Experimental Validation for Serial Conjunction of Diffraction-limited Coronagraph and Fiber Nuller

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Main Authors: Itoh, Satoshi, Matsuo, Taro, Kojima, Reiki, Sumi, Takahiro, Tamura, Motohide
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Itoh, Satoshi
Matsuo, Taro
Kojima, Reiki
Sumi, Takahiro
Tamura, Motohide
author_facet Itoh, Satoshi
Matsuo, Taro
Kojima, Reiki
Sumi, Takahiro
Tamura, Motohide
contents We report the experimental results of a serially conjoined nuller system, which combines a type of Lyot coronagraph with a fiber nuller. The utilized one-dimensional diffraction-limited coronagraph (1DDLC) has promising features (binary nuller, small inner working angles (IWAs)). Still, it has a performance that is highly sensitive to spectral bandwidth and tilt aberrations. Nevertheless, