Rubidium transitions as wavelength reference for astronomical Doppler spectrographs

D. Rogozin, T. Feger, C. Schwab, Y. V. Gurevich, G. Raskin, D. W. Coutts, J. Stuermer, A. Seifahrt, T. Fuehrer, T. Legero, H. Van Winckel, S. Halverson, A. Quirrenbach

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference proceeding contributionpeer-review

    Abstract

    Precise wavelength calibration is a critical issue for high-resolution spectroscopic observations. The ideal calibration source should be able to provide a very stable and dense grid of evenly distributed spectral lines of constant intensity. A new method which satisfies all mentioned conditions has been developed by our group. The approach is to actively measure the exact position of a single spectral line of a Fabry-Perot etalon with very high precision with a wavelength-tuneable laser and compare it to an extremely stable wavelength standard. The ideal choice of standard is the D2 absorption line of Rubidium, which has been used as an optical frequency standard for decades. With this technique, the problem of stable wavelength calibration of spectrographs becomes a problem of how reliably we can measure and anchor one etalon line to the Rb transition. In this work we present our self-built module for Rb saturated absorption spectroscopy and discuss its stability.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationAdvances in Optical Astronomical Instrumentation 2019
    EditorsSimon Ellis, Céline d'Orgeville
    Place of PublicationBellingham, Washington
    PublisherSPIE
    Pages1-2
    Number of pages2
    ISBN (Electronic)9781510631472
    ISBN (Print)9781510631465
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 3 Jan 2020
    EventAdvances in Optical Astronomical Instrumentation 2019 - Melbourne, Australia
    Duration: 9 Dec 201912 Dec 2019

    Publication series

    NameProceedings of SPIE
    PublisherSPIE
    Volume11203
    ISSN (Print)0277-786X
    ISSN (Electronic)1996-756X

    Conference

    ConferenceAdvances in Optical Astronomical Instrumentation 2019
    Country/TerritoryAustralia
    CityMelbourne
    Period9/12/1912/12/19

    Keywords

    • Doppler spectroscopy
    • Fabry-Perot etalon
    • Hyperfine transition
    • Rubidium
    • Saturated absorption spectroscopy
    • Wavelength calibration

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