GRAVITY faint: reducing noise sources in GRAVITY$^+$ with a fast metrology attenuation system

TL;DR

The paper presents a new fast metrology attenuation system for GRAVITY$^+$ that significantly reduces laser backscattering noise, enabling observations of fainter targets with improved signal-to-noise ratio.

Contribution

Introduction of two new metrology modes with hardware and software modifications to dim or turn off the laser, reducing noise in GRAVITY$^+$.

Findings

SNR improved by over a factor of two across the spectrum

Up to eightfold SNR increase in laser noise dominated spectrum

Enhanced capability to observe faint targets with reduced noise

Abstract

With the upgrade from GRAVITY to GRAVITY$^+$ the instrument will evolve into an all-sky interferometer that can observe faint targets, such as high redshift AGN. Observing the faintest targets requires reducing the noise sources in GRAVITY as much as possible. The dominant noise source, especially in the blue part of the spectrum, is the backscattering of the metrology laser light onto the detector. To reduce this noise we introduce two new metrology modes. With a combination of small hardware changes and software adaptations, we can dim the metrology laser during the observation without losing the phase referencing. For single beam targets, we can even turn off the metrology laser for the maximum SNR on the detector. These changes lead to an SNR improvement of over a factor of two averaged over the whole spectrum and up to a factor of eight in the part of the spectrum currently dominated by laser noise.