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| Paper: |
A Dual 3-Element Nulling Interferometer for TPF |
| Volume: |
194, Working on the Fringe: Optical and IR Interferometry from Ground and Space |
| Page: |
430 |
| Authors: |
Velusamy, T.; Beichman, C. A.; Shao, M. |
| Abstract: |
An interferometer design consisting of 6 telescopes is discussed. The telescopes are configured to form two identical nulling interferometers, each consisting of three telescopes. Each nulling interferometer produces a beam with &thetas;4 null by combing the three telescopes, with aperture diameters 1:2:1, and baseline in the range of 30m to 50m. These two nulling interferometers are placed on a longer baseline (> 100 m and can be varied up to 1 km) and the two beams are combined to produce a single output. A chopped Output is obtained by introducing a phase in one of the beams, and by switching it between 0 and 180 (COSINE chop) or between 90 and 270 (SINE chop). The advantage of this configuration is that it enables a direct measurement of both the visibility amplitude and phase of the planets. Results of the simulations are presented. The chopping greatly reduces the exozodi effects on planet detection and characterization. The merits of this configuration over the others are discussed. |
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