The development and applications of a ground-based fiber nulling coronagraph

Stefan Martin; Eugene Serabyn; Kurt Liewer; Frank Loya; Bertrand Mennesson; Charles Hanot; Dimitri Mawet

doi:10.1117/12.789484

28 July 2008 The development and applications of a ground-based fiber nulling coronagraph

Stefan Martin, Eugene Serabyn, Kurt Liewer, Frank Loya, Bertrand Mennesson, Charles Hanot, Dimitri Mawet

Proceedings Volume 7013, Optical and Infrared Interferometry; 70131Y (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.789484
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2008, Marseille, France

Abstract

A rotating nulling coronagraph has been built for use on ground-based telescopes. The system is based on the concept of sub-aperturing the pupil of the telescope with two elliptical apertures and combining the resulting two input beams on a single-mode fiber. By a relative π phase shift of the beams, the starlight can be nulled and a relatively faint companion star can be detected. Rotation of the aperture mask on the telescope pupil results in a signal similar to that expected from a space-borne telescope system such as the proposed TPF/Darwin interferometer. The design of the nulling coronagraph and the ancillary systems that are needed, such as the fringe tracker, are described and the potential for observations on telescopes such as the Palomar 200" is discussed. Results of a nulling experiment using a single mode fiber as a beam combiner for broadband light between 1.50 μm and 1.80 μm are shown.

Citation Download Citation

Stefan Martin, Eugene Serabyn, Kurt Liewer, Frank Loya, Bertrand Mennesson, Charles Hanot, and Dimitri Mawet "The development and applications of a ground-based fiber nulling coronagraph", Proc. SPIE 7013, Optical and Infrared Interferometry, 70131Y (28 July 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.789484

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