Rubidium-traced white-light etalon calibrator for radial velocity measurements at the cm/s level

Abstract

We report on the construction and testing of a vacuum-gap Fabry-Pérot etalon calibrator for high precision radial velocity spectrographs. Our etalon is traced against a rubidium frequency standard to provide a cost effective, yet ultra-precise wavelength reference. We describe here a turn-key system working at 500 nm to 900 nm, ready to be installed at any current and next generation radial velocity spectrograph that requires calibration over a wide spectral bandpass. Where appropriate, we have used off-the-shelf, commercial components with demonstrated long-term performance to accelerate the development timescale of this instrument. Our system combines for the first time the advantages of passively stabilized etalons for optical and near-infrared wavelengths with the laser-locking technique demonstrated for single-mode fiber etalons. We realize uncertainties in the position of one etalon line at the 10 cm/s level in individual measurements taken at 4 Hz. When binning the data over 10 s, we are able to trace the etalon line with a precision of better than 3 cm/s . We present data obtained during a week of continuous operation where we detect (and correct for) the predicted, but previously unobserved shrinking of the etalon Zerodur spacer corresponding to a shift of 13 cm/s per day.

17 pages, 6 figures, accepted by JATIS May 11, 2017

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• Chromatic Drift of the Espresso Fabry-Pérot Etalon
• Micro-lens array as tip-tilt sensor for single-mode fiber coupling
• A Radial Velocity Error Budget for Single-mode Fiber Doppler Spectrographs
• A Full Implementation of Spectro-Perfectionism for Precise Radial Velocity Exoplanet Detection: A Test Case With the MINERVA Reduction Pipeline
• TOI-3568 b: a super-Neptune in the sub-Jovian desert