Rubidium-locked etalons as wavelength reference for astronomical Doppler spectrographs

The goal of the PhD project is the development of a new wavelength calibration system for extreme precision radial velocity spectrographs, based on the Rubidium-traced transmission spectrum of a Fabry-Pérot etalon. It involves the design, construction and characterization of the Fabry-Pérot unit, its integration with a Rubidium-locked laser, and its commissioning on a high-resolution spectrograph. The project should result in the installation and performance verification of the new wavelength calibrator on the HERMES spectrograph at the Mercator telescope.