Optical synthesis aperture telescope technology can be used to get more rich astronomical information. Interference fringe scanning method is commonly used to eliminate optical path difference between different optical delayed lines, but due to the polarization difference between the interference arms will lead to interference fringe contrast degradation especially in interference type instrument. Especially when observing faint, more distant targets, it is more necessary to consider the polarization effects caused by the instrument itself. In this paper, the Fizeau-type Y-4 prototype developing by Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences is introduced first of all. Based on the principle of the vector-wave superposition, this paper focuses on fringe contrast degradation caused by polarization effects and the changes of polarization states caused by coating of different material. The simulation results show that the interference fringe contrast is sensitive to the polarization effects. Similarly, the changes of polarization state of the beam caused by the coating needs to be considered when designing the optical interferometer. Finally, a polarization compensator is proposed to compensate the polarization difference.
Aperture masking observations for binary stars have been done with a 1.56-m telescope at Shanghai Astronomical Observatory(SHAO) during 2019-2024. In order to ensure ample light available to restore the high resolution images even at short exposure times and reach the diffraction limit of the 1.56-m telescope, we select some binary stars and reference stars nearby with magnitude 5-8 and angular distance 0.2-4 arcsec in the WDS catalog as observation targets. This article achieved high-resolution restoration of binary stars using a hybrid data processing method, including data reduction, a spatial domain method named ISA or a frequency domain method named SI to suppress atmospheric turbulence, and OS-EM to reduce image degradation caused by multi-aperture interference. The results show that this method can effectively obtain high-resolution images of binary stars, and the measured angular distance is basically consistent with the given value in WDS catalog.
The Fizeau type interferometric telescope forms an array of several sub telescopes for direct imaging on the image plane based on the principle of optical interferometry. Compared to the optical long baseline interferometer, this kind of telescope can be used for real time imaging of celestial body due to some excellent characteristics such as sufficient spatial frequencies coverage, single mounting avoiding outer optical delay lines and so on. We have built an interferometric imaging telescope with four apertures. Although each aperture size is 100mm, but this telescope can reach the higher angular resolution which is equivalent to a monolithic telescope of 280mm aperture size through optimal array configuration. Some novel opto-mechanical structure design and error control methods have been applied to this telescope successfully. For example, in order to enhance the rigidity of mechanical system, a unique C-shape structure to replace the traditional azimuth axis is adapted. Piston, tip/tilt errors between all apertures can be detected at the same time by extracting signals from Modulation Transfer Function (MTF), so some classical beam splitters can be removed which will reduce light loss significantly. At present, we have finished the final assembly, co-phasing calibration and verifying of dynamic co-phasing close-loop methods at laboratory. The FWHM of far field image spot is 0.43 arcsecond which is consistent with theoretical values. The out-door astronomical observation will be carried out soon.
Accurate piston error detection and closed-loop control are one of the key technologies to ensure the imaging quality of the interferometric imaging telescope. In this paper, we proposed a piston error detection and control scheme based on three computers and multithreading,which has been successfully applied to a four 0.1-m apertures interferometric telescope. This scheme adopts a kind of fringe contrast measurement and climbing method to achieve closed-loop control. The results implied that the fringe contrast can be raised through piston closed-loop correction. Compared with a single telescope with 0.1-m aperture, we can get a 2.63x improvement in resolution for the new interferometric telescope with four 0.1-m apertures. It is proved that the feasibility and effectiveness of this scheme. We will further carry out astronomical observation experiments and improve the piston error detection and control scheme, in order to provide technical guarantees for the implementation of interferometric imaging telescopes.
Co-phasing technique is used to detect and compensate the fluctuation of optical path difference (OPD) between subtelescopes of long baseline optical interferometers caused by atmospheric turbulence. At present, the sensitivity of cophasing technology is limited, which cannot meet the observation needs for more and darker objects such as Broad Line Region of Active Galactic Nucleus and Quasars. A kind of chromatic phase diversity method (CPD) used to obtain OPD by extracting phase and unwrapping phase difference from the optical transfer function of multi-aperture interferometry was proposed in 2014. Compared to other traditional co-phasing or fringe tracking methods, this method is of some significant advantages such as less power loss, larger capture range of piston error and synchronous sensing for all apertures. In the past, the method was verified by bulk optics or integrated photonics chip only combining beams. Wavelength Separation was still accomplished by many dichroic beamsplitters and fold mirrors which would increase light loss. We present a new compact solution that Fizeau multi-axial beam combination and multiple spectral channels can be merged on single photonic chip. Our works including Verifying of CPD algorithm, model simulation and design of the chip on H-band will be introduced respectively.
