Jonathan Crass (University of Notre Dame)

iLocater: Breaking the 1m/s RV precision barrier: Current radial velocity (RV) instruments for exoplanet science are seeing-limited in design. While previously vital to efficiently couple light into an instrument, these designs lead to multiple systematic errors which combined, pose challenges to overcome the 1m/s RV precision barrier which is required to detect Earth-like planets within the habitable-zone of their host star. Today, the growing number of adaptive optics (AO) facilities at telescopes world-wide offer next-generation exoplanet RV instruments a new possibility: the ability to use a stabilized AO-fed input and with this, numerous benefits which lead to improved instrument precision. iLocater, a next-generation RV instrument under development for the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), utilizes this AO capability to deliver precision RV science. By using the high-order AO system of the LBT, efficient coupling of light into single-mode fibers can be achieved, overcoming modal noise, reducing the instrument volume and facilitating an instrument spectrograph with intrinsic stability as part of its design. Operating across the Y- and J-bands (0.97-1.31µm), iLocater is optimized for detecting Earth-like planets around infrared emitting M-type stars. Scheduled for commissioning in 2018, iLocater will coincide with the commissioning of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). In this talk I present an overview of the key components of the instrument, its updated science cases and the current instrument design. I will discuss the outcomes from the on-sky testing of single-mode optical fiber coupling at the LBT in April 2016 and the plans to bring the full instrument to completion.