Detailed Record


Overview of the Fiber System for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument


Abstract The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is a revolutionary instrument designed for precise measurements of cosmic distances and the investigation of dark energy. DESI utilizes 5000 optical fibers to simultaneously measure the spectra of distant objects and aims to measure 40 million galaxies and quasars in a 5 yr survey. One of the critical challenges to DESI’s success was ensuring that the fiber system was not only highly efficient but also delivered a highly stable beam enabling more reliable sky subtraction for measurements of faint objects. We achieved this stability by minimizing the stress on the fiber system during the manufacture and operation of the telescope and fiber positioning robots. We installed the DESI fiber system on the 4 m Mayall telescope with ≥99% of fibers intact, and the instrument has delivered superb optical performance throughout the initial years of the DESI survey, including ≥90% average throughput when injected with a focal ratio of ∼ f /3.9 as delivered by the primary focus corrector, excluding fiber absorption losses. The design of DESI required multiple innovations to achieve these requirements, such as cleaved fibers bonded with a UV-curing epoxy to glass ferrules in the focal plane and fusion splicing instead of physical connectors. In this paper, we describe the development, delivery, and installation of the fiber system, the innovations that made the state-of-the-art performance possible, and the key lessons learned that could benefit future projects.
Authors Claire Poppett ORCID , Luke Tyas ORCID , J. Aguilar ORCID , C. Bebek , David G. Bramall , T. Claybaugh ORCID , Jerry Edelstein ORCID , Parker Fagrelius ORCID , H. Heetderks , Patrick Jelinsky , Sharon R. Jelinsky ORCID , Robin Lafever , A. Lambert ORCID , M. Lampton , M. E. Levi ORCID , Paul Martini ORCID , Constance M. Rockosi ORCID , J. Schmoll ORCID , R. M. Sharples ORCID , Martin M. Sirk , Edward Wishnow , Jiaxi Yu ORCID , S. P. Ahlen ORCID , A. Bault ORCID , S. BenZvi ORCID , D. Brooks ORCID , Shaun Cole ORCID , Axel de la Macorra ORCID , Arjun Dey ORCID , P. Doel , K. Fanning , Andreu Font-Ribera ORCID , J. E. Forero-Romero ORCID , E. Gaztañaga , Satya Gontcho A Gontcho ORCID , Alma X. González‐Morales ORCID , ChangHoon Hahn ORCID , Klaus Honscheid , Jorge Jiménez ORCID , S. Juneau ORCID , D. Kirkby ORCID , A. Kremin ORCID , Martin Landriau ORCID , L. Le Guillou ORCID , M. Manera , Aaron M. Meisner ORCID , R. Miquel ORCID , John Moustakas ORCID , Eva-Maria Mueller ORCID , A. Muñoz-Gutiérrez ORCID , A. D. Myers University of Wyoming , J. Nie , Gustavo Niz ORCID , N. Palanque‐Delabrouille ORCID , W. J. Percival , F. Prada , D. Rabinowitz ORCID , Mehdi Rezaie ORCID , Graziano Rossi , E. Sánchez ORCID , Edward F. Schlafly ORCID , David J. Schlegel ORCID , M. Schubnell , Hee‐Jong Seo ORCID , David Sprayberry ORCID , G. Tarlé ORCID , M. Vargas-Magaña ORCID , Benjamin Weaver ORCID , Rongpu Zhou ORCID
Journal Info Institute of Physics | The Astronomical Journal , vol: 168 , iss: 6 , pages: 245 - 245
Publication Date 11/8/2024
ISSN 0004-6256
TypeKeyword Image article
Open Access gold Gold Access
DOI https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad76a4
KeywordsKeyword Image Fusion splicing (Score: 0.43798077)