st Institute of Physics of the University of Cologne in Germany is responsible for the design, manufacturing, integration and qualification of the Warm Calibration Unit (WCU) of the instrument. The WCU will be a self-contained unit operating at ambient temperature outside of the voluminous METIS dewar, feeding a variety of optical calibration and alignment signals into the optical path of METIS. The functionalities of the WCU will be used for routine daily daytime calibrations after astronomical observing nights and verification of the internal alignment of METIS during assembly, integration and verification (AIV). In this contribution we present the preliminary optical design and principle of operation of the WCU in its current state of the preliminary design phase of METIS.@en