Simulations of a high-contrast single-mode fiber coronagraphic multiobject spectrograph for future space telescopes
Abstract
Directly imaging and characterizing Earth-like exoplanets is a tremendously difficult instrumental challenge. Present coronagraphic systems have yet to achieve the required 10 - 10 broadband contrast in a laboratory environment, but promising progress toward this goal continues. An approach to starlight suppression is the use of a single-mode fiber (SMF) behind a coronagraph. By using deformable mirrors to create a mismatch between incoming starlight and the fiber mode, SMF can be turned into an integral part of the starlight suppression system. We present simulation results of a system with five SMFs coupled to shaped pupil and vortex coronagraphs. We investigate the properties of the system, including its spectral bandwidth, throughput, and sensitivity to low-order aberrations. We also compare the performance of the SMF configuration with conventional imaging and multiobject modes, finding improved spectral bandwidth, raw contrast, background-limited signal-to-noise ratio, and demonstrate a wavefront control algorithm, which is robust to tip/tilt errors.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems
- Pub Date:
- October 2019
- DOI:
- 10.1117/1.JATIS.5.4.045003
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1907.03921
- Bibcode:
- 2019JATIS...5d5003C
- Keywords:
-
- Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 40 pages, 15 figures, 3 tables