Laser Frequency Combs for Astronomical Observations
European Southern Observatory · Institut für Sonnenphysik · +3 more institutions
Abstract
A direct measurement of the universe's expansion history could be made by observing in real time the evolution of the cosmological redshift of distant objects. However, this would require measurements of Doppler velocity drifts of approximately 1 centimeter per second per year, and astronomical spectrographs have not yet been calibrated to this tolerance. We demonstrated the first use of a laser frequency comb for wavelength calibration of an astronomical telescope. Even with a simple analysis, absolute calibration is achieved with an equivalent Doppler precision of approximately 9 meters per second at approximately 1.5 micrometers-beyond state-of-the-art accuracy. We show that tracking complex, time-varying…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 26.91
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 32
Authors
12- TSTilo Steinmetz
European Southern Observatory, Institut für Sonnenphysik, Menlo Systems (Germany), Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Swinburne University of Technology
- TWTobias Wilken
European Southern Observatory, Institut für Sonnenphysik, Menlo Systems (Germany), Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Swinburne University of Technology
- CAConstanza Araujo-Hauck
European Southern Observatory, Institut für Sonnenphysik, Menlo Systems (Germany), Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Swinburne University of Technology
- RHRonald Holzwarth
European Southern Observatory, Institut für Sonnenphysik, Menlo Systems (Germany), Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Swinburne University of Technology
- TWTheodor W. Hänsch
European Southern Observatory, Institut für Sonnenphysik, Menlo Systems (Germany), Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Swinburne University of Technology
Topics & keywords
- Spectrograph
- Physics
- Calibration
- Doppler effect
- Redshift
- Laser
- Optics
- Telescope