First on-sky demonstration of an integrated-photonic nulling interferometer: the GLINT instrument
Abstract
The characterization of exoplanets is critical to understanding planet diversity and formation, their atmospheric composition, and the potential for life. This endeavour is greatly enhanced when light from the planet can be spatially separated from that of the host star. One potential method is nulling interferometry, where the contaminating starlight is removed via destructive interference. The GLINT instrument is a photonic nulling interferometer with novel capabilities that has now been demonstrated in on-sky testing. The instrument fragments the telescope pupil into sub-apertures that are injected into waveguides within a single-mode photonic chip. Here, all requisite beam splitting, routing, and recombination are performed using integrated photonic components. We describe the design, construction, and laboratory testing of our GLINT pathfinder instrument. We then demonstrate the efficacy of this method on sky at the Subaru Telescope, achieving a null-depth precision on sky of ∼10−4 and successfully determining the angular diameter of stars (via their null-depth measurements) to milliarcsecond accuracy. A statistical method for analysing such data is described, along with an outline of the next steps required to deploy this technique for cutting-edge science.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Nov 23, 2019
- Source ID
- 10.1093/mnras/stz3277
Entities
People
- Alexander Arriola
- Barnaby R M Norris
- Jon S Lawrence
- Julien Lozi
- Marc-antoine Martinod
- Michael J. Withford
- Nemanja Jovanovic
- Nick Cvetojevic
- Olivier Guyon
- Peter Tuthill
- Simon Gross
- Thomas Gretzinger
- Tiphaine Lagadec
Organizations
- Australian Research Council
- California Institute of Technology
- European Research Council
- Horizon 2020
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- Macquarie University
- National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
- National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Japan
- Naval Surface Warfare Center
- University of Arizona
- University of Côte d'Azur
- University of Sydney