The goal of the project is to develop and setup a testbench for the performance evaluation of photonic chips, in particular chip-based spectrographs.
The introduction of photonic technologies, i.e. the propagation and modulation of light in optical fibers and waveguides, to astronomy allows building extremely stable and highly multiplexed instruments at a fraction of the cost and size of conventional instruments.

During the internship, the student will be in charge of setting up a testbench including the opto-mechanical layout, cameras and light sources such as line lamps and fiber-fed lasers. In a second phase, the testbench will be used to characterize the first generation of photonic spectrographs using state-of-the art data analysis tools.

The development and qualification phase of the testbench provides good opportunities for a student to get intimately involved with the single-mode technology, spectroscopy, astronomical instrumentation and to work in a field, which connects multiple engineering disciplines ranging from optics, electrical and mechanical engineering, as well as physics in general.

Student profile: Some knowledge in Optics or Photonics and strong interest in Data Analysis would be an asset.