Stabilizing a Fabry-Perot Etalon Peak to 3 cm s-1 for Spectrograph Calibration. (4th January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Schwab, C.; Stürmer, J.; Gurevich, Y. V.; Führer, T.; Lamoreaux, S. K.; Walther, T.; Quirrenbach, A.
• Is Part Of: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Volume 127:Number 955(2015)
• Page Start: 880
• Page End: 889
• Publication Date: 2016-01-04
• Subjects: Astronomy -- Periodicals; Astronomy; Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1086/682879
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0004-6280

Abstract

Abstract: We present a method of frequency stabilizing a broadband etalon that can serve as a high-precision wavelength calibrator for an echelle spectrograph. Using a laser to probe the Doppler-free saturated absorption of the rubidium D 2 line, we stabilize one etalon transmission peak directly to the rubidium frequency. The rubidium transition is an established frequency standard and has been used to lock lasers to fractional stabilities of < 10 -12, a level of accuracy far exceeding the demands of radial velocity (RV) searches for exoplanets. The stabilized bandwidth depends on the dispersion characteristics of the etalon. We describe a simple setup designed specifically for use at an observatory and demonstrate that we can stabilize the etalon peak to a relative precision of < 10 -10 ; this is equivalent to 3 cm s -1 RV precision.