Progress in the development of MANIC: a monolithic nulling interferometer for characterizing extrasolar environments

Computer Science – Performance

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

We present progress in the development of the monolithic achromatic nulling interference coronagraph (MANIC), an optic designed for enabling direct detection and characterization of exoplanetary systems around nearby stars. MANIC is a fully symmetric implementation of a rotational shearing interferometer consisting of fused quartz prisms and a symmetric beamsplitter optically contacted in an arrangement that geometrically flips the fields in the TR and RT arms about orthogonal axes such that upon recombination, a centro-symmetric, theoretically achromatic null is produced. In addition to a small inner working angle (<~ 1λ/D), built-in alignment and stability are inherent benefits of the compact monolithic design, which make MANIC a competitive alternative to conventional discrete element nullers proposed for imaging exoplanetary environments. Following MANIC's initial fabrication, the path error between its TR and RT arms was measured. This measurement was used to fabricate compensator plates of varying thicknesses that were bonded to the optic to reduce dispersion imbalance, thereby improving broadband nulling performance. In performing this correction, initial OPD was reduced from 949 +/- 44 nm to 63 +/- 10 nm, which in the absence of any other asymmetries, corresponds to an increase in a 107 R-band (λc = 648 nm) nulling bandpass from monochromatic to 25%, or at the 106 level, from 5% to 50%. Current benchtop laser and polychromatic nulling strategies are described. The potential science return from using MANIC on a sub-orbital platform is discussed.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Progress in the development of MANIC: a monolithic nulling interferometer for characterizing extrasolar environments does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Progress in the development of MANIC: a monolithic nulling interferometer for characterizing extrasolar environments, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Progress in the development of MANIC: a monolithic nulling interferometer for characterizing extrasolar environments will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1378391

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.