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We have constructed a thermally compensated field-widened monolithic Michelson interferometer that can be used with a medium-resolution spectrograph to measure precise Doppler radial velocities of stars. Our prototype monolithic fixed-delay interferometer is constructed with off-the-shelf components and assembled using a hydrolysis bonding technique. We installed and tested this interferometer in the Exoplanet Tracker (ET) instrument at the Kitt Peak 2.1m telescope, an instrument built to demonstrate the principles of dispersed fixed delay interferometry. An iodine cell allows the interferometer drift to be accurately calibrated, relaxing the stability requirements on the interferometer itself. When using our monolithic interferometer, the ET instrument has no moving parts (except the iodine cell), greatly simplifying its operation. We demonstrate differential radial velocity precision of a few m s$^{-1}$ on well known radial velocity standards and planet bearing stars when using this interferometer. Such monolithic interferometers will make it possible to build relatively inexpensive instruments that are easy to operate and capable of precision radial velocity measurements. A larger multi-object version of the Exoplanet Tracker will be used to conduct a large scale survey for planetary systems as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS III). Variants of the techniques and principles discussed in this paper can be directly applied to build large monolithic interferometers for such applications, enabling the construction of instruments capable of efficiently observing many stars simultaneously at high velocity-precision.
High-precision spectrographs play a key role in exoplanet searches and Doppler asteroseismology using the radial velocity technique. The 1 m/s level of precision requires very high stability and uniformity of the illumination of the spectrograph. In
The EXtreme PREcision Spectrograph (EXPRES) is an environmentally stabilized, fiber-fed, $R=137,500$, optical spectrograph. It was recently commissioned at the 4.3-m Lowell Discovery Telescope (LDT) near Flagstaff, Arizona. The spectrograph was desig
Absorption cells filled with diatomic iodine are frequently employed as wavelength reference for high-precision stellar radial velocity determination due their long-term stability and low cost. Despite their wide-spread usage in the community, there
Solar contamination, due to moonlight and atmospheric scattering of sunlight, can cause systematic errors in stellar radial velocity (RV) measurements that significantly detract from the ~10cm/s sensitivity required for the detection and characteriza
We describe a successful effort to produce a laser comb around 1.55 $mu$m in the astronomical H band using a method based on a line-referenced, electro-optical-modulation frequency comb. We discuss the experimental setup, laboratory results, and proo