The Earth 2.0 (ET) space mission has entered its phase B study in China. It seeks to understand how frequently habitable Earth-like planets orbit solar-type stars (Earth 2.0s), the formation and evolution of terrestrial-like planets, and the origin of free-floating planets. The final design of ET includes six 28 cm diameter transit telescope systems, each with a field of view of 550 square degrees, and one 35 cm diameter microlensing telescope with a field of view of 4 square degrees. In transit mode, ET will continuously monitor over 2 million FGKM dwarfs in the original Kepler field and its neighboring fields for four years. Simultaneously, in microlensing mode, it will observe over 30 million I < 20.5 stars in the Galactic bulge direction. Simulations indicate that ET mission could identify approximately 40,000 new planets, including about 4,000 terrestrial-like planets across a wide range of orbital periods and in the interstellar space, ~1000 microlensing planets, ~10 Earth 2.0s and around 25 free-floating Earth mass planets. Coordinated observations with ground-based KMTNet telescopes will enable the measurement of masses for ~300 microlensing planets, helping determine the mass distribution functions of free-floating planets and cold planets. ET will operate from the Earth-Sun L2 halo orbit with a designed lifetime exceeding 4 years. The phase B study involves detailed design and engineering development of the transit and microlensing telescopes. Updates on this mission study are reported.
An ultra-compact optical spectrograph (~43x16x13cm) is developed using a new optical arrayed waveguide technique based on waveguide spectral lenses (WSL). The WSL is an evolved version from the arrayed waveguide grating design can achieve simultaneous spectral dispersion and image focusing onto the detector plane at designed distance. Despite its compact size, the instrument maintains high optical throughput and provides a wide range of spectral resolution (R~200-2000 at 600-950 nm). The spectrograph's design and the results of laboratory testing will be reported.
To achieve high-resolution image using optical synthesis aperture telescope, it’s necessary to co-phase accurately of all the telescopes so as to reduce the effect of co-phase errors including piston error, tip/tilt error, and mapping error, etc. Though simulation analysis of the optical system, error sources can be identified and thus save time of alignment. This paper introduces the Fizeau-type Y-4 prototype under development, including the layout of the Y-4 prototype, the layout of the reflective mirrors in the delayed light paths and the beam combiner. With the optical transfer function as the evaluation index, the actual equivalent diameter of Y-4 prototype is calculated. Furthermore, the effect of polarization introduced by coating and polarization differences on the contrast of interference fringe is analyzed. At present, the installation and alignment of the prototype in laboratory have been completed, and the interference synthesis of 4 light paths has been realized. One aim of this paper is to share some experiences in optical design and detection for the development of optical synthetic aperture telescopes. Another aim is to expand these new techniques to the larger optical synthesis aperture telescope project in the future.
A space mission called “Earth 2.0 (ET)” is being developed in China to address a few of fundamental questions in the exoplanet field: How frequently habitable Earth-like planets orbit solar type stars (Earth 2.0s)? How do terrestrial planets form and evolve? Where did floating planets come from? ET consists of six 30 cm diameter transit telescope systems with each field of view of 500 square degrees and one 35 cm diameter microlensing telescope with a field of view of 4 square degrees. The ET transit mode will monitor ~1.2M FGKM dwarfs in the original Kepler field and its neighboring fields continuously for four years while the microlensing mode monitors over 30M I< 20.6 stars in the Galactic bulge direction. ET will merge its photometry data with that from Kepler to increase the time baseline to 8 years. This enhances the transit signal-to-noise ratio, reduce false positives, and greatly increases the chance to discover Earth 2.0s. Simulations show that ET transit telescopes will be able to identify ~17 Earth 2.0s, about 4,900 Earth-sized terrestrial planets and about 29,000 new planets. In addition, ET will detect about 2,000 transit-timingvariation (TTV) planets and 700 of them will have mass and eccentricity measurements. The ET microlensing telescope will be able to identify over 1,000 microlensing planets. With simultaneous observations with the ground-based KMTNet telescopes, ET will be able to measure masses of over 300 microlensing planets and determine the mass distribution functions of free-floating planets and cold planets. ET will be operated at the Earth-Sun L2 orbit with a designed lifetime longer than 4 years.
The Earth 2.0 (ET) mission is a Chinese space mission designed to detect thousands of terrestrial-like planets, including habitable Earth-like planets orbiting solar type stars (i.e., Earth 2.0s), cold low-mass planets, and free-floating planets. Six 30cm telescopes are used for very high precision photometry measurements to detect transiting planets. In order to reach very high precision photometry, an intra-pixel response function (IPRF) of detectors needs to be measured for the ET design to keep image motions caused by spacecraft operation within an acceptable level. To characterize detectors, two setups have been developed in the lab to measure spot size of the characterization beam and subpixel sensitivity. Early characterization results are reported.
In general, most of the adaptive optical systems for human eye aberration detection are based on the wavefront slope measurement provided by the Shark-Hartman wavefront sensor (SHWS), and then the wavefront slope is fed back to the deformable mirror to correct the human eye aberrations. Compared with the SHWS, the pyramid wavefront sensor (PWS) has the characteristics of fast sampling speed, wide linear capture range, and high sensitivity. Our works show that the modulation angle of the dynamic high-frequency modulator affects the dynamic measurement range, linearity and sensitivity of the pyramid sensing. The dynamic measurement range and the linear fitting residuals are both proportional to the modulation angle, and the sensitivity is inversely proportional to the modulation angle. Pixel combination affects the sensitivity of the detection signals of the pyramid sensor. The pixel combination mode of 1 × 1, 2 × 2, and 3 × 3 is tested respectively. When the pixel combination mode of 2 × 2 is used, the sensitivity of the signals will be highest significantly. In addition, the beacon light used to detect the human eye should not be too strong. The grinding “blind zone” of the spires and edges will have a scattering effect on the incident light and cause loss of light energy. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the parameters of the pyramid sensor and further improve the processing technology of the pyramid prism.
Deformable mirror (DM) is the most main wavefront corrector in adaptive optics, which can be used to compensate optical aberrations through changing the reflective mirror’s surface frequently. However, a commercial piezoelectric DM can’t have an ideal flat initial surface under zero-voltage condition due to limitation of thin mirror fabrication and support structure of actuators behind of mirror. Optical aberrations generated by this initial distortion will seriously attenuate the performance of DM’s close-loop control, so a flat-surface calibration of mirror needs to be carried out before DM properly correct optical aberrations. In order to properly control the optical figure of the DM we have to obtain an interactive matrix which is the response of optical surface to the DM actuator’s stroke. We measured a serious of surface phase data of OKO 109-channel DM through self-collimation using a ZYGO-GPI interferometer directly, then construct the interactive matrix by zonal and modal methods. After several close-loop iterations, the initial RMS surface error of OKO 109-channel deformable mirror, 1.506λ has been remarkably reduced to 0.145λ.
High resolution observation of celestial objects has always been the goal of optical interferometry. In this paper, we concentrated on two aspects of image reconstruction for Fizeau interferometric telescope. 1. The influence of piston error on imaging quality was studied, which provides a basis for the technical specifications of telescopes. 2. We proposed to use speckle imaging technology in interferometric telescopes, this method can reduce the effect of atmospheric turbulence on the resolution. In summary, a method combining denoising algorithm and speckle imaging technology is used to suppress noise, remove turbulence and reconstruct high-resolution images of real objects. The simulation results show that speckle imaging technology is also applicable to the interferometric telescope, and got good image reconstruction effect. The research results can be further extended to other mosaic telescopes.
In this paper we report on the laboratory experiment we settled in the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) to investigate the pyramid wave-front sensor (WFS) ability to measure the differential piston on a sparse aperture. The ultimate goal is to verify the ability of the pyramid WFS work in close loop to perform the phasing of the primary mirrors of a sparse Fizeau imaging telescope. In the experiment we installed on the optical bench we performed various test checking the ability to flat the wave-front using a deformable mirror and to measure the signal of the differential piston on a two pupils setup. These steps represent the background from which we start to perform full close loop operation on multiple apertures. These steps were also useful to characterize the achromatic double pyramids (double prisms) manufactured in the SHAO optical workshop.
Fringe test is the method which can detect the relative optical path difference in optical synthetic aperture telescope array.
To get to the interference fringes, the two beams of light in the meeting point must be within the coherence length. Step
scanning method is within its coherence length, selecting a specific step, changing one-way’s optical path of both by
changing position of micro displacement actuator. At the same time, every fringe pattern can be recorded. The process of
fringe patterns is from appearing to clear to disappearing. Firstly, a particular pixel is selected. Then, we keep tract of the
intensity of every picture in the same position. From the intensity change, the best position of relative optical path
difference can be made sure. The best position of relative optical path difference is also the position of the clearest fringe.
The wavelength of the infrared source is 1290nm and the bandwidth is 63.6nm. In this experiment, the coherence length
of infrared source is detected by cube reflection experiment. The coherence length is 30μm by data collection and data
processing, and that result of 30μm is less different from the 26μm of theoretical calculated. In order to further test the
relative optical path of optical synthetic aperture using step scanning method, the infrared source is placed into optical
route of optical synthesis aperture telescope double aperture. The precision position of actuator can be obtained when the
fringe is the clearest. By the experiment, we found that the actuating step affects the degree of precision of equivalent
optical path. The smaller step size, the more accurate position. But the smaller the step length, means that more steps
within the coherence length measurement and the longer time.
Fizeau interferometry is one of the most important technique to measure astronomical objects with high angle resolution.
This paper is the part of a series dedicated to research of the Fizeau interferometry carried out by the research team of
Shanghai Astronomical Observatory. This paper is mainly concerned the simulation of image restoration based on
Y-type telescope and segmented mirrors telescope. It is proved that we can get the high resolution image using RL and
OS-EM method.
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