This paper describes a telescope concept that has an aperture area equivalent to 88m in diameter by arranging 16 telescopes with an aperture of 22m closely within a 250m range. The primary mirror uses an off-axis spherical mirror fixed on the ground to eliminate diurnal movement and reduce costs, and a subsequent correction unit consisting of three or more aspherical mirrors corrects most of the aberrations of the primary mirror. The correction unit is placed on a cliff of about 40m high, and diurnal motion can be tracked for 20 minutes around the meridian passes. Multiple correction units separated in the north-south direction can be operated simultaneously at each telescope. The wide-field camera is integrated with the correction unit, but the other instruments are fixed on the cliff and the light is relayed there. All telescopes are equipped with wide-field cameras and enable high-speed deep surveys. High signal-to-noise ratio spectroscopic observations can be made by installing the same spectrograph on all telescopes. In addition, all telescopes have laser-guide star adaptive optics, optical delaylines, and coude paths, which allow light from all telescopes to be focused in one location in phase to function as one ultimate telescope. This will enable the exploration of exoplanets and the study of galactic objects with high angular resolution and high sensitivity.
We have built a laboratory testbed called the Exoplanet Imaging System Testbed (EXIST) to develop future highcontrast imaging technologies. The main objective of the EXIST is the development of broadband coronagraph and wavefront control techniques. The EXIST is equipped with several fiber-coupled laser and broadband light sources to model star and planets. A spatial light modulator (SLM) is used to carry out the wavefront control in front of the coronagraph. We incorporated a variety of coronagraphic masks, including four-quadrant, eightoctant, and 12-sector phase masks. These masks exhibit second-, fourth-, and sixth-order starlight suppression properties, respectively. When combined with the wavefront control, higher-order coronagraphic masks provided better dark hole contrast. This paper reports on recent experimental results and prospects for future technological development at the EXIST.
Direct detection of Earth-like exoplanets requires a high-contrast imaging system to suppress bright stellar light that prevents the detection. The wavefront sensing and control technique which is one component of the high-contrast imaging system can suppress stellar scattered light (speckles) caused by wavefront aberrations. However, deformation of the system due to temperature changes in space telescopes or atmospheric turbulence in ground-based telescopes cause speckles that fluctuate faster than the wavefront sensing and control. As the post-processing technique, the Coherent Differential Imaging on Speckle Area Nulling (CDI-SAN) method was proposed to suppress the fast-fluctuating speckles. We are conducting the laboratory demonstration of the CDISAN method using two types of experimental facilities. One of them is equipped with a deformable mirror and a field programmable gate array. In our initial laboratory demonstration, we achieved 10−8 level contrast. To achieve higher contrast, we are updating our facility. The other facility is equipped with a spatial light modulator (SLM). In this facility, the contrast was improved by 10−1 using the CDI-SAN method.
In preparation for the operational phase of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, NASA has created the Coronagraph Community Participation Program (CPP) to prepare for and execute Coronagraph Instrument technology demonstration observations. The CPP is composed of 7 small, US-based teams, selected competitively via the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Research and Support Participation Opportunity, members of the Roman Project Team, and international partner teams from ESA, JAXA, CNES, and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy. The primary goals of the CPP are to prepare simulation tools, target databases, and data reduction software for the execution of the Coronagraph Instrument observation phase. Here, we present the current status of the CPP and its working groups, along with plans for future CPP activities up through Roman’s launch. We also discuss plans to potentially enable future commissioning of currently-unsupported modes.
The InfraRed Doppler (IRD) instrument is the Subaru telescope’s high-resolution (R > 70,000) spectrograph covering wavelengths from 1000 to 1700 nm. A laser frequency comb (LFC) spectrum simultaneously obtained with an object spectrum calibrates wavelength shifts caused by instrumental instability. We originally developed IRD to carry out precision radial velocity (RV) measurements at near-infrared wavelengths. The wide wavelength coverage of IRD, and the large mirror (8.2 m) of the Subaru Telescope enables IRD to provide the best sensitivities to detect a planet orbiting a cool M-type star. The first science operation of IRD was conducted in 2018 and the large strategic blind survey for planets orbiting cool M-type stars started in 2019. Since then, there have been many observations not only for exoplanet category but also for stellar physics, Galaxy, and high-energy astrophysics. IRD spectroscopy allowed for characterizing exoplanet atmospheres by measuring OH emissions, He absorptions, and spin-orbit obliquities. The IRD survey discovered a super-Earth in orbit near a habitable zone of Ross 508. The IRD RV measurements for many systems that host transiting planets, including TOI-2285 b and Gliese 12 b, helped confirm those and determine or constrain their masses. Using REACH, IRD can be combined with the extreme adaptive optics SCExAO, enabling the use of a single-mode fiber and characterizations of faint sub-stellar companions orbiting bright stars. In this proceeding paper, we review and highlight the scientific results achieved by the IRD observations.
High-contrast coronagraphs have been developed to detect and characterize exo-planets with contrasts of 10-8~10-10. One method used for coronagraphs is the vector vortex phase mask, and a 6th-order one is required to sufficiently suppress the light from stars with finite apparent diameters using future large telescopes at the ground and in space. We manufactured 12- and 24-segmented sixth-order vector vortex phase masks with photonic crystal waveplates, and their fast axis orientations are 90 degrees and 45 degrees in adjacent regions, respectively. A three-layer structure was designed to cover a broad band of 600-1000nm. The design contrast for the phase mask alone is 8e-6, and we expect to achieve the final contrast by polarization filtering. We found that the retardation of the phase mask was almost coincident to the design curve. As for the 24-segment phase mask, a shaped pupil was designed as a combined element to exhibit the performance of the phase mask in the pupil shape of the TMT, which has the obstructions of the secondary mirror, the spiders, and the segment boundaries. The shaped pupil design has a transmittance of about 70% and a contrast of 10-7 within the outer working angle of 10 lambda/D. A shaped pupil was manufactured by chromium etching on a quartz substrate, and we observed the reduction of the diffracted light within 8 lambda/D.
The South Africa Near-infrared Doppler instrument (SAND) is a time-stable high-dispersion spectrograph, covering the z- and Y-bands simultaneously (849 - 1085 nm) with the maximum spectral resolution of ∼60,000. We aim to monitor the radial velocity of M-dwarfs with the precision of a few m/s level, which enables us to search for habitable exoplanets. Our another scientific motivation is the statistical investigation of young planets and stellar atmosphere to comprehensively understand the formation senario of stellar systems. We are planning to install the SAND to telescopes at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in Sutherland, since the Southern sky covers plentiful stellar associations with young stars. The SAND is a fiber-fed spectrograph, and we can change telescope used to collect the star light by switching the fiber connection. It will be operated mainly with two telescopes: the Prime-focus Infrared Microlensing Experience telescope (PRIME) and the InfraRed Survey Facility (IRSF), which both are managed by universities in Japan. This strategy of using multiple telescopes gives us opportunities of frequent and long-term observations, which provides well phase coverage in radial velocity monitoring and results in non-bias search for exoplanets. Most of the components used in the spectrograph and the fiber injection module have been fabricated. We will present the detailed status and recent progress: designing the fiber injection module and the thermal control system, examination of fiber characteristics, and estimating our target candidates.
We assessed the impact of Earth’s atmospheric absorption lines, known as telluric contamination, on near-infrared radial velocity (RV) measurements using IRD/Subaru. We focused on the telluric removal process implemented in the RV pipeline for IRD data, which works in two phases: the creation of a stellar template spectrum and the measurement of RVs through a forward modeling approach. Our analysis revealed that discrepancies of approximately 1% exist between the observed telluric standard star’s spectra and theoretical telluric spectra, both used within the RV pipeline. These discrepancies are particularly significant in regions with strong water vapor absorption. Additionally, we investigated the impacts of residual tellurics on RV measurements through mock spectrum analysis. By comparing RV values derived from mock spectra made with either theoretical or observed tellurics, we found that residual tellurics can introduce an additional scatter of at least 1 m/s in RV measurements. Our findings highlight the necessity for improved telluric removal methods in the near-infrared spectrum to achieve precise RV measurements critical for detecting small-mass planets.
An exoplanet survey with a near-infrared Doppler (IRD) instrument focused on mid-to-late M-type dwarfs began in February 2019 within the framework of the Subaru Strategic Program. Because mid-to-late M-type dwarfs are brighter in the infrared region than in the visible region, a laser frequency comb (LFC) system was developed as a wavelength reference, covering the near-infrared region from 970 to 1750 nm. To stabilize the comb image on the spectrometer, the original 12.5 GHz comb generated using highly nonlinear fibers was injected into the spectrometer after optical processing, including spectral shaping, depolarization, and mode scrambling. An inline fiber module was introduced to enable any optical system configuration for the optical processor. This fiber-optic configuration in the LFC system allows for long-term stability and easy repair. Moreover, simple remote control of the LFC system using an interactive program enabled LFC generation in approximately 5 min, excluding warm-up time. The observations using the IRD instrument over 4 years have proven that our LFC system is practical and stable. The LFC system operated stably without major problems during this period, helping to maintain a high radial velocity accuracy.
Various types of high-contrast imaging instruments have been proposed and developed for direct detection of exoplanets by suppressing nearby stellar light. Stellar speckles due to wavefront aberration can be suppressed by the appropriate wavefront control, called the dark hole control. However, the speckles, which fluctuate faster than the dark hole control due to atmospheric turbulence in ground-based telescopes or instrument deformation caused by temperature changes in space telescopes, cannot be suppressed by the control and remain in focal plane images. The Coherent Differential Imaging on Speckle Area Nulling (CDI-SAN) method was proposed to overcome such fast fluctuating speckles and detect exoplanetary light. We constructed an optical setup in a laboratory to demonstrate the CDI-SAN method. With the dark hole control and the CDI-SAN method, we achieved 10−8 level of contrasts.
A near-infrared radial velocity (RV) survey focusing on the late-M dwarfs started in February 2019 within the framework of the Subaru Strategy Program (SSP). The InfraRed Doppler (IRD) instrument mainly consists of a highresolution spectrometer and a laser frequency comb (LFC) system as a wavelength reference. Late-M dwarfs emit most of their energy in the near-infrared rather than in the visible. Therefore, to cover the bright absorption lines of M dwarfs, LFC provides a broadband spectrum from 970 nm to 1750 nm with a mode spacing of 12.5 GHz. It has advantages such as simple and robust frequency stabilization, an all-fiber optic configuration, and being observer friendly. The original comb spectrum just generated from highly nonlinear fibers undergoes optical processing such as spectral shaping, depolarization, and mode scrambling in multimode fiber utilization before it is input to the spectrometer. Using the IRD instrument, the IRD-SSP has made more than 100 nights of observations over the last three years. The LFC system operated stably without major trouble during this period, helping to maintain high RV accuracy. Despite the lack of direct maintenance for two and a half years due to Covid-19, the system has continued to operate without any interruption to the observations.
High-contrast imaging techniques are essential for future space missions aimed at directly detecting and characterizing exoplanets. We constructed a new testbed called the facility for coronagraphic elemental technologies (FACET) for the development of high-contrast imaging techniques. FACET has three optical paths (A, B, and C). Path A is used for developing focal-plane phase mask (FPM) coronagraphs. Currently, we have been developing photonic-crystal multi-layer phase masks for suppressing stellar light over a broad wavelength range. In path B, we demonstrate high-contrast observation combining FPM coronagraphs with a dark hole (DH) control technique. A spatial light modulator (SLM) is used as a wavefront control device. We are developing DH control techniques that take advantage of the large pixel format of the SLM. In path C, we demonstrate DH control for detecting exoplanets not only around single stars but also around binary-star systems. We install the SLM into the common-path visible nulling coronagraph to test the multiple-star DH control. We report details of FACET and recent progress of our activities at FACET. We have recently made significant progress with the demonstration of observation for a single star for which we achieved a monochromatic contrast of 2.9 × 10−9 at path C.
The mid-infrared spectrometer and camera transit spectrometer (MISC-T) is one of the three baseline instruments for Origins Space Telescope (Origins) and provides the capability to assess the habitability of nearby exoplanets and search for signs of life. MISC-T employs a densified pupil optical design, and HgCdTe and Si:As detector arrays. This optical design allows the instrument to be relatively insensitive to minor line-of-sight pointing drifts and telescope aberrations, and the detectors do not require a sub-Kelvin refrigerator. MISC-T has three science spectral channels that share the same field-of-view by means of beam splitters, and all channels are operated simultaneously to cover the full spectral range from 2.8 to 20 μm at once with exquisite stability and precision (<5 ppm between 2.8 to 11 μm, <20 ppm between 11 and 20 μm). A Lyot-coronagraph-based tip–tilt sensor located in the instrument fore-optics uses the light reflected by a field stop, which corresponds to 0.3% of the light from the target, to send fine pointing information to the field steering mirror in the Origins telescope. An additional MISC Wide Field Imager (WFI) is studied as an upscope option for the Origins. MISC-WFI offers a wide field imaging (3 ′ × 3 ′ ) and low-resolution spectroscopic capability with filters and grating-prisms (grisms) covering 5 to 28 μm. The imaging capability of the MISC-WFI will be used for general science objectives. The low-resolution spectroscopic capability in MISC-WFI with a resolving power R ( = λ / Δλ) of a few hundreds will be used to measure the mid-infrared dust features and ionic lines at z up to ∼1 in the Origins mission’s Rise of Metals and Black Hole Feedback programs. The MISC-WFI also serves as a focal plane pointing and guiding instrument for the observatory, including when the MISC-T channel is performing its exoplanet spectroscopy observations.
We are developing a high-resolution near-infrared spectrograph for exoplanet searches with telescopes in Suther- land, South Africa; the South Africa Near-infrared Doppler (SAND) instrument. It covers the z- and Y -bands (0.83–1.10 µm) simultaneously with a maximum spectral resolution of 55, 000. This specification enables the precise radial velocity (RV) measurements to search for both giant planets around young stars and habitable planets around nearby M-dwarfs. The SAND is a fiber-fed instrument and, therefore, can be installed into several telescopes at the same site by changing the fiber connection. It will be operated mainly on the PRIME telescope, which is newly developed by Osaka University in Japan. The InfraRed Survey Facility (IRSF) and the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) are also candidate telescopes for the installation. Inside the SAND spectrograph, a star image ejected from the fiber is sliced half and each sliced image is spectrally dispersed by an echelle grating. As a reference source for the wavelength calibration, light transmitted from a Fabry-Perot Etalon is simultaneously injected into the spectrograph and share the almost identical optical pass. The SAND is expected to realize RV-measurements for targets in large stellar associations at the southern sky, with exclusive and flexible use of the telescope time.
Development of a high-contrast imaging system, especially toward direct detection of habitable Earth-like exoplanets, would be one of the most challenging themes in modern astronomy. For direct detection of exo-Earth, coronagraphic devices are required for suppressing bright diffracted light from a parent star. In addition, residual stellar speckles, caused by imperfection of optical components, have to be also rejected by wavefront control such as the speckle nulling technique. It is important to construct a dedicated testbed at which we can comprehensively develop the high-contrast imaging system for future era of space coronagraphs aimed at searching for exo-Earths. Recently, we have started construction of a new testbed in Japan which is called EXIST (Exoplanet Imaging System Testbed). The EXIST is planned to be compatible with various types of coronagraphs, such as phase-mask coronagraphs based on the photoniccrystal technology, common-path visible nulling coronagraph, and so on. In addition, optimally designed pupil apodizers will be installed into the testbed for maximizing the performance of the phase-mask coronagraphs with arbitrary aperture telescopes. We plan to utilize a spatial light modulator (SLM) for conducting the speckle nulling control. Thanks to a large pixel format of the SLM, we expect that a huge dark hole can be created against the residual speckles. Here, we report our recent progress on the construction of the new testbed and results of some preparatory experiments related to the coronagraphs and the speckle nulling control using the SLM.
The Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics (SCExAO) instrument is a high-contrast imaging system installed at the 8-m Subaru Telescope on Maunakea, Hawaii. Due to its unique evolving design, SCExAO is both an instrument open for use by the international scientific community, and a testbed validating new technologies, which are critical to future high-contrast imagers on Giant Segmented Mirror Telescopes (GSMTs). Through multiple international collaborations over the years, SCExAO was able to test the most advanced technologies in wavefront sensors, real-time control with GPUs, low-noise high frame rate detectors in the visible and infrared, starlight suppression techniques or photonics technologies. Tools and interfaces were put in place to encourage collaborators to implement their own hardware and algorithms, and test them on-site or remotely, in laboratory conditions or on-sky. We are now commissioning broadband coronagraphs, the Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector (MKID) Exoplanet Camera (MEC) for high-speed speckle control, as well as a C-RED ONE camera for both polarization differential imaging and IR wavefront sensing. New wavefront control algorithms are also being tested, such as predictive control, multi-camera machine learning sensor fusion, and focal plane wavefront control. We present the status of the SCExAO instrument, with an emphasis on current collaborations and recent technology demonstrations. We also describe upgrades planned for the next few years, which will evolve SCExAO —and the whole suite of instruments on the IR Nasmyth platform of the Subaru Telescope— to become a system-level demonstrator of the Planetary Systems Imager (PSI), the high-contrast instrument for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT).
Subaru telescope has been operating a high-contrast imaging instruments called Subaru coronagraphic extreme adaptive optics (SCExAO) which is used for exoplanet research. We are developing phase mask coronagraphs using photonic crystal wave plates inside the SCExAO. An eight-octant phase mask (8OPM) of three-layer achromatic structure has been fabricated as a second generation. It was designed for J and H band to reach 10-5 contrast, and Ks band to 10-4. A retardation and a coronagraphic performance of the 8OPM were confirmed almost as designed at 1550nm. An apodised (binary shaped) pupil to be used with the 8OPM was also studied to suppress diffracted light by the secondary shadow and spiders. We confirmed a performance of the combination of the apodizer and the 8OPM at visible wavelengths in a lab. We optimized the apodizer for a pupil of the SCExAO where we obtained a transmission of 50 % and a contrast of 10-4 the center and 10-6 at outer region. We manufactured the designed apodizer to be installed in SCExAO for infrared observations.
The World Space Observatory for Ultraviolet (WSO-UV) is an orbital optical telescope with a 1.7-m diameter primary mirror currently under development. The WSO-UV is aimed to operate in the 115- to 310-nm UV spectral range. Its two major science instruments are UV spectrographs and UV imaging field cameras with filter wheels. The WSO-UV project is currently in the implementation phase, with a tentative launch date in 2023. As designed, the telescope field of view in the focal plane is not fully occupied by instruments. Recently, two additional instruments devoted to exoplanets have been proposed for WSO-UV, which are the focus of this paper. UVSPEX, a UV-spectrograph for exoplanets, aims to determine atomic hydrogen and oxygen abundance in the exospheres of terrestrial exoplanets. The spectral range is 115 to 130 nm, which enables simultaneous measurement of hydrogen and oxygen emission intensities during an exoplanet transit. A study of exosphere transit photometric curves can help differentiate among different types of rocky planets. The exospheric temperature of an Earth-like planet is much higher than that of a Venus-like planet because of the low mixing ratio of the dominant coolant (CO2) in the upper atmosphere of the former, which causes a large difference in transit depth at the oxygen emission line. Thus, whether the terrestrial exoplanet is Earth-like, Venus-like, or other can be determined. A Stellar Coronagraph for Exoplanet Direct Imaging (SCEDI) is aimed to directly detect the starlight reflected from exoplanets orbiting their parent stars or from the stellar vicinity including circumstellar disks, dust, and clumps. SCEDI will create an achromatic (optimized to 420- to 700-nm wavelength range), high-contrast stellocentric coronagraphic image of a circumstellar vicinity. The two instruments, such as UVSPEX and SCEDI, share common power and control modules. The present communication outlines the science goals of both proposed instruments and explains some of their engineering features.
The Mid-infrared Imager, Spectrometer, Coronagraph (MISC) is one of the instruments studied both for the Origins Space Telescope (OST) Mission Concept 1 and 2. The MISC for OST Mission Concept 1 consists of the MISC imager and spectrometer module (MISC I and S), the MISC coronagraph module (MISC COR) and the MISC transit spectrometer module (MISC TRA). The MISC I and S offers (1) a wide field (3 arcminx3 arcmin) imaging and low-resolution spectroscopic capability with filters and grisms for 6-38 μm, (2) a medium-resolution (R~1,000) Integral Field Unit (IFU) spectroscopic capability for 5- 38 μm and (3) a high-resolution (R~25,000) slit spectroscopic capability for 12-18 μm and 25-36 μm. The MISC COR module employs PIAACMC coronagraphy method and covers 6-38 μm achieving 10-7 contrast at 0.5 arcsec from the central star. The MISC TRA module employs a densified pupil spectroscopic design to achieve 3-5 ppm of spectro-photometric stability and covers 5-26 μm with R=100-300. The MISC for OST Mission Concept 2 consists of the MISC wide field imager module (MISC WFI) and the MISC transit Spectrometer module (MISC TRA). The MISC WFI offers a wide field (3 arcmin ×3 arcmin) imaging and low-resolution spectroscopic capabilities with filters and grisms for 6-28μm. The MISC TRA module in the OST Mission Concept 2 also employs the densified pupil spectroscopic design to achieve <5 ppm of spectro-photometric stability and covers 4-22 μm with R=100-300. The highest ever spectrophotometric stability achieved by MISC TRA enables to detect bio-signatures (e.g., ozone, water, and methane) in habitable worlds in both primary and secondary transits of exoplanets and makes the OST a powerful tool to bring an revolutionary progress in exoplanet sciences. Combined with the spectroscopic capability in the FIR provided by other OST instruments, the MISC widens the wavelength coverage of OST down to 5μm, which makes the OST a powerful tool to diagnose the physical and chemical condition of the ISM using dust features, molecules lines and atomic and ionic lines. The MISC also provides the OST with a focal plane guiding function for the other OST science instruments as well as its own use.
The Infrared Doppler (IRD) instrument is a fiber-fed high-resolution NIR spectrometer for the Subaru telescope covering the Y,J,H-bands simultaneously with a maximum spectral resolution of 70,000. The main purpose of IRD is a search for Earth-mass planets around nearby M-dwarfs by precise radial velocity measurements, as well as a spectroscopic characterization of exoplanet atmospheres. We report the current status of the instrument, which is undergoing commissioning at the Subaru Telescope, and the first light observation successfully done in August 2017. The general description of the instrument will be given including spectrometer optics, fiber injection system, cryogenic system, scrambler, and laser frequency comb. A large strategic survey mainly focused on late-type M-dwarfs is planned to start from 2019.
The InfraRed Doppler (IRD) instrument is a high-dispersion spectrograph that is available on Subaru Telescope to explore extrasolar planets via infrared radial velocity (RV) observations. The Subaru/IRD is especially useful in the search of a low-mass planet around cool M-type dwarfs for which infrared RV observations are essential. We report our early performance tests for IRD. IRD’s two H2RG detectors have been evaluated with our detector readout technique, ensuring that their readout noise is made sufficiently smaller than the stellar photon noise expected in our planned survey. We have also tested the instrumental stability of RV measurements from the laboratory data obtained with the IRD’s calibration systems including a laser frequency comb (LFC). Among our tested three types of velocity stability, the stability of comb spectra obtained with a multi-mode fiber (MMF) relative to that with another MMF is measured to be ∼1 m s−1. We also infer from these tests that stellar RV measurements with an MMF can be calibrated with a short-term stability of 2 m s−1 or better by the simultaneously-observed reference spectra of LFC. Furthermore, we report preliminary on-sky RV measurements calibrated with a Thorium-Argon hollow-cathode lamp for RV-stable stars (τ Ceti and Barnard's star) and a planet-host (51 Pegasi). These preliminary RV measurements help the further performance test of IRD that will be performed by the on-sky observations with LFC.
The Mid-infrared Imager, Spectrometer Coronagraph (MISC) instrument studied for the Origins Space Telescope (OST) Mission Concept 1 is designed to observe at mid-infrared (MIR) wavelengths ranging from 5 to 38 microns for OST. In the OST Mission Concept 1 study, MISC consists of three separate optical modules providing imaging, spectroscopy, and coronagraph capabilities. The MISC Coronagraph module (MISC COR) employs Phase-Induced Amplitude Apodization (PIAA) coronagraph (Guyon et al. 2014) in which pupil apodization is modified by reflection on mirrors and central starlight is blocked by focal plane mask and Lyot mask. The performance target of MISC COR is to achieve 10-7 contrast at 0.5” from the central star with covering wavelength of 6-38 microns using 2 optical channels. MISC COR will be a powerful tool to bring a revolutionary progress in exoplanet sciences. In this paper, we present detailed design of its optics and optomechanics, and discuss expected performances for a variety of combination of focal plane mask and Lyot mask.
We report the results of fiber mode scrambler experiments for the Infra-Red Doppler instrument (IRD) on the Subaru 8.2-m telescope. IRD is a near infrared, high-precision radial velocity (RV) instrument to search for exoplanets around M dwarfs. It is a fiber-fed, high-resolution (R~70000) spectrograph with an Echelle grating and a state-of-the art laser frequency comb. Expected precision of RV measurements is 1m/s. To achieve 1m/s accuracy, we must reduce modal noise, which is intensity instability of light at the end of multimode fibers. Modal noise is caused by interference of finite number of propagating modes of light. This noise can cause false RV signals, which reduce the accuracy of RV measurements. A mode scrambler is a mechanism to reduce modal noise. However, the best mode scrambler system at near infrared wavelengths is still unknown. Thus, we tested many kinds of mode scramblers, various length fibers, a double scrambler, and octagonal fibers, as static scramblers. We also tested dynamic scramblers, which make output uniform by moving optical fibers dynamically. We report the effects of these mode scramblers.
We are studying a coronagraph system with an imperfect pre-coronagraph in the field of direct detection of exoplanets which can provide additional contrast to a main coronagraph. It is a kind of an unbalanced nulling interferometer (UNI) concept which consists of the first deformable mirror (DM), the pre-coronagraph, the second DM, and a main coronagraph. The pre-coronagraph and the DM1 reduce the star light and the speckle noise to about one-hundreds which would be added to the main coronagraph contrast. The DMs can be controlled by the dark-hole algorithm by changing the masks at the coronagraph foci.
We designed and fabricated an achromatic eight-octant phase mask (8OPM) for broadband coronagraphic observations of exoplanets. The fabricated 8OPM is composed of three-layer eight-octant half-wave plates based on photonic crystals. By using Jones calculus, it is shown that the three-layer 8OPM achieves much higher contrast over broad wavelength range than that of the previous single-layer design. We carry out preliminary laboratory experiments of the coronagraph using the fabricated three-layer 8OPM. As a model star, we use several visible laser light sources for characterizing the coronagraphic performance. As a result, we obtain higher contrasts than theoretical ones of the single-layer 8OPM. However, the achieved contrasts are lower than the theoretical values of the three-layer one. At present we suspect that manufacturing errors of the half-wave plates in the 8OPM limit the achieved contrasts.
In order to detect Earth-like planets around nearby red dwarfs (in particular late-M stars), it is crucial to conduct precise radial velocity measurements at near-infrared wavelengths where these stars emit most of the light. We have been developing the Infrared Doppler (IRD) spectrograph which is a high dispersion spectrograph for the Subaru telescope. To achieve 1m/s RV measurement precision, we have developed a direct generation of laser frequency comb (LFC) that uses high-repetition-rate pump pulse synthesized by a line-by-line pulse-shaping technique. Our LFC generator has some advantages including simple and easy frequency stabilization, all fiber-optic configuration, and broadband calibration by the precise frequency shift of all modes in the LFC. We have successfully generated a 12.5-GHz-spaced comb spanning over 700 nm from 1040 to 1750 nm. The frequency stability was measured by optically heterodyning the comb with an acetylene-stabilized laser at 1542 nm as a reference light. The LFC showed a frequency stability of less than 0.2 MHz and an almost constant spectrum profile for 6 days. The original LFC that has just produced from highly nonlinear fibers needs some optical processing including spectrum shaping, depolarization, and a mode scramble in a multi-mode fiber before it is input into a spectrograph for the calibration. We have investigated the optical processing of the LFC which is necessary for the precise spectrograph calibration. Keywords: laser frequency comb, infrared, spectrograph, Doppler shift
We propose to use an extremely unbalanced interferometer (EUI) as a wavefront correcting input to a stellar coronagraph for direct exoplanet observation. Since wavefront error causes incomplete suppression of stellar light, an EUI aims to precisely correct the wavefront incident on the coronagraph to a level better than λ/5000 in the visible wavelength range. Compared to the previous unbalanced interferometer, which incorporated a nulling function, the proposed EUI does not introduce the nulling function. EUI does not use a precise deformable mirror. It increases the accuracy of a wavefront control effectively because of the coherent summation with an amplitude imbalance. It enables obtaining the desirable 10−9 coronagraphic contrast for Earth-like exoplanet imaging.
We have been developing focal-plane phase-mask coronagraphs ultimately aiming at direct detection and characterization of Earth-like extrasolar planets by future space coronagraph missions. By utilizing photonic-crystal technology, we manufactured various coronagraphic phase masks such as eight-octant phase masks (8OPMs), 2nd-order vector vortex masks, and a 4th-order discrete (32-sector) vector vortex mask. Our laboratory experiments show that the 4th-order vortex mask reaches to higher contrast than the 2nd-order one at inner region on a focal plane. These results demonstrate that the higher-order vortex mask is tolerant of low-order phase aberrations such as tip-tilt errors. We also carried out laboratory demonstration of the 2nd-order vector vortex masks in the High-Contrast Imaging Testbed (HCIT) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and obtained 10-8-level contrast owing to an adaptive optics system for creating dark holes. In addition, we manufactured a polarization-filtered 8OPM, which theoretically realizes achromatic performance. We tested the manufactured polarization-filtered 8OPM in the Infrared Coronagraphic Testbed (IRCT) at the JPL. Polychromatic light sources are used for evaluating the achromatic performance. The results suggest that 10-5- level peak-to-peak contrasts would be obtained over a wavelength range of 800-900 nm. For installing the focal-plane phase-mask coronagraph into a conventional centrally-obscured telescope with a secondary mirror, pupil-remapping plates have been manufactured for removing the central obscuration to enhance the coronagraphic performance. A result of preliminary laboratory demonstration of the pupil-remapping plates is also reported. In this paper, we present our recent activities of the photonic-crystal phase coronagraphic masks and related techniques for the high-contrast imaging.
A stellar coronagraph system for direct observations of extra solar planets is under development by combining unbalanced nulling interferometer (UNI), adaptive optics, and a focal plane mask coronagraph1,2,3,4,5,6. It can reach a high contrast as using λ/10000 precision optics by λ/1000 quality ones. However, a sufficient high contrast is not obtained yet in the experiment before. It is thought that the remained speckle noise at the final coronagraph focal plane detector are produced by a “non-common path error” of λ/100 level, which is a wavefront error of the coronagraph different from that of a wavefront sensor (WFS) of adaptive optics, even when the WFS indicates λ/1000 conversion. The non-common path error can be removed by the dark zone method that is the way of wavefront correction by wavefront sensing at the final focal plane detector, although it has an issue of operation for very faint targets because of a slow feedback loop. In the present paper, we describe that our coronagraph system becomes practically higher contrast by upgrading the control method of deformable mirror (DM) with the WFS assisted by final focal plane wavefront sensing method. We accomplished contrast of 8×10-7 relative to the star in experiment.
We have studied a coronagraph system with an unbalanced nulling interferometer (UNI). An important characteristic is a pre-reduction of the star light to 1/100 at the UNI stage which enables to enhance the final contrast. In other point of view, the UNI stage magnifies the wavefront aberrations, which lead us to compensate for the wavefront aberrations beyond the AO systems capabilities. It consists of the UNI, adaptive optics, and a coronagraph. In our experiments, we have observed the extra speckle reduction of better than 0.07 by the advantage of the UNI system. In order to obtain better contrast, we planned to reconstruct all of the optics, which use UNI with 4QPM, a coronagraph with 8OPM or VVM, a dual feedback control method, and a wavefront correction inside the UNI by an upstream AO.
We report the current status of the Infrared Doppler (IRD) instrument for the Subaru telescope, which aims at detecting
Earth-like planets around nearby M darwfs via the radial velocity (RV) measurements. IRD is a fiber-fed, near infrared
spectrometer which enables us to obtain high-resolution spectrum (R~70000) from 0.97 to 1.75 μm. We have been
developing new technologies to achieve 1m/s RV measurement precision, including an original laser frequency comb as
an extremely stable wavelength standard in the near infrared. To achieve ultimate thermal stability, very low thermal
expansion ceramic is used for most of the optical components including the optical bench.
One of the problems for direct observation of extrasolar planets is the speckle noise due to a wave-front error.
Therefore, high-accuracy adaptive optics is required for realizing a wavefront quality of λ/10000 rms. An unbalanced
nulling interferometer has a possibility to assist high-accuracy correction. In this paper, we propose the interferometer
with a four-quadrant phase mask in which an optical path is common. By using the mask, we succeed in stabilizing the
interference and taking measurements of wavefront errors with 10-times higher sensitivity. In this way, we expect to
construct high-accuracy adaptive optics which is more stable.
M. Tamura, H. Suto, J. Nishikawa, T. Kotani, B. Sato, W. Aoki, T. Usuda, T. Kurokawa, K. Kashiwagi, S. Nishiyama, Y. Ikeda, D. Hall, K. Hodapp, J. Hashimoto, J. Morino, S. Inoue, Y. Mizuno, Y. Washizaki, Y. Tanaka, S. Suzuki, J. Kwon, T. Suenaga, D. Oh, N. Narita, E. Kokubo, Y. Hayano, H. Izumiura, E. Kambe, T. Kudo, N. Kusakabe, M. Ikoma, Ya. Hori, M. Omiya, H. Genda, A. Fukui, Y. Fujii, O. Guyon, H. Harakawa, M. Hayashi, M. Hidai, T. Hirano, M. Kuzuhara, M. Machida, T. Matsuo, T. Nagata, H. Ohnuki, M. Ogihara, S. Oshino, R. Suzuki, H. Takami, N. Takato, Y. Takahashi, C. Tachinami, H. Terada
IRD is the near-infrared high-precision radial velocity instrument for the Subaru 8.2-m telescope. It is a relatively compact (~1m size) spectrometer with a new echelle-grating and Volume-Phase Holographic gratings covering 1-2 micron wavelengths combined with an original frequency comb using optical pulse synthesizer. The spectrometer will employ a 4096x4096-pixel HgCdTe array under testing at IfA, University of Hawaii. Both the telescope/Adaptive Optics and comb beams are fed to the spectrometer via optical fibers, while the instrument is placed at the Nasmyth platform of the Subaru telescope. Expected accuracy of the Doppler-shifted velocity measurements is about 1 m s-1. Helped with the large collecting area and high image quality of the Subaru telescope, IRD can conduct systematic radial velocity surveys of nearby middle-to-late M stars aiming for down to one Earth-mass planet. Systematic observational and theoretical studies of M stars and their planets for the IRD science are also ongoing. We will report the design and preliminary development progresses of the whole and each component of IRD.
Photonic crystal, an artificial periodic nanostructure of refractive indices, is one of the attractive technologies for
coronagraph focal-plane masks aiming at direct imaging and characterization of terrestrial extrasolar planets. We
manufactured the eight-octant phase mask (8OPM) and the vector vortex coronagraph (VVC) mask very precisely using
the photonic crystal technology. Fully achromatic phase-mask coronagraphs can be realized by applying appropriate
polarization filters to the masks. We carried out laboratory experiments of the polarization-filtered 8OPM coronagraph
using the High-Contrast Imaging Testbed (HCIT), a state-of-the-art coronagraph simulator at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL). We report the experimental results of 10-8-level contrast across several wavelengths over 10%
bandwidth around 800nm. In addition, we present future prospects and observational strategy for the photonic-crystal
mask coronagraphs combined with differential imaging techniques to reach higher contrast. We proposed to apply the
polarization-differential imaging (PDI) technique to the VVC, in which we built a two-channel coronagraph using
polarizing beam splitters to avoid a loss of intensity due to the polarization filters. We also proposed to apply the
angular-differential imaging (ADI) technique to the 8OPM coronagraph. The 8OPM/ADI mode mitigates an intensity
loss due to a phase transition of the mask and provides a full field of view around central stars. We present results of
preliminary laboratory demonstrations of the PDI and ADI observational modes with the phase-mask coronagraphs.
We have studied a coronagraph system with an unbalanced nulling interferometer (UNI). It consists of the UNI, adaptive
optics, and a coronagraph. An important characteristic is a magnification of the wavefront aberrations in the UNI stage,
which enables us to compensate for the wavefront aberrations beyond the AO systems capabilities. In our experiments,
we have observed the stable aberration magnification of about 6 times and compensation to about λ/100 rms
corresponding to λ/600 rms virtually. As a result, at the final focal plane of a 3-dimensional Sagnac interferometric
nulling coronagraph, we have obtained the extra speckle reduction of better than 0.07 by the advantage of the UNI-PAC
system. In order to obtain better contrast, we consider improvement of the optics with an 8OPM coronagraph, a dual
feedback control, an unbalanced nulling interferometer with 4QPM or VVM, and a wavefront correction inside the UNI.
We present the current status of the development of the SPICA Coronagraph Instrument (SCI). SPICA is a next-generation
3-meter class infrared telescope, which will be launched in 2022. SCI is high-contrast imaging, spectroscopic
instrument mainly for direct detection and spectroscopy of extra-solar planets in the near-to-mid infrared wavelengths to
characterize their atmospheres, physical parameters and evolutionary scenarios. SCI is now under the international
review process. In this paper, we present a science case of SCI. The main targets of SCI, not only for direct imaging but
also for spectroscopy, are young to matured giant planets. We will also show that some of known exoplanets by ground-based
direct detection are good targets for SCI, and a number of direct detection planets that are suitable for SCI will be
significantly increased in the next decade. Second, a general design of SCI and a key technology including a new high-throughput
binary mask coronagraph, will be presented. Furthermore, we will show that SCI is potentially capable of
achieving 10-6 contrast by a PSF subtraction method, even with a telescope pointing error. This contrast enhancement
will be important to characterize low-mass and cool planets.
A stellar coronagraph system for direct observations of extra solar planets is under development by combining
unbalanced nulling interferometer (UNI), adaptive optics, and a focal plane coronagraph 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. It can reach a high
contrast as using lambda/10000 precision optics by lambda/1000 quality ones. However, a sufficiently high contrast has
yet to be obtained for the experiment. It is thought that the remaining speckle noise at the final coronagraph focal plane
detector is produced by a “non-common path error” of lambda/100 level, which is a wavefront error of differences
between the coronagraph and a wavefront sensor (WFS) of adaptive optics, even when the WFS indicates lambda/1000
conversion. The non-common path error can be removed by the focal plane sensing method of wavefront correction by
wavefront sensing at the final focal plane detector, although it has an issue of operation for very faint targets because of a
slow feedback loop. In the present paper, we describe how our coronagraph system becomes practically higher contrast
by upgrading the control method of adaptive optics with the WFS assisted by a focal plane wavefront sensing. Then, we
control a wavefront error by two feedback loops, the first of which uses a WFS to make fast control for telescope optics
deformation and the second of which uses a focal plane detector to compensate for the non-common path error with slow
control. We show experiment results of the coronagraph system performance with both wavefront sensing methods.
In an unbalanced nulling interferometer (UNI) of our coronagraph system, the incidence light is divided into two, and they interfere by a reverse phase with different amplitude. Thereby, phase errors are magnified and we can correct a wavefront with higher precision. But phase errors of the incident wave will be magnified together with the wavefront errors inside UNI. Now, I am developing a control algorithm of the adaptive optics which removes the wavefront errors inside the interferometer by operating the phase of the light to a suitable value before dividing. In a simulation, wavefront accuracy improved by about 3 times with this technique, and also a comparable effect was acquired experimentally.
The Vector Vortex Coronagraph (VVC) is one of the most attractive new-generation coronagraphs for ground- and
space-based exoplanet imaging/characterization instruments, as recently demonstrated on sky at Palomar and
in the laboratory at JPL, and Hokkaido University. Manufacturing technologies for devices covering wavelength
ranges from the optical to the mid-infrared, have been maturing quickly. We will review the current status of
technology developments supported by NASA in the USA (Jet Propulsion Laboratory-California Institute of
Technology, University of Arizona, JDSU and BEAMCo), Europe (University of Li`ege, Observatoire de Paris-
Meudon, University of Uppsala) and Japan (Hokkaido University, and Photonics Lattice Inc.), using liquid
crystal polymers, subwavelength gratings, and photonics crystals, respectively. We will then browse concrete
perspectives for the use of the VVC on upcoming ground-based facilities with or without (extreme) adaptive
optics, extremely large ground-based telescopes, and space-based internal coronagraphs.
We have proposed a four-stage coronagraph system with an unbalanced nulling interferometer (UNI). It consists of a
first adaptive optics (AO), the UNI, a second AO, and a coronagraph. An important feature is a magnification of the
wavefront aberrations in the UNI stage, which enables us to compensate for the wavefront aberrations beyond the AO
systems capabilities. In our experiments, we have observed the aberration magnification of about 6 times and
compensated to about lambda/100 rms corresponding to lambda/600 rms virtually, and its performance is becoming
stable. We have put a 3-dimensional Sagnac interferometric nulling coronagraph at the final stage of the system and tried
to see the speckle reduction with the UNI-PAC system.
We report laboratory demonstrations of an eight-octant phase-mask (EOPM) coronagraph for direct detection of
exoplanets. The EOPM coronagraph is a family of a four-quadrant phase-mask (FQPM) one, and shows better
coronagraphic performance for partially resolved stars. We manufactured an eight-octant ferroelectric liquid-crystal
(FLC) mask. The FLC mask is composed of eight-segmented half-wave plates whose principal axes are different
between adjacent segments. The mask operates as a fully achromatic EOPM when the FLC mask is placed between
crossed polarizers. We carried out laboratory experiments on the EOPM coronagraph by using partially resolved whitelight
source, and compared the performance with that of the FQPM one. As a result, we confirmed that the EOPM shows
higher contrast than the FQPM. A drawback of the proposed method is that the FLC mask can be used only for one
component of polarization of incoming light because it is necessary to use the polarizer in front of the FLC mask. To
solve this problem, a two-channel coronagraph, based on two polarizing beam splitters instead of the polarizers, is
proposed. Observational efficiency can significantly be improved because the two-channel coronagraph enables us to
detect both components of polarizations from exoplanets. We also report preliminary experimental results of laboratory
demonstrations of the two-channel coronagraph.
An eight-octant phase-mask (EOPM) coronagraph is one of the highest performance coronagraphic concepts, and attains
simultaneously high throughput, small inner working angle, and large discovery space. However, its application to
ground-based telescopes such as the Subaru Telescope is challenging due to pupil geometry (thick spider vanes and large
central obstruction) and residual tip-tilt errors. We show that the Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics
(SCExAO) system, scheduled to be installed onto the Subaru Telescope, includes key technologies which can solve these
problems. SCExAO uses a spider removal plate which translates four parts of the pupil with tilted plane parallel plates.
The pupil central obstruction can be removed by a pupil remapping system similar to the PIAA optics already in the
SCExAO system, which could be redesigned with no amplitude apodization. The EOPM is inserted in the focal plane to
divide a stellar image into eight-octant regions, and introduces a π-phase difference between adjacent octants. This
causes a self-destructive interference inside the pupil area on a following reimaged pupil plane. By using a reflective
mask instead of a conventional opaque Lyot stop, the stellar light diffracted outside the pupil can be used for a
coronagraphic low-order wave-front sensor to accurately measure and correct tip-tilt errors. A modified inverse-PIAA
system, located behind the reimaged pupil plane, is used to remove off-axis aberrations and deliver a wide field of view.
We show that this EOPM coronagraph architecture enables high contrast imaging at small working angle on the Subaru
Telescope. Our approach could be generalized to other phase-mask type coronagraphs and other ground-based telescopes.
The MIRA-I.2 is a 30m baseline optical interferometer located at the Mitaka campus of the National Astronomical
Observatory of Japan. After the detection of the first fringes with Vega in 2002, we have continued
improvement of system performance and have demonstrated stellar diameter measurement in wide band
(600nm-1000nm). Recently, we begin on development of two scientific detectors: spectrometer with separate
fringe tracking system and interfeometric polarimetry. Recent progress and performance of our two system is
reported.
The High-Contrast Coronographic Imager for Adaptive Optics (HiCIAO), is a coronographic simultaneous differential
imager for the new 188-actuator AO system at the Subaru Telescope Nasmyth focus. It is designed primarily to search
for faint companions, brown dwarves and young giant planets around nearby stars, but will also allow observations of
disks around young stars and of emission line regions near other bright central sources. HiCIAO will work in
conjunction with the new Subaru Telescope 188-actuator adaptive optics system. It is designed as a flexible,
experimental instrument that will grow from the initial, simple coronographic system into more complex, innovative
optics as these technologies become available. The main component of HiCIAO is an infrared camera optimized for
spectral simultaneous differential imaging that uses a Teledyne 2.5 μm HAWAII-2RG detector array operated by a
Sidecar ASIC. This paper reports on the assembly, testing, and "first light" observations at the Subaru Telescope.
We proposed a novel method based on a pre-optics setup that behaves partly as a low-efficiency coronagraph, and partly
as a high-sensitivity wavefront aberration compensator (phase and amplitude). The combination of the two effects results
in a highly accurate corrected wavefront. First, an (intensity-) unbalanced nulling interferometer (UNI) performs a
rejection of part of the wavefront electric field. Then the recombined output wavefront has its input aberrations
magnified. Because of the unbalanced recombination scheme, aberrations can be free of phase singular points (zeros) and
can therefore be compensated by a downstream phase and amplitude correction (PAC) adaptive optics system, using two
deformable mirrors. In the image plane, the central star's peak intensity and the noise level of its speckled halo are
reduced by the UNI-PAC combination: the output-corrected wavefront aberrations can be interpreted as an improved
compensation of the initial (eventually already corrected) incident wavefront aberrations. The important conclusion is
that not all the elements in the optical setup using UNI-PAC need to reach the lambda/10000 rms surface error quality. In
the experiments, we observed the aberration magnification of more than 5 times and compensated to about lambda/70
rms which is the current limit of the AO system. This means that we reached to lambda/350 level virtually. We observed
the speckle reduction in the focal plane with a coronagraph.
A four-quadrant phase-mask (FQPM) coronagraph can suppress perfectly stellar light when a star can be regarded as
a point-like source. However, the FQPM coronagraph is highly sensitive to partially resolved stars, and shows
second-order sensitivity to tip-tilt error leakage. Higher-order sensitivity is required for extremely high-contrast imaging
of nearby stars.
We propose an eight-octant phase-mask (EOPM) for achieving fourth-order sensitivity to tip-tilt errors. We
manufactured the phase-mask utilizing a nematic liquid crystal (LC) device, which is composed of eight segments. A
phase retardation of the LC can be adjustable by an applied voltage to the device. The LC phase-mask can be switched
between FQPM-mode and EOPM-mode by applying appropriate voltages to the segments. We carry out experiments on
the phase-mask coronagraph with various tip-tilt errors. The experimental results show the higher-order behavior of the
EOPM compared to the FQPM.
We present a current status of the laboratory experiments on the EOPM coronagraph, and also show coronagraphic
performance of the EOPM derived from numerical simulations.
The SPace Infrared telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA) is a infrared space-borne telescope mission of
the next generation following AKARI. SPICA will carry a telescope with a 3.5 m diameter monolithic primary mirror
and the whole telescope will be cooled to 5 K. SPICA is planned to be launched in 2017, into the sun-earth L2 libration
halo orbit by an H II-A rocket and execute infrared observations at wavelengths mainly between 5 and 200 micron. The
large telescope aperture, the simple pupil shape, the capability of infrared observations from space, and the early launch
gives us with the SPICA mission a unique opportunity for coronagraphic observation. We have started development of a
coronagraphic instrument for SPICA. The primary target of the SPICA coronagraph is direct observation of extra-solar
Jovian planets. The main wavelengths of observation, the required contrast and the inner working angle (IWA) of the
SPICA coronagraph are set to be 5-27 micron (3.5-5 micron is optional), 10-6, and a few λ/D (and as small as possible),
respectively, in which λ is the observation wavelength and D is the diameter of the telescope aperture (3.5m). For our
laboratory demonstration, we focused first on a coronagraph with a binary shaped pupil mask as the primary candidate
for SPICA because of its feasibility. In an experiment with a binary shaped pupil coronagraph with a He-Ne laser
(λ=632.8nm), the achieved raw contrast was 6.7×10-8, derived from the average measured in the dark region without
active wavefront control. On the other hand, a study of Phase Induced Amplitude Apodization (PIAA) was initiated in an
attempt to achieve better performance, i.e., smaller IWA and higher throughput. A laboratory experiment was performed
using a He-Ne laser with active wavefront control, and a raw contrast of 6.5×10-7 was achieved. We also present recent
progress made in the cryogenic active optics for SPICA. Prototypes of cryogenic deformable by Micro Electro
Mechanical Systems (MEMS) techniques were developed and a first demonstration of the deformation of their surfaces
was performed with liquid nitrogen cooling. Experiments with piezo-actuators for a cryogenic tip-tilt mirror are also
ongoing.
KEYWORDS: Coronagraphy, Space telescopes, Telescopes, Point spread functions, Mirrors, Infrared telescopes, Binary data, James Webb Space Telescope, Photomasks, Wavefronts
We present the status of the development of a coronagraph for the Space Infrared telescope for Cosmology and
Astrophysics (SPICA). SPICA is the next generation of infrared space-borne telescope missions following to AKARI,
led by Japan. SPICA will carry a telescope that has a 3.5 m diameter monolithic primary mirror and the whole telescope
will be cooled to 4.5 K. It is planned to launch SPICA into the sun-earth L2 libration halo orbit using H II-A rocket in the
middle of the 2010s and execute infrared observations at wavelengths mainly between 5 and 200 micron. The SPICA
mission gives us a unique opportunity for coronagraph observations, because of the large telescope aperture, the simple
pupil shape, the capability of infrared observations from space, and the early launch. We have started development of the
SPICA coronagraph in which the primary target is direct observation of extra-solar Jovian planets. The main
wavelengths of observation, the required contrast and the inner working angle (IWA) of the SPICA coronagraph
instrument are set to be 5-27 micron, 10-6, and a few λ/D (and as small as possible), respectively, in which λ is the
observation wavelength and D is the diameter of the telescope aperture (3.5m). We focused on a coronagraph with a
binary shaped pupil mask as the primary candidate for SPICA because of its feasibility. Nano-fabrication technology
using electron beam lithography was applied to manufacture a high precision mask and a laboratory experiment with a
He-Ne laser (λ=632.8nm) was performed in air without active wavefront control. The raw contrast derived from the
average measured in the dark region reached 6.7×10-8. On the other hand, a study of Phase Induced Amplitude
Apodization (PIAA) was started in an attempt to achieve higher performance, i.e., smaller IWA and higher throughput. A
hybrid solution using PIAA and a shaped pupil mask was proposed. A laboratory experiment was performed using a He-
Ne laser with active wavefront control via a 32×32 channel deformable mirror. A raw contrast of 6.5×10-7 was achieved.
Designs of binary shaped pupil mask are presented for the actual SPICA pupil which is obstructed by the telescope's
secondary mirror and its support. Subtraction of point spread function (PSF) was also evaluated.
We present the status of the development of a coronagraph for the Space Infrared telescope for Cosmology and
Astrophysics (SPICA). SPICA is the next generation infrared space-borne telescope missions led by Japan. The SPICA
satellite will be equipped with a telescope that has a 3.5 m diameter monolithic primary mirror and the whole telescope
will be cooled to 4.5 K. The satellite is planed be launched early in the 2010s into the sun-earth L2 libration halo orbit
and execute infrared observations at wavelengths mainly between 5 and 200 micron. The SPICA mission gives us a
unique opportunity for coronagraph observations, because of the large telescope aperture, a simple pupil shape,
capability of infrared observations from space and the early launch. We have started development of the SPICA
coronagraph in which the primary target is direct observation of extra-solar Jovian planets. The main wavelengths of
observation, the required contrast and the inner working angle (IWA) of the SPICA coronagraph instrument are set to be
5-20 micron, 106, and approximately 5 λ/D respectively, whereλ is the observation wavelength and D is the diameter of
the telescope aperture. Coronagraphs using a checkerboard mask and a concentric ring mask have been investigated. We
found some solutions for the SPICA pupil, which has a large obstruction due to the secondary mirror and its supports.
We carried out laboratory experiments to examine coronagraphs obtained using checkerboard-type pupil masks with a
central obstruction. Nano-fabrication technology with electron beam was applied to manufacture a high precision mask
consisting of a patterned aluminum film on a glass substrate and its performance was confirmed by experiments with
visible light. Contrast higher than 106 was achieved. In the future, we will be developing a cryogenic mid-infrared
test-bed to investigate the SPICA coronagraphs.
Direct exploration of exoplanets is one of the most exciting topics in astronomy. Our current efforts in this field are concentrated on the Subaru 8.2m telescope at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Making use of the good observing site and the excellent image quality, the infrared coronagraph CIAO (Coronagraphic Imager with Adaptive Optics) has been used for various kinds of surveys, which is the first dedicated cold coronagraph on the 8-10m class telescopes. However, its contrast is limited by the low-order adaptive optics and a limited suppression of the halo speckle noise.
HiCIAO is a new high-contrast instrument for the Subaru telescope. HiCIAO will be used in conjunction with the new adaptive optics system (188 actuators and/or its laser guide star - AO188/LGSAO188) at the Subaru infrared Nasmyth platform. It is designed as a flexible camera comprising several modules that can be configured into different modes of operation. The main modules are the AO module with its future extreme AO capability, the warm coronagraph module, and the cold infrared camera module. HiCIAO can combine coronagraphic techniques with either polarization or spectral simultaneous differential imaging modes. The basic concept of such differential imaging is to split up the image into two or more images, and then use either different planes of polarization or different spectral filter band-passes to produce a signal that distinguishes faint objects near a bright central object from scattered halo or residual speckles.
In this contribution, we will outline the HiCIAO instrument, its science, and performance simulations. The optical and mechanical details are described by Hodapp et al. (2006)1. We also present a roadmap of Japanese facilities and future plans, including ASTRO-F (AKARI), SPICA, and JTPF, for extrasolar planet explorations.
We present a method to remove the central obscuration and spiders, or any kind of geometry inside a telescope
pupil. The technique relies on the combination of a first focal plane diffracting mask, and a complex amplitude
pupil mask. In this combination, the central obscuration and eventual spider arms patterns in the re-imaged
pupil (after the diffracting mask) are filled with coherent light. Adding an appropriate complex amplitude pupil
mask allows virtually any kind of pupil shaping (in both amplitude and/or phase). We show that the obtained
output pupil can feed a high efficiency coronagraph (any kind) with a very reasonable overall throughput and
good performance even when considering pointing errors. In this paper, we specifically assess the performance
of this technique when using apodized entrance pupils. This technique is relevant for ground based telescopes
foreseeing the advent of higher order (so called ExAO) adaptive optics systems providing very high Strehl ratios.
Some feasibility points are also discussed. adaptive optics systems providing very high Strehl ratios. Some
feasibility points are also discussed.
MIRA-I.2 is a 30m-baseline two-aperture stellar interferometer working in the visible band (from 600 to 1000 nm).
In this article are presented the up-to-date progress and performance of MIRA-I.2 as well as some ongoing and future
plans. The fast and coarse delay lines are now both evacuated, and the maximum OPD (optical path delay)
compensations are about 16 m and 4 m long, respectively, for the fast and coarse delay lines. The current limiting
magnitude is about I=4.5mag, and stars within the declination range from +8 to +51 degree is possible to be observed
longer than one hour at the elevation angle of 60 degrees and higher. The OPD of the coarse delay line is modulated
by about 128 micrometers around the expected fringe center with the use of PZT, and 187 fringe packets are scanned
during one shot (= 60 seconds duration) to yield the mean visibility of about 10 % internal errors for each shot. The
thermal environment of the building that houses the delay lines and interference optics has been improved very much,
and readjustments of the optical alignment are not necessary for a whole night. The assembly and the setup of the optics
to be used for the fringe tracking experiment are nearly completed.
We have started demonstrating a technique for high dynamic range observations in the lab. This method, proposed by
Nishikawa et al., combines a nulling interferometer, a wavefront compensator, and a coronagraph. In the experiments,
two beams are generated by a beam splitter and they are combined by another beam splitter under an intensity-unbalanced
nulling condition. After the unbalanced nulling interferometer (UNI), normal wavefront sensor and two
deformable mirrors are applied for phase and amplitude correction (PAC). Wavefront errors of the two original beams,
large errors after the UNI, and compensated errors after the PAC by the deformable mirrors will be measured. After the
UNI-PAC method is applied, a downstream coronagraph optics will be set to see that the peak intensity of the central star
is dimmed and speckle noise level is also reduced relative to off-axis planet intensity. Possible applications of the
method are also discussed.
After the first fringe detection with MIRA-I.2 30m baseline for Vega in June 2002, fringes for Vega and Deneb has been confirmed and then construction continued. Fast delay line has been evacuated and extended from 4m to 8m long. Coarse delay line has been extended from 2m to 4m. Baseline vector has been determined with 0.1mm accuracy. Aluminized mirrors have been changed to gold-plated ones, and the total throughput has become four times larger than before at the 600nm-1000nm band. The photon rate is 150 per ms for a 2 mag (I-band) star and the present limiting magnitude is better than 3mag. A delay modulation PZT has been set to push a cat's eye retro-reflector. Observations have been made for 6 stars with successful fringe packet detections. Visibility stability has been being studied with artificial light sources and Vega, which preliminary results are better than a few percent. A three-color system between 600-1000nm is now on the half way of installation. Gregorian cat's eye retro-reflectors with fine delay line PZTs and fringe tracking control software is planned to be installed.
The Mauna Kea Observatory offers a unique opportunity to build a large and sensitive interferometer. Seven telescopes have diameters larger than 3 meters and are or may be equipped with adaptive optics systems to correct phase perturbations induced by atmospheric turbulence. The maximum telescope separation of 800 meters can provide an angular resolution as good as 0.25 milli-arcseconds in the J band. The large pupils and long baselines make 'OHANA very complementary to existing large optical interferometers. From an astrophysical point of view, it opens the way to imaging of the central part of faint and compact objects such as active galactic nuclei and young stellar objects. On a technical point of view, it opens the way to kilometric or more arrays by propagating light in single-mode fibers. First instruments have been built and tested successfully at CFHT, Keck I and Gemini to inject light into single-mode fibers thus partly completing Phase I of the project. Phase II is now on-going with the prospects of the first combinations of Keck I - Keck II in 2004 and Gemini - CFHT in 2005.
The outline and the performance of the wavefront tilt correction system for the Mitaka optical and InfraRed Array, MIRA-I.2, is reported. The tilt control system consists of quadrant detectors and PZT-driven tilt mirrors. These components are controlled by three computers connected via local area network system. The control loop frequency of 2660Hz is achieved and this high loop frequency enables the stable operation of the control system with a bandwidth of approximately 80Hz in open loop at 0dB. Preliminary results of one night observation of α Lyr showed that this system suppress the relative wavefront tilt of incoming lights to 0.46 arcsec while it is 1.9 arcsec without control. With an aperture size of 90 mm and the wavelength of 750 nm, this means the tilt control system improves the visibility loss to 9% while it is 89% without control.
Once the proof of concept of the OHANA Array has been demonstrated, the Phase II capabilities can be put into regular science operation, and the OHANA facility can be upgraded to extend interferometric operation to include all of the telescopes of the OHANA Consortium member observatories. This will constitute the Phase III of OHANA. The technical developments required will be relatively straight-forward. Longer fiber sets will be procured (fiber losses are not a limiting factor at the OHANA scale). An enhanced delay line capability will be needed in order to exploit longer baselines with good sky coverage and ample super-synthesis (several compact, multi-pass long optical delay concepts are under investigation). The scheduling and operation modes of an instrument such as OHANA present interesting opportunities and complications. We envision a place for both collaborative consortium science, based on mutual allocation of facility access, and PI-driven access, based on telescope access exchange between consortium members. The most potentially successful mode of operation would imply a community driven model, open to proposals from the different time allocation comittees. This poster looks at possible methods of allocation and operation, inspired by the UKIRT infrared survey (UKIDSS), the European VLBI, and the very interesting possibility of a Mauna Kea telescope time exchange scheme. The issue of data property is of course intimately tied with the proposal/operation system, and means of data availability and distribution are discussed, along with data interpretation tools, which may be modeled on existing systems such as the ISC at Caltech or the JMMC in France. when weighed against the UV coverage, the potential science and the uniqueness of this project, all these issues are worth an in depth study. Discussions are starting as to an OHANA Operation Committee, the goal of which would be to discuss, define and eventually carry out operational modes. The goal, of course, is for the Operation Committee to handle the details of multi-telescope scheduling in a way that will be transparent to the scientist who merely seeks the observational results.
Mitaka optical and InfraRed Array second phase instrument, MIRA-I.2, has obtained the first fringes on 8th June 2002 at a baseline of 30m and the second fringes on 13th August. MIRA-I.2 consisting of two 30cm siderostats was proposed and started designing in 1994. Major constructions started in April 1999 just after the first phase instruments MIRA-I.1 was closed. The telescopes were initially put at a 6m test baseline in the MIRA-I.1 dome and obtained fringes in June 2001 and then moved to the 30m baseline in August 2001. At present, some of parts do not reach the final shape. Observations of star radii or binary orbits will be planed, while remained construction will be continued.
We propose a millisecond of arc optical/infrared array for stellar territory, MIRA-ST, with nine 4m-aperture off-axis telescopes, whose maximum baseline length is about 600 m. MIRA-ST will have the photon collecting area equivalent to that of a single-dish telescope of 12 m diameter, and the imaging capability better than 1 millisecond of arc resolution at 2.2 micrometers with a high dynamic range of reconstructed images.
Combining the light beams from each pupil telescope efficiently is one of the most difficult tasks. We compare the relative merits among a so-called pair-wise beam combining, an all-on-one beam combining, and a tree-structured beam combining. As for transferring the beams from individual telescopes to a beam combining facility with the loss of photons as small as possible, an optical fiber system is a most interesting substitute for the current mirror-and-vacuum-pipe combination. Specifically, the nature of spatial filtering of optical fibers has been under study in the light of deepening the limiting magnitude attainable without introducing an adaptive optics to each telescope.
With MIRA-ST we will be able to zoom in the stellar territory to unveil the detailed structures and lifecycles of stars of various kinds, and to examine the universality and/or diversity along the coarse of their evolutionary paths. The specific targets of most interesting for us are, among others, T Tauri stars, AGB and post-AGB stars, Cepheids, brown dwarfs, white dwarfs, stellar atmosphere/envelope of low temperature stars, accretion disks, and fundamental structures of main sequence stars.
At Mitaka campus of National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, we are now constructing the MIRA-I.2 Interferometer, the second stage interferometer of MIRA (Mitaka optical and InfraRed Array Project). The MIRA-I.2 system is an interferometer consisting of two 300 mm siderostats which are placed on a 30 m baseline. Fringe detection is made at 800 nm with APD. Before setting up the regular system of 30 m baseline, we made the test system of 6-m baseline. This system was used for testing and solving the problems of the remote control of fast tip-tilt mirrors, the remote control of siderostats, and the remote adjustment of optics. After the fringe detection of stars with this system, in June 2001, we complete the regular system of MIRA-I.2 of 30 m baseline. In August, 2001, we started the setup of the regular system of 30 m baseline of the MIRA-I.2 interferometer by making the modifications and improvements of each element. From the end of October 2001, the test observations of some bright stars have been made. The fringes of α Lyr were detected with the regular system, in June 2002. Object stars, such as single star, binary star, Cepheid, Mira variable to be observed are investigated. Main subjects of this interferometer system are the observations of star radius and binary star.
The 'OHANA (Optical Hawaiian Array for Nanoradian Astronomy, means "family" in Hawaiian) aims at making a large and sensitive optical/IR array with the Mauna Kea 3 to 10 meter telescopes. Telescopes will be linked with single-mode fibers to carry the coherence of the beams from the output of the telescopes adaptive optics systems to the beam combination units. The project has been divided into three phases. The first phase is dedicated to the injection of light into single-mode fibers and to the building of the injection module. The third phase is the realization of the complete array and its use by a wide community of astronomers. In the second phase, a prototype 'OHANA will be built and the "shortest" baselines will be explored. The baselines will be located in the South-East and West parts of the observatory. An extra baseline will possibly link the two groups of telescopes if infrastructure comply with it. This phase II 'OHANA will already be the longest and most sensitive optical/IR interferometer built. Scientific targets will span young stellar objects, extragalactic sources and other types of astronomical topics which require both high angular resolution and sensitivity. This paper reviews the main characteristics of the phase II interferometer.
Developments of fiber linked optical interferometer are reported. This interferometer is a part of MIRA-I.2 interferometer (Mitaka InfraRed and optical Array). MIRA-I.2 is an optical interferometer with a 30 meters long baseline. It consists of two 30cm siderostats, tip-tilt mirrors, vacuum pipes delay lines and detectors. We plan to use two 60 meters long polarization-maintaining fibers for arms of the interferometer, instead of vacuum pipes. The developments include dispersion and polarization compensation of fiber and fiber injection module. In laboratory experiments, dispersion compensation succeeded. The fringe visibility was 0.93 for wide-band, where the central wavelength of light was 700nm, and bandwidth was 200nm, while 0.95 with a He-Ne laser. We used BK7 glass wedge for dispersion compensation. About fiber injection module, basic optical design has completed. The results of our fiber interferometer could contribute to OHANA (Optical Hawaiian Array for Nanoradian Astronomy) project. We present new science targets, white dwarves and T Tauri stars, and an 800 m delayline concept in CFHT for the project.
Fiber optics is useful for connecting the element telescopes of a long-baseline interferometer. Experiments with a fiber- connected interferometer are carried out as a part of MIRA- I.2 interferometer under construction. MIRA-I.2 is an interferometer consisting of two 300 mm siderostats which are placed on a 30 m south-north baseline. For this baseline, it is necessary to use fibers of about 100 m long. Fiber optics will be essential for the interferometric connection of large telescopes, such as Subaru, Gemini, and Keck on the summit of Mauna Kea. In this case, fiber length of about 1 km is needed. We achieved white light fringes using 10 m and 100 m fibers. With the 10 m fiber, visibility of 0.7 was achieved for both He-Ne laser and white light sources. Visibility of 0.7 for white light was obtained by compensating the dispersion effect of fiber with glass plates. Experiments will be extended to longer fibers such as 1000 m.
Mitaka optical and InfraRed Array first stage (MIRA-I.1) was built following the first fringe detection with the previous first stage instrument called MIRA-I, rearranging its optics. It consisted of two 13 cm-diameter telescopes, collimator lens producing 8 mm propagation beams, long, fine, and fast delay lines, fringe and scintillation sensors, quadrant sensors and tip-tilt mirrors, and so on. MIRA-I.1 was operated from October 19998 to march 1999 and succeeded to get fringes of nine stars, to make stellar diameter observations, to make stellar fringe tracking experiments, and to obtain atmospheric characteristics of Mitaka site.
A fine delay lien for long-baseline optical interferometers is under development in MIRA project. The test structure of the fine delay line consists of a micro-stepping motor cart and a cat's eye cart. It is most important for the fine delay line to be driven as smoothly as possible at a steady speed of theoretical delay rate. Particularly, high frequency jitter in driving speed must be suppressed so that fringe position dose not move larger than +/- (lambda) /10 in the integration time. To accomplish this capability, we improved mainly the structure of the motor cart. As a consequence, our motor cart realized a good performance without any special servo-control mechanism. We also made several test of soft connection between motor cart and cat's eye cart as well as between cat's eye cart and cat's eye assembly with rubbers. It is found that by using appropriate rubbers we can reduce high frequency component of delay errors to a sufficiently low level at the cat's eye assembly. With positive results in these experiences, we have started designing a prototype of the vacuum fine delay line for MIRA-II having a 680 m baseline.
The MIRA-1.2 system consists of two siderostats, beam reducers, vacuum delay liens, baseline metrology system, tip-tilt mirrors, beam combine optics, and fringe detector. Two siderostats, of which aperture of the flat mirror is 300mm, are placed apart by 4 meters in the north-south direction. Beam reducer is a Cassegrain optics with the paraboloidal primary and secondary mirrors of the diameter D1 equals 200mm and D2 equals 30mm, respectively. The metrology system with laser interferometers is set up to stabilize the baseline length for astrometry. Piezo-driven tip-tilt mirrors are equipped for the correction of image motions due to the air turbulence and other errors. Delay lines are placed in a vacuum tube. Experiments of the fiber optics is carried out as a part of MIRA-1.2. Developing MIRA-1.2 system, it is aimed to establish the basic techniques of astrometry and future projects, especially of MIRA-II.
The Mitaka optical-IR array (MIRA) project is a series of optical and IR interferometers by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. We call the first step the MIRA-I project, and the following projects are the MIRA-1.2, MIRA- II, MIRA-SG, and the MIRA-III. The MIRA-I is a prototype for demonstration of stellar interferometry, and the other projects, which are described by Sato et al. and Nishikawa et al., are practical instruments for science. The main purpose of the MIRA-I is to get stellar fringes and skill of fringe tracking. The MIRA-I instrument is located at the National Astronomical Observatory in Mitaka, Tokyo.It consists of two element telescope with 25 cm aperture placed on four meters N-S baseline. The fringe detector operates at visible or around 800 nm with high-speed sampling. In laboratory, we obtained artificial white light fringes in December 1995, and we moved the instruments to the telescope dome at January 1996. At present, we have been trying to get stellar fringes. This paper describe the current status and the progress of the MIRA-I.
Long-baseline optical and IR interferometers are being considered as future astronomical instrument plans in Japan since 1994. They are called MIRA projects, indicating Mitaka or Mauna Kea IR array. The next Mitaka optical and IR array proposal is called MIRA-II. It consists of four fixed telescopes as an array for 1mas astrometry and three movable ones for 0.2mas imaging. They are placed in a sideways T- configuration with three 128m arms and extended lines getting the longest baseline of 680m. Each of the telescopes is a 30cm siderostat added with a 20cm beam compressing telescope. MIRA-III is a proposal of Mauna Kea optical/IR array including a 1.4km baseline with 1.5m telescopes. Its shape is a modified Y-configuration. It also aims at precise astrometry including many quasars as well as high resolution imaging of fainter stellar objects than MIRA-II. MIRA-SG, a future proposal of Mauna Kea optical/IR array connecting Subaru with GEMINI, is one of the largest interferometer with an 800m baseline by 8m telescopes. It became possible by using optical fibers fed from each Cassegrain focus with an adaptive optics system. Keck telescopes and other large telescopes on Mauna Kea are also candidates to connect with Subaru.
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