A HIGH-RESOLUTION ATLAS OF URANIUM-NEON IN THE H BAND

Journal Article · Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 2012 · Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/199/1/2· OSTI ID:22048032

Redman, Stephen L; Terrien, Ryan; Mahadevan, Suvrath; Ramsey, Lawrence W; Bender, Chad F ^[1]; Ycas, Gabriel G ^[2]; Osterman, Steven N ^[3]; Diddams, Scott A; Quinlan, Franklyn ^[4]; Lawler, James E ^[5]; Nave, Gillian ^[6]

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1. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States)
2. Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309 (United States)
3. Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309 (United States)
4. Time and Frequency Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO 80305 (United States)
5. Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, 1150 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706 (United States)
6. Atomic Physics Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899 (United States)

We present a high-resolution (R Almost-Equal-To 50,000) atlas of a uranium-neon (U/Ne) hollow-cathode spectrum in the H band (1454-1638 nm) for the calibration of near-infrared spectrographs. We obtained this U/Ne spectrum simultaneously with a laser-frequency comb spectrum, which we used to provide a first-order calibration to the U/Ne spectrum. We then calibrated the U/Ne spectrum using the recently published uranium line list of Redman et al., which is derived from high-resolution Fourier transform spectrometer measurements. These two independent calibrations allowed us to easily identify emission lines in the hollow-cathode lamp that do not correspond to known (classified) lines of either uranium or neon, and to compare the achievable precision of each source. Our frequency comb precision was limited by modal noise and detector effects, while the U/Ne precision was limited primarily by the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of the observed emission lines and our ability to model blended lines. The standard deviation in the dispersion solution residuals from the S/N-limited U/Ne hollow-cathode lamp was 50% larger than the standard deviation of the dispersion solution residuals from the modal-noise-limited laser-frequency comb. We advocate the use of U/Ne lamps for precision calibration of near-infrared spectrographs, and this H-band atlas makes these lamps significantly easier to use for wavelength calibration.

• OSTI ID: 22048032
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series, Vol. 199, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0067-0049
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ACCURACY
CALIBRATION
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
EMISSION SPECTRA
EXCITED STATES
FOURIER TRANSFORM SPECTROMETERS
HOLLOW CATHODES
IONIZATION
LIGHT BULBS
NEAR INFRARED RADIATION
NEON
PHOTON EMISSION
RADIAL VELOCITY
RESOLUTION
SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO
STANDARDS
URANIUM
WAVELENGTHS