Fibered nulling telescope for extra-solar coronagraphy.
A family of fibered nulling telescopes is described, based on the joint use of several recent suggested or demonstrated techniques, namely, pupil densification, multiaxial recombination and single-mode fiber modal filtering, and the use of a fully symmetric beam splitter arrangement. The concept seems appropriate for the realization of a spaceborne nulling telescope, searching for Jupiter-like extra-solar planets and a precursor of future missions, such as Darwin or terrestrial planet finder interferometer (TPF-I). However, it is generally not possible to satisfy at the same time two major requirements, being the depth and size of the central nulling area, and the global throughput for the observed planet.
Hénault
François
F
UMR 6525 CNRS H. Fizeau-UNS, OCA, Grasse, France. francois.henault@obs-azur.fr