Searching for very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs with DENIS

We present the results of infrared spectroscopic observations of a sample o f very low-mass stars and brown dwarf candidates detected in a 230 square d egree area by the DENIS (DEep Near Infrared Southern sky; Epchtein, 1997) s urvey. We find that objects as faint as the faintest known stars are easily detected by DENIS. This sample also includes three members of the new "L" dwarf class, one of which was the first confirmed isolated field brown dwar f. As this data represents similar to 1% of the total DENIS survey area, th e completed survey can be expected to have a dramatic impact on the study o f the faintest stars and brown dwarfs. In particular, it should detect simi lar to 300 of the new and poorly understood "L" class of dwarfs.