Test results of the infrared single-mode fiber for the DARWIN mission
conference paper
Nulling interferometry is the baseline technique for the DARWIN planet finding mission of the European Space Agency. Using this technique it will be possible to cancel, by destructive interference, the light from the bright star and look directly at its surrounding planets and eventually discover life on them. To achieve this goal wavefront errors need to be reduced to a very high degree in order to achieve the required nulling quality. Such a high wavefront quality can only be achieved with adequate wavefront filtering measures. Single mode fibers in general have excellent mode filtering capabilities, but they were not recently available for the broad infrared wavelength region of Darwin (4-20 um). Within an ESA technology development project, TNO has designed and tested an infrared single mode fiber based on chalcogenide glasses that has been manufactured by the University of Rennes. Several tests are carried out to characterize the materials used and the IR single mode fiber. Far field intensity distribution measurement at 10.6 um reveals the single mode operation of the manufactured fiber. Influence of coating, length, light coupling and bending of the fiber are also investigated.
TNO Identifier
238968
ISSN
0277786X
Publisher
SPIE
Article nr.
No.: 59051F
Source title
Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets II, 2-4 August 2005, San Diego, CA, USA
Editor(s)
Coulter D.R.
Collation
8 p.
Pages
1-8