Paper
5 July 2000 Nulling interferometry: symmetry requirements and experimental results
Eugene Serabyn
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Abstract
This paper provides a derivation from first principles of the stringent symmetry and stability requirements which deep stellar nulling demands, and also includes a brief status report on recent nulling results obtained with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's fiber-coupled rotational-shearing interferometer. To date, the deepest transient nulls obtained (at red wavelengths) are 2 X 10-6 with a laser diode source, and 1.4 X 10-5 with a single- polarization thermal white-light source filtered to provide an 18% passband. In addition, both the laser and white light nulls have been stabilized to the 10-4 level. This visible wavelength laboratory nuller thus meets essentially all of the performance goals for the planned nulling experiment on board NASA's Space Interferometer Mission, with the sole exception of dual-polarization operation.
© (2000) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Eugene Serabyn "Nulling interferometry: symmetry requirements and experimental results", Proc. SPIE 4006, Interferometry in Optical Astronomy, (5 July 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.390223
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Cited by 66 scholarly publications.
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KEYWORDS
Polarization

Nulling interferometry

Interferometers

Stars

Beam splitters

Space operations

Wavefronts

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