Related papers: Fabrication tolerant chalcogenide mid-infrared mul…
We discuss the theory of the Bracewell nulling interferometer and explicitly demonstrate that the phase of the "white light" null fringe is the same as the phase of the bright output from an ordinary stellar interferometer. As a consequence…
A scheme to optimally design a beam combiner is discussed for any pre-determined fixed geometry nulling interferometer aimed at detection and characterization of exoplanets with multiple telescopes or a single telescope (aperture masking).…
Intensity modulators are fundamental components for integrated photonics. From near infrared to visible spectral ranges, they find applications in optical communication and quantum technologies. In particular, they are required for the…
Understanding the atmospheres of exoplanets is a milestone to decipher their formation history and potential habitability. High-contrast imaging and spectroscopy of exoplanets is the major pathway towards the goal. Directly imaging of an…
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…
The NOTT visitor instrument at the VLTI will characterize hot exozodiacal dust and young Jupiter-like planets at the water snowline via L' band nulling interferometry. The beam combination will be achieved by a four-telescope integrated…
Asgard/NOTT (previously Hi-5) is a European Research Council (ERC)-funded project hosted at KU Leuven and a new visitor instrument for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). Its primary goal is to image the snow line region around…
Vortex Fiber Nulling (VFN) is an interferometric method for suppressing starlight to detect and spectroscopically characterize exoplanets. It relies on a vortex phase mask and single-mode fiber to reject starlight while simultaneously…
Space-borne nulling interferometers have long been considered as the best option for searching and characterizing extra-solar planets located in the habitable zone of their parent stars. Solutions for achieving deep starlight extinction are…
We report the fabrication of single mode buried channel waveguides for the whole mid-infrared transparency range of chalcogenide sulphide glasses by means of direct laser writing. We have explored the potential of this technology by…
Coronagraphs allow for faint off-axis exoplanets to be observed, but are limited to angular separations greater than a few beam widths. Accessing closer-in separations would greatly increase the expected number of detectable planets, which…
Wavefront cleaning by single-mode fibers has proved to be efficient in optical-infrared interferometry to improve calibration quality. For instance, the FLUOR instrument has demonstrated the capability of fluoride glass single-mode fibers…
In this paper are reviewed various designs of advanced, multi-aperture optical systems dedicated to high angular resolution imaging or to the detection of exo-planets by nulling interferometry. A simple Fourier optics formalism applicable…
The requirements on space missions designed to study Terrestrial exoplanets are discussed. We then investigate whether the design of such a mission, specifically the Darwin nulling interferometer, can be carried out in a simplified…
One of the long-term goals of exoplanet science is the atmospheric characterization of dozens of small exoplanets in order to understand their diversity and search for habitable worlds and potential biosignatures. Achieving this goal…
One of the long-term goals of exoplanet science is the (atmospheric) characterization of a large sample (>100) of terrestrial planets to assess their potential habitability and overall diversity. Hence, it is crucial to quantitatively…
The characterisation 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…
An important future goal in exoplanetology is to detect and characterize potentially habitable planets. Using nulling interferometry, LIFE will allow us to constrain the radius and effective temperature of (terrestrial) exoplanets, as well…
One of the biggest challenges associated with a nulling interferometer-based approach to detecting extra-solar Earth-like planets comes from the extremely stringent requirements of pathlength, polarization and amplitude matching in the…
In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a two-element interferometer working in the millimeter wave band (39.5 GHz - 40 GHz) for observing solar radio emissions through nulling interference. The system is composed of two…