Link to Project Board: https://github.com/orgs/mq-astrolab/projects/2

IRANTI

Infrared Radial Velocity Application of New Technologies Instrument

Iranti is the Pitjantjatjara, of Central Australia, word for a Red-tailed Black Cockatoo

Spectrograph

The project aims to integrate a few technologies for the furtherment of precise radial velocity measurements as needed in exoplanet searches.

At the heart of the project is a high resolution spectrograph. Besides resolution, the instrument must also demonstrate stability in order to measure small velocities. Currently, the filed is pushing below 1 m/s. For intrinsic stability we first explore using single mode fibers instead of the more widely used multi mode fibers in current generation spectrographs. Modal noise ceases to be an issue and techniques such as fiber scrambling become unnecessary. Optics for a single mode regime leads to a smaller size instrument that can fit into an extra large cooler. Stabilizing the instrument with respect to pressure and temperature scales down with size.

Multi Core Fibers

Light coupling suffers from the smaller diameter cores of single mode fibers compared to multi mode fibers, therefore novel approaches are needed to over come. In order to increase coupling, we investigate the use of single mode fibers arranged in a bundle to form a multi core fiber. Additionally, 2 photon polymerization 3D printing technique is used to form micro lenses on the fiber inputs.

Extreme Adaptive Optics

The third major component of the new technologies instrument is utilizing an extreme AO system at an 8 meter class facility. Our host facility is the National Observatory of Japan's Subaru Telescope and the SCexAO instrument.

Utilizing SCexAO allows for observations to be conducted at the diffraction limit of the telescope.