PIONIER: combining 4 telescopes of the very large telescope interferometer using a photonics beam combiner

Author

Kern, P. ; Jocou, L. ; Berger, J. -P ; Lebouquin, J. -B ; Lazareff, B. ; Zins, G. ; Labeye, P. ; Millan-Gabet, R. ; Traub, W. ; Haguenauer, P. ; Delboulbe, A. ; Feautrier, P. ; Germain, M. ; Gillier, D. ; Gitton, P. ; Lizon, J. -L ; Magnard, Y. ; Malbet,

Author_Institution

Inst. de Planetologie et d´´Astrophys. de Grenoble (IPAG), CNRS-INSU, Grenoble, France

fYear

2011

fDate

22-26 May 2011

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

1

Abstract

PIONIER (Precision Integrated Optics Near-infrared Imaging ExpeRiment) is a visitor instrument that performs the interferometric beam combination in the near infrared of the light delivered by the 4 main telescopes (8m) or auxiliary telescopes (1.8m) of the VLTI on the ESO Paranal site (Chile). The heart of the instrument is a photonics device optimized for H band operation (1.5 - 1.8μm) that was developed at LETI in collaboration with IPAG (formerly LAOG). This silica-on-silicon integrated optics component splits the signals coming from the 4 telescopes and recombines them, providing for each of the 6 baselines 4 phase states, thanks to integrated phase shifting functions, for a total of 24 outputs. The overall component transmission over the complete H band is 65%. These outputs are imaged on a PICNIC IR camera.

Keywords

astronomical techniques; astronomical telescopes; PIONIER; Precision Integrated Optics Near-infrared Imaging Experiment; interferometric beam combination; photonics beam combiner; size 1.8 m; size 8 m; very large telescope interferometer; wavelength 1.5 mum to 1.8 mum; Cameras; Integrated optics; Optical interferometry; Photonics; Telescopes; USA Councils;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe (CLEO EUROPE/EQEC), 2011 Conference on and 12th European Quantum Electronics Conference

Conference_Location

Munich

ISSN

Pending

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-0533-5

Electronic_ISBN

Pending

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CLEOE.2011.5943671

Filename

5943671