GRAVITY: metrology

TL;DR

GRAVITY is a VLTI instrument with a dedicated metrology system that measures the full optical path to achieve high-precision astrometry, using laser beams and fringe pattern analysis to minimize systematic uncertainties.

Contribution

This paper presents the design and performance estimate of a novel metrology system for the GRAVITY instrument, enabling precise optical path measurement for astrometry.

Findings

Metrology system covers full optical path from beam combiners to primary mirror reference points.

Laser beams with fixed phase relation create fringe patterns for phase extraction.

Performance aligns with GRAVITY's astrometric accuracy requirements.

Abstract

GRAVITY is a second generation VLTI instrument, combining the light of four telescopes and two objects simultaneously. The main goal is to obtain astrometrically accurate information. Besides correctly measured stellar phases this requires the knowledge of the instrumental differential phase, which has to be measured optically during the astronomical observations. This is the purpose of a dedicated metrology system. The GRAVITY metrology covers the full optical path, from the beam combiners up to the reference points in the beam of the primary telescope mirror, minimizing the systematic uncertainties and providing a proper baseline in astrometric terms. Two laser beams with a fixed phase relation travel backward the whole optical chain, creating a fringe pattern in any plane close to a pupil. By temporal encoding the phase information can be extracted at any point by means of flux measurements with photo diodes. The reference points chosen sample the pupil at typical radii, eliminating potential systematics due differential focus. We present the final design and the performance estimate, which is in accordance with the overall requirements for GRAVITY.