TeraXion and NKT Photonics have announced that a 1556 nm laser system jointly developed by them has been integrated as a master clock in the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) telescope, the world’s most powerful and largest radio astronomy telescope situated in the Atacama desert of northern Chile.
ALMA telescope (Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Carlos Padilla); Koheras BoostiK OEM module
TeraXion constructed the frequency-stabilized laser, the ALMA Master Laser that also comprises Koheras Boostik Fiber Laser of NKT Photonics. The ALMA’s aim is to investigate the Universe’s cold regions and obtain unprecedented information about the galaxies and stars with exceptional resolution and sensitivity through the connection of the antennas with an interferometer array.
The facility will feature around 66 numbers of 12-m parabolic antennas that are isolated by a distance of 18 km from each other and situated at an elevation of 5 km with baselines. Every antenna has to get an extremely steady local oscillator reference signal for precisely measuring the sky signal’s phase on the array.
The 1556 nm laser system, which constantly offers a steady laser signal, is the result of the combination of TeraXion’s knowledge in stabilization and industrialization of laser frequency of intricate optical systems and the Koheras Boostik’s unprecedented coherence length. This system can also withstand adverse environmental events such as earthquakes. The system successfully passed the test conducted during the earthquake occurred in Antofagasta, Chile, on 20 June 2011. The earthquake registered 6.5 on the Richter scale.
Søren Løvgreen, who serves as the Sales Manager of Koheras fiber lasers, stated that the company is happy about its contribution of a key component for the telescope, which will benefit from the company’s novel combination of extreme coherence length and low phase noise.