Journal of the European Optical Society - Rapid publications, Vol 1 (2006)
Comparison of beam combiners for a synthetic aperture imaging telescope
Abstract
for aperture synthesis imaging. This imaging technique relies on recording intensity interference patterns, in which the layout of the beam combination optics and the detector play a key role. Several designs for beam combination have been proposed in the literature. In this article, we compare these beam combiners by rigorously simulating the imaging process of a weak stellar source, taking into account the photon arrival statistics, an imperfect detection process and the image reconstruction from the recorded data. The results are presented as the to be expected reconstruction error in the luminous intensity distribution function of a wide-field stellar source versus the provided amount of photons. Using these results, the optimum design of the combination beam combiner and detector array can be identified.
© The Authors. All rights reserved. [DOI: 10.2971/jeos.2006.06020]
Citation Details
Cite this articleReferences
A. Quirrenbach, "Optical interferometry" Ann. Rev. Astron. Astroph., 39, 353-401 (2001).
S.K. Saha, "Modern optical astronomy: technology and impact of interferometry" Rev. Mod. Phys. 74, 551-600 (2002).
J.E. Baldwin and C.A. Haniff, "The application of interferometry to optical astronomical imaging" Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London A 360, 969-986 (2002).
DARWIN The Infrared Space Interferometer: Redbook, ESASCI( 2000) 12, (2000).
L.A. d'Arcio et al., "The imaging mode of the Infrared Space Interferometer IRSI-Darwin" Proc. of SPIE 4838, 184-195 (2002).
C. van der Avoort, J.W. den Herder, S.F. Pereira and J.J.M. Braat, "Optimum synthetic-aperture imaging of astronomical objects" J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, doc. ID 69867 (posted 10 April 2006, in press).
M.A. Born and E. Wolf, Principles of Optics, Sixth edition, pp. 508- 510, (Pergamon Press, New York, 1980).
C. van der Avoort, Optical aperture synthesis, Ph.D. thesis, Delft University of Technology, (2006).
J.R.P. Angel, J.M. Hill, P.A. Strittmatter, P. Salinari and G. Weigelt, "Interferometry with the large binocular telescope" Astronomical Interferometry, Proc. of the SPIE 3350, 881-889 (1998).
A. Labeyrie, "Resolved imaging of extra-solar planets with future 10-100km optical interferometric arrays" Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement 118, 517-524 (1996).
D.T. Leisawitz, B.J. Frey, D.B. Leviton, A.J. Martino, W.L. Maynard, L.G. Mundy, S.A. Rinehart, S.H. Teng and X. Zhang, "Wide-field imaging interferometry testbed I: purpose, testbed design, data, and synthesis algorithms" Interferometry in Space, Proc. of SPIE 4852, Michael Shao ed., 255-267, (2003).
I. Montilla, S.F. Pereira and J.J.M. Braat, "Michelson wide-field stellar interferometry: principles and experimental verification" Appl. Opt. 44 (3), 328-336 (2005).
J.W. Goodman, Statistical Optics, (John Wiley & Sons, 1985).
W.H. Press, B.P. Flannery, S.A. Teukolsky and W.T. Vetterling, Numerical Recipes in Pascal, (Cambridge University Press, 1989).
J.L. Hora et al., "Calibration and performance of the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC)" SPIE 4131, 13-25 (2000).
G.G. Fazio et al., "The Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) For The Spitzer Space Telescope" The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 154 (1), 10-17 (2004).
J.M. Beckers, "Interferometric imaging with the Very Large Telescope," J. of Optics (Paris) 22 (2), 73-83 (1991).
L.A. d'Arcio, Selected aspects of wide-field stellar interferometry, Ph.D. thesis, Delft University of Technology, (1999).