Simulation and analysis of telescopic photonic beam combiner for stellar interferometry in labview

Abstract

The optical methods are the sensitive and subtle techniques of conducting optical investigations without any physical contact. They are both accurate and fast at the same time which provides an ease of having multiple observations. The need of optical interferometry has been increased at a very quick pace due to its high range of applications, from surface testing to locating of extra-solar planets in the universe. Optical Interferometry is a process or technique of combining light from various telescopes for calculating the angular resolution. The technique of optical interferometry helps astronomers for achieving a high angular resolution, that is not possible with the conventional telescopes. Optical approaches are the best approaches for non-contact evaluations, and these are accurate and fast. Due to optical nature of the interferometry, this process is used in various fields, and today it has become one of the important areas of research. Integrated Optics (IO) beam combiners are an efficient and compact technology to combine light interferometrically collected by multiple telescopes. IO beam combiner is based on the modal filtering properties of waveguides or fibers, and it improves thermo-mechanical stability, because of the characteristic rigidity of IO component substrate. Other advantages of this technology are miniaturization and non-existence of alignment needs. Several IO beam combiners are being proposed and tested nowadays. The purpose of this paper is to investigate different techniques used to develop interferometric instrument from previous researches and to simulate the technique suggested by Ermann in Labview.