Open AccessOptimization of the direct imaging properties of an optical‐fibred long baseline interferometer
Author(s) -
Patru F.,
Mourard D.,
Lardière O.,
Lagarde S.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11317.x
Subject(s) - physics , interferometry , baseline (sea) , fibered knot , optical imaging , direct imaging , optics , biology , mathematics , combinatorics , fishery
Long baseline interferometry is now a mature technique in the optical domain. Current interferometers are, highly limited in, number of subapertures and concepts are being developed for future generations of very large optical arrays and especially with the goal of direct imaging. In this paper, we study the effects of introducing single‐mode fibres in direct imaging optical interferometers. We show how the flexibility of optical fibres is well adapted to the pupil densification scheme. We study the effects of the truncation of the Gaussian beams in the imaging process, either in the Fizeau mode or in the densified pupil mode or in the densified image mode. Finally, in the pupil densification configuration, we identify an optimum of the diaphragm width. This optimum maximizes the on‐axis irradiance and corresponds to a trade‐off between the loss of transmission and the efficiency of the densification.