High-performance 3D waveguide architecture for astronomical pupil-remapping interferometry

Abstract

The detection and characterisation of extra-solar planets is a major theme driving modern astronomy, with the vast majority of such measurements being achieved by Doppler radial-velocity and transit observations. Another technique -- direct imaging -- can access a parameter space that complements these methods, and paves the way for future technologies capable of detailed characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres and surfaces. However achieving the required levels of performance with direct imaging, particularly from ground-based telescopes which must contend with the Earth's turbulent atmosphere, requires considerable sophistication in the instrument and detection strategy. Here we demonstrate a new generation of photonic pupil-remapping devices which build upon the interferometric framework developed for the {\it Dragonfly} instrument: a high contrast waveguide-based device which recovers robust complex visibility observables. New generation Dragonfly devices overcome problems caused by interference from unguided light and low throughput, promising unprecedented on-sky performance. Closure phase measurement scatter of only $\sim 0.2^{\circ }$ has been achieved, with waveguide throughputs of $>70\%$. This translates to a maximum contrast-ratio sensitivity (between the host star and its orbiting planet) at $1\lambda /D$ (1$\sigma$ detection) of $5.3\times 10^{-4}$ (when a conventional adaptive-optics (AO) system is used) or $1.8\times 10^{-4}$ (for typical `extreme-AO' performance), improving even further when random error is minimised by averaging over multiple exposures. This is an order of magnitude beyond conventional pupil-segmenting interferometry techniques (such as aperture masking), allowing a previously inaccessible part of the star to planet contrast-separation parameter space to be explored.

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Cited by in corpus (13)

• First on-sky demonstration of an integrated-photonic nulling-interferometer: The GLINT instrument
• The path towards high-contrast imaging with the VLTI: the Hi-5 project
• Astrophotonics: astronomy and modern optics
• Fabrication tolerant chalcogenide mid-infrared multimode interference coupler design with application for Bracewell nulling interferometry
• Building hybridized 28-baseline pupil-remapping photonic interferometers for future high resolution imaging
• Chalcogenide glass planar MIR couplers for future chip based Bracewell interferometers
• Single-aperture spectro-interferometry in the visible at the Subaru telescope with FIRST: First on-sky demonstration on Keho'oea (α Lyrae) and Hokulei (α Aurigae)
• Six-telescope integrated optics beam combiner fabricated using ultrafast laser inscription for J- and H-band astronomy
• Astrophotonics -- current capabilities and the road ahead
• Asgard/NOTT: L-band nulling interferometry at the VLTI -- III. The mid-infrared integrated optics beam combiner for NOTT
• Astrophotonic Technologies
• Photonic mid-infrared nulling for exoplanet detection on a planar chalcogenide platform
• Tri-coupler geometries for achromatic nulling interferometry in the near-infrared