Hierarchical Fringe Tracking (HFT) is a fringe tracking concept optimizing the sensitivity in optical long baseline by reducing to an absolute minimum the number of measurements used to correct the OPD fluctuations. By nature, the performances of an HFT do not decreases with the number of apertures of the interferometer and are set only by the flux delivered by the individual telescopes. This a critical feature for future interferometers with large number of apertures both for homodyne and heterodyne operation. Here we report the design and first optical bench tests of integrated optics HFT chips for a 4 telescopes interferometer such as the VLTI. These tests validate the HFT concept and confirm previous estimates that we could track accurately fringes on the VLTI up to nearly K~15.9 with the UTs and K~12.2 with the ATs with a J+H+K fringe tracker with one HFT chip per band. This is typically 2.5 magnitudes fainter than the best potential performance of the current ABCD fringe tracker in the K band. An active longitudinal and transverse chromatic dispersion correction allows the optimization of broad band fiber injections and instrumental contrast. We also present a preliminary evaluation of the potential of such a gain of sensitivity for the observations of AGNs with the VLTI.
The next generation of fringe tracker (FT) is intended to allow continuous fringe observation and to improve significantly the sensitivity of the interferometer. A promising control approach is presented to cope with contradictory requirements. The FT system must be accurate and stable, which implies high frequency sampling of the optical path differences introduced by the atmosphere and the interferometer vibrations. It must also be as sensitive as possible, which needs to minimize the sampling frequency. The optimum between these concurrent requirements must be maintained through atmospheric and instrument conditions that change very rapidly. We consider a discrete time feedback system where the controller design is based on the frequency domain method. Performance is considered through the use of the H∞ norm. This approach provides the best tradeoff between the largest sampling time and the validity of the discrete time feedback system. The effectiveness of the presented approach is illustrated through dedicated simulations involving a realistic case study.
The full scientific potential of the VLTI with its second generation instruments MATISSE and GRAVITY require fringe tracking up to magnitudes K>14 with the UTs and K>10 with the ATs. The GRAVITY fringe tracker (FT) will be limited to K~10.5 with UTs and K~7.5 with ATs, for fundamental conceptual reasons: the flux of each telescope is distributed among 3 cophasing pairs and then among 5 spectral channels for coherencing. To overcome this limit we propose a new FT concept, called Hierarchical Fringe Tracker (HFT) that cophase pairs of apertures with all the flux from two apertures and only one spectral channel. When the pair is cophased, most of the flux is transmitted as if it was produced by an unique single mode beam and then used to cophase pairs of pairs and then pairs of groups. At the deeper level, the flux is used in an optimized dispersed fringe device for coherencing. On the VLTI such a system allows a gain of about 3 magnitudes over the GRAVITY FT. On interferometers with more apertures such as CHARA (6 telescopes) or a future Planet Formation Imager (12 to 20 telescopes), the HFT would be even more decisive, as its performance does not decrease with the number of apertures. It would allow building a PFI reaching a coherent magnitude H~10 with 16 apertures with diameters smaller than 2 m. We present the HFT concept, the first steps of its feasibility demonstration from computer simulations and the optical design of a 4 telescopes HFT prototype.
The Planet Formation Imager (PFI) is a project for a very large optical interferometer intended to obtain images of the planet formation process at scales as small as the Hill sphere of giant exoplanets. Its main science instruments will work in the thermal infrared but it will be cophased in the near infrared, where it requires also some capacity for scientific imaging. PFI imaging and resolution specifications imply an array of 12 to 20 apertures and baselines up to a few kilometers cophased at near infrared coherent magnitudes as large as 10. This paper discusses various cophasing architectures and the corresponding minimum diameter of individual apertures, which is the dominant element of PFI cost estimates. From a global analysis of the possible combinations of pairwise fringe sensors, we show that conventional approaches used in current interferometers imply the use of prohibitively large telescopes and we indicate the innovative strategies that would allow building PFI with affordable apertures smaller than 2 m in diameter. The approach with the best potential appears to be Hierarchical Fringe Tracking based on "two beams spatial filters" that cophase pairs of neighboring telescopes with all the efficiency of a two telescopes fringe tracker and transmit most of the flux as if it was produced by an unique single mode aperture to cophase pairs of pairs and then pairs of groups of apertures. We consider also the adaptation to PFI of more conventional approaches such as a combination of GRAVITY like fringe trackers or single or multiple chains of 2T fringe trackers.
The limiting magnitude is a key issue for optical interferometry. Pairwise fringe trackers based on the integrated optics concepts used for example in GRAVITY seem limited to about K=10.5 with the 8m Unit Telescopes of the VLTI, and there is a general “common sense” statement that the efficiency of fringe tracking, and hence the sensitivity of optical interferometry, must decrease as the number of apertures increases, at least in the near infrared where we are still limited by detector readout noise. Here we present a Hierarchical Fringe Tracking (HFT) concept with sensitivity at least equal to this of a two apertures fringe trackers. HFT is based of the combination of the apertures in pairs, then in pairs of pairs then in pairs of groups… The key HFT module is a device that behaves like a spatial filter for two telescopes (2TSF) and transmits all or most of the flux of a cophased pair in a single mode beam. We give an example of such an achromatic 2TSF, based on very broadband dispersed fringes analyzed by grids, and show that it allows piston measures from very broadband fringes with only 3 to 5 pixels per fringe tracker. We show the results of numerical simulation indicating that our device is a good achromatic spatial filter and allowing a first evaluation of its coupling efficiency, which is similar to this of a single mode fiber on a single aperture. Our very preliminary results indicate that HFT has a good chance to be a serious candidate for the most sensitive fringe tracking with the VLTI and also interferometers with much larger number of apertures. On the VLTI the first rough estimate of the magnitude gain with regard to the GRAVITY internal FT is between 2.5 and 3.5 magnitudes in K, with a decisive impact on the VLTI science program for AGNs, Young stars and planet forming disks.
Fringe tracking (FT) is the adaptive optics component of an Optical Long Baseline Interferometer (OLBIN). It is a critical element in particular for high spectral resolution spectro-interferometric observations. The FT must be accurate and stable, which implies high frequency sampling of the optical path differences introduced by the atmosphere and the interferometer vibrations. It must also be as sensitive as possible, which needs to minimize this sampling frequency. The optimum between these contradictory requirements must be maintained through atmospheric and instrument conditions that change very rapidly. We describe a control framework to face this robustness challenge. First, we approximate the sampled-data feedback system as a discrete time feedback system and we show that the closed-loop FT behavior is entirely determined by key closed-loop transfer functions. To fix the closed-loop bandwith in order to limit the loss of vadidity of the discrete time feedback system, we propose a loop shaping control method based on H∞ optimization. This H∞ framework allows to bound the frequency response of the key closed-loop transfer function. First numerical experiments are presented showing satisfactory performance when the sampling frequency disminishes. Extensive simulations to demonstate the effectivness of the proposed approach are in progress. Open issues and perspectives of applicative and/or theoretical interests are discussed.
The new Extremely Large Telescope projects need accurate evaluation of the candidate sites. In this work we present the seeing, free seeing and isoplanatic angle comparison between Aklim site located in Moroccan Anti- Atlas at the geographic coordinates 30°7'39" N, 08 18'39" W, and the Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos (ORM), located in La Palma, Canary Islands, at 28°45'00 N, 17°53”10 W, the both sites are pre-selected to house the E-ELT. In this work we present the seeing statistics of (Ɛ), the free seeing (Ɛ free) and the isoplanatic angle ϴ0 measurements at each site, statistics of the mentioned parameters are obtained from the whole data recorded from 09 May 2008 to 09 November 2009 using the Multi Aperture Scintillation Sensor (MASS) - Differential Image Motion Monitor (DIMM) system, compare the common data between the tow sites, more representative results and statistics are shown hereafter.
As part of the conceptual and preliminary design processes of the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), the ELT site-testing team at Morocco has spent the last two years measuring the atmospheric properties at Aklim site as another 4 candidate mountains in North and South hemisphere, Aklim is the per-selected site for the ELT, is located in Moroccan Anti-Atlas at the geographic coordinates 30°7'39" N, 08°18'39" W.
In this paper we present the isoplanatic angle θ0 and the isopistonic angle θp, measurements at Aklim site, statistics of the mentioned parameters are obtained from the whole data recorded from April 2008 to December 2009 using the Multi Aperture Scintillation Sensor (MASS) - Differential Image Motion Monitor (DIMM) system, more representative results and statistics are shown hereafter.
We present here a new approach to estimate the astronomical seeing which is a fundamental parameter in high angular resolution, in adaptive optics and site testing. Based on this approach, we developed seeing monitor, called Interferential Seeing Monitor (hereafter ISM). The principle of
the ISM is based on the study of the diffraction-interference pattern produced by a Young's double-slit in a telescope focus.
From the shape of that pattern, we determine the phase difference between the diffracted light rays that meet on the image plane. Then, the phase structure function is calculated which leads to the seeing value.
We discuss the specific potential of a long baseline optical interferometer at the Antarctica Dome C site for
high limiting magnitude observations. First we compute the potential limiting magnitude for cophasing an
interferometer with N diameter D apertures. Combining this with a computation of the isopistonic angle and of
the density of stars, we evaluate that an interferometer with 1.5 m telescopes performing off axis fringe tracking
will provide a minimum sky coverage of 50% in the direction of the galactic pole, while at Paranal, this could be
achieved only if the individual apertures are 10 times larger. This is due to the fact that most of optical seeing
at Dome C is produced in the first 30 meters above the ground. This makes the Dome C an unique site on earth
to permit optical interferometers to reach high magnitudes and therefore contribute to extra galactic science and
cosmology.
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