NAIR: novel astronomical instrumentation through photonic reformatting

Pedretti, E.; Harris, Robert J.; Minardi, Stefano; Tepper, Jan; Davenport, John; Hottinger, Philipp; Anagnos, Theodoros; Nayak, Abani Shankar; Quirrenbach, A.; Labadie, Lucas; Haynes, Roger; Haynes, Dionne; Alonso, Yohana Herrero; Deka, Pranab J.

doi:10.1117/12.2312009

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 38 publications

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“…The small core diameter enables high-spatial resolution filtering of the input field, a particularly important feature for high dispersion coronagraphy, exoplanet atmospheric characterization, and fiber-nulling Wang et al 2017). In addition, single-mode devices are an integral part of the emerging astro-photonics field, including fiber-based wavefront sensing and photonic reformatters (Bland-Hawthorn et al 2010;Hottinger et al 2018;Harris et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of Single-mode Fiber Coupling at the Large Binocular Telescope

Bechter

Crass

Tesch

et al. 2019

PASP

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Optimizing on-sky single-mode fiber (SMF) injection is an essential part of developing precise Doppler spectrometers and new astrophotonics technologies. We installed and tested a prototype SMF injection system at the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) in April 2016. The fiber injection unit was built as part of the de-risking process for a new instrument named iLocater that will use adaptive optics (AO) to feed a high resolution, near-infrared spectrograph. In this paper we report Y-band SMF coupling measurements for bright, M-type stars. We compare theoretical expectations for delivered Strehl ratio and SMF coupling to experimental results, and evaluate fundamental effects that limit injection efficiency. We find the pupil geometry of the telescope itself limits fiber coupling to a maximum efficiency of ρ tel ≈ 0.78. Further analysis shows the individual impact of AO correction, tip-tilt residuals, and static (non-common-path) aberrations contribute coupling coefficients of ρ Strehl ≈ 0.33, ρ tip/tilt ≈ 0.84, and ρ ncpa ≈ 0.8 respectively. Combined, these effects resulted in an average Y-band SMF efficiency of 0.18 for all observations. Finally, we investigate the impact of fiber coupling on radial velocity (RV) precision as a function of stellar apparent magnitude.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of Single-mode Fiber Coupling at the Large Binocular Telescope

Bechter

Crass

Tesch

et al. 2019

PASP

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2023 Astrophotonics Roadmap: pathways to realizing multi-functional integrated astrophotonic instruments

Jovanovic,

Gatkine,

Anugu

et al. 2023

J. Phys. Photonics

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Photonic technologies offer numerous functionalities that can be used to realize astrophotonic instruments. The most spectacular example to date is the ESO Gravity instrument at the Very Large Telescope in Chile that combines the light-gathering power of four 8-m telescopes through a complex photonic interferometer. Fully integrated astrophotonic devices offer critical advantages for instrument development, including extreme miniaturization when operating at the diffraction-limit, plus integration, superior thermal and mechanical stabilization owing to the small footprint, and high replicability offering significant cost savings. Numerous astrophotonic technologies have been developed to address shortcomings of conventional instruments to date, including the development of photonic lanterns to convert from multimode inputs to single mode outputs, complex aperiodic fiber Bragg gratings to filter OH emission from the atmosphere, beam combiners enabling long baseline interferometry with for example, ESO Gravity, and laser frequency combs for high precision spectral calibration of spectrometers. Despite these successes, the facility implementation of photonic solutions in astronomical instrumentation is currently limited because of 1) low throughputs from coupling to fibers, coupling fibers to chips, propagation and bend losses, device losses, etc., 2) difficulties with scaling to large channel count devices needed for large bandwidths and high resolutions, and 3) efficient integration of photonics with detectors. In this roadmap, we identify 23 key areas that need further development. We outline the challenges and advances needed across those areas covering design tools, simulation capabilities, fabrication processes, the need for entirely new components, integration and hybridization and the characterization of devices. To realize these advances the astrophotonics community will have to work cooperatively with industrial partners who have more advanced manufacturing capabilities. With the advances described herein, multi-functional integrated instruments will be realized leading to novel observing capabilities for both ground and space based platforms, enabling new scientific studies and discoveries.

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Six-telescope integrated optics beam combiner fabricated using ultrafast laser inscription for J- and H-band astronomy

Dinkelaker,

Smarzyk,

Nayak

et al. 2023

Appl. Opt.

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We have built and characterized, to our knowledge, the first six-telescope discrete beam combiner (DBC) for stellar interferometry in the astronomical J-band. It is the DBC with the largest number of beam combinations and was manufactured using ultrafast laser inscription in borosilicate glass, with a throughput of ≈56%. For calibration of the visibility-to-pixel matrix, we use a two-input Michelson interferometer and extract the complex visibility. A visibility amplitude of 1.05 and relative precision of 2.9% and 3.8% are extracted for 1328 nm and 1380 nm, respectively. Broadband (≤40nm) characterization is affected by dispersion but shows similar performance.

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NAIR: novel astronomical instrumentation through photonic reformatting

Cited by 3 publications

References 38 publications

Characterization of Single-mode Fiber Coupling at the Large Binocular Telescope

Characterization of Single-mode Fiber Coupling at the Large Binocular Telescope

2023 Astrophotonics Roadmap: pathways to realizing multi-functional integrated astrophotonic instruments

Six-telescope integrated optics beam combiner fabricated using ultrafast laser inscription for J- and H-band astronomy

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