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arXiv · 1405.6549

Integrated optics interferometric four telescopes nuller

Ronny Errmann·Stefano Minardi·Lucas Labadie·Felix Dreisow·Stefan Nolte·Thomas Pertsch
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Abstract

Nulling interferometry has been identified as a competitive technique for the detection of extrasolar planets. The technique consists in combining out-of-phase pairs of telescopes to null effectively the light of a bright star an reveal the dim glow of the companion. We have manufactured and tested with monochromatic light an integrated optics component which combines a linear array of 4 telescopes in the nulling mode envisaged by Angel & Wolf (1997). Our testbench simulates the motion of a star in the sky. The tests have demonstrated a nulling scaling as the fourth power of the baseline delay.

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Ronny Errmann, Stefano Minardi, Lucas Labadie, Felix Dreisow, Stefan Nolte, Thomas Pertsch. 2014-05-26. Integrated optics interferometric four telescopes nuller. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2055473

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