Atmospheric analysis of the M/L and M/T dwarf binary systems LHS 102 and Gliese 229

We present  0.9–2.5 μm  spectroscopy with   R ∼800  and  1.12–1.22 μm  spectroscopy with   R ∼5800  for the M dwarfs Gl 229A and LHS 102A, and for the L dwarf LHS 102B. We also report IZJHKL ' photometry for both components of the LHS 102 system, and L ' photometry for Gl 229A. The data are combined with previously published spectroscopy and photometry to produce flux distributions for each component of the kinematically old disc M/L dwarf binary system LHS 102 and the kinematically young disc M/T dwarf binary system Gliese 229. The data are analysed using synthetic spectra generated by the latest 'AMES-dusty' and 'AMES-cond' models by Allard & Hauschildt. Although the models are not able to reproduce the overall slope of the infrared flux distribution of the L dwarf, most likely because of the treatment of dust in the photosphere, the data for the M dwarfs and the T dwarf are well matched. We find that the Gl 229 system is metal-poor despite having kinematics of the young disc, and that the LHS 102 system has solar metallicity. The observed luminosities and derived temperatures and gravities are consistent with evolutionary model predictions if the Gl 229 system is very young  (age∼30 Myr)  with masses (A,B) of (0.38,≳0.007) M_⊙, and the LHS 102 system is older, aged  1–10 Gyr  with masses (A,B) of (0.19,0.07) M_⊙.