Calibration of an astrophysical spectrograph below 1 m/s using a laser frequency comb.
We deployed two wavelength calibrators based on laser frequency combs ("astro-combs") at an astronomical telescope. One astro-comb operated over a 100 nm band in the deep red (∼ 800 nm) and a second operated over a 20 nm band in the blue (∼ 400 nm). We used these red and blue astro-combs to calibrate a high-resolution astrophysical spectrograph integrated with a 1.5 m telescope, and demonstrated calibration precision and stability sufficient to enable detection of changes in stellar radial velocity < 1 m/s.
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. dphil@cfa.harvard.edu
David F
DF
Phillips
Alexander G
AG
Glenday
Chih-Hao
CH
Li
Claire
C
Cramer
Gabor
G
Furesz
Guoqing
G
Chang
Andrew J
AJ
Benedick
Li-Jin
LJ
Chen
Franz X
FX
Kärtner
Sylvain
S
Korzennik
Dimitar
D
Sasselov
Andrew
A
Szentgyorgyi
Ronald L
RL
Walsworth
D001256:Astronomy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D002138:Calibration; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007834:Lasers; D055096:Optical Devices; D013057:Spectrum Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation*