Fiber link design

The fiber link subsystem is an add-on to the Cassegrain U-Band Efficient Spectrograph (CUBES) which will enable simultaneous observations with UVES, a high-resolution (R~40,000) echelle spectrograph located at the VLT-UT2 Nasmyth B focus.

To achieve simultaneous observations, CUBES will be equipped with a self-contained front-end (FE) module that feeds up to seven optical fibers with stellar and sky-background light. Light pick-off is achieved through a dichroic mirror that can be placed into the telescope beam. The dichroic mirror reflects light above 400-420 nm into the fiber link FE. The FE module will provide field stabilization (tip/tilt) and atmospheric dispersion correction (ADC), as well as fiber guiding (FG). A schematic diagram that briefly outlines the concept of the CUBES-UVES fiber link is shown in Fig.1.