Very high resolution spectro-interferometry with wavefront sensing capabilities on Subaru/SCExAO using photonics

Abstract

Post Extreme Adaptive-Optics (ExAO) spectro-interferometers design allows high contrast imaging with an inner working angle down to half the theoretical angular resolution of the telescope. This regime, out of reach for conventional ExAO imaging systems, is obtained thanks to the interferometric recombination of multiple sub-Apertures of a single telescope, using single mode waveguides to remove speckle noise. The SCExAO platform at the Subaru telescope hosts two instruments with such design, coupled with a spectrograph. The FIRST instrument operates in the Visible (600-800nm, R∼400) and is based on pupil remapping using single-mode fibers. The GLINT instrument works in the NIR (1450-1650nm, R∼160) and is based on nulling interferometry. We present here how these photonic instruments have the unique capability to simultaneously do high contrast imaging and be included in the wavefront sensing architecture of SCExAO. Show more