The fiber coupler and beam stabilization system of the GRAVITY interferometer

TL;DR

This paper details the design, assembly, and performance of the fiber coupler and beam stabilization system for the GRAVITY interferometer, crucial for achieving micro-arcsecond astrometry with the VLTI.

Contribution

It introduces the fully operational stabilization and fiber injection subsystem for GRAVITY, including innovative actuators and a roof-prism for versatile fringe tracking.

Findings

Achieved stable tip-tilt and pupil tracking in laboratory tests.

Demonstrated optical quality suitable for high-precision astrometry.

System design supports both on-axis and off-axis fringe tracking.

Abstract

We present the installed and fully operational beam stabilization and fiber injection subsystem feeding the 2nd generation VLTI instrument GRAVITY. The interferometer GRAVITY requires an unprecedented stability of the VLTI optical train to achieve micro-arcsecond astrometry. For this purpose, GRAVITY contains four fiber coupler units, one per telescope. Each unit is equipped with actuators to stabilize the telescope beam in terms of tilt and lateral pupil displacement, to rotate the field, to adjust the polarization and to compensate atmospheric piston. A special roof-prism offers the possibility of on-axis as well as off-axis fringe tracking without changing the optical train. We describe the assembly, integration and alignment and the resulting optical quality and performance of the individual units. Finally, we present the closed-loop performance of the tip-tilt and pupil tracking achieved with the final systems in the lab.