UK Programme for the European Extremely Large Telescope
Lead Research Organisation:
Heriot-Watt University
Department Name: Sch of Engineering and Physical Science
Abstract
Please see the summary provided by the Lead Institution (UK ATC).
Planned Impact
Please see the impact summary provided by the Lead Institution (UK ATC).
Publications
Charsley JM
(2017)
Broadband Fourier-transform spectrometer enabling modal subset identification in Fabry-Pérot-based astrocombs.
in Optics express
Cheng Y
(2021)
Laser-frequency-comb calibration for the Extremely Large Telescope: an OPO-based infrared astrocomb covering the H and J bands
in Journal of the Optical Society of America B
Cheng Y
(2021)
Near-Infrared 10-GHz Astrocomb With Mode Identification
Cheng YS
(2020)
Dither-free stabilization of a femtosecond doubly resonant OPO using parasitic sum-frequency mixing.
in Optics letters
McCracken R
(2018)
10-GHz Femtosecond Degenerate Optical Parametric Oscillator
McCracken RA
(2017)
Wavelength calibration of a high resolution spectrograph with a partially stabilized 15-GHz astrocomb from 550 to 890 nm.
in Optics express
McCracken RA
(2017)
A decade of astrocombs: recent advances in frequency combs for astronomy.
in Optics express
| Description | We have developed a broadband laser frequency comb system covering 500 - 2200 nm. We are in the process of now filtering the comb modes to make them resolvable by an astronomical telescope. Work was presented at CLEO Europe 2019 and has been accepted also for CLEO US 2020. Further development in 2020 and 2021 led to results showing a fully resolved near-IR comb spanning a range suitable for the ELT. We have now resolved the comb modes from the near-infrared arm of the comb system and calibrated these using FT spectrocsopy. |
| Exploitation Route | We expect to work closely with the ELT partners, in particular at Goettingen University, where the laser calibration workpackage for the ELT is led. We have exchanged considerable technical information in discussions with this team. |
| Sectors | Education |
| Description | HIRES Phase A Study 2016+ |
| Amount | £129,006 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2016 |
| End | 06/2017 |
| Description | SALT telescope collaboration |
| Organisation | South African Astronomical Observatory |
| Country | South Africa |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Under this and other support from the STFC, Heriot-Watt took a laser frequency comb to the Southern African Large Telescope in April 2016. We designed, built and deployed the frequency comb on the 10-metre Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) in April 2016. This led to an improvement in the calibration of SALT over the precision previously possible using ThAr gas dicharge lamps and also revealed an error in the originally measured resolution of SALT's spectrograph. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Provision of telescope time and technical assistance. |
| Impact | Improved calibration of the SALT telescope's spectrograph. Evaluation of a potential laser-comb architecture for calibrating the E-ELT HIRES spectrograph. |
| Start Year | 2014 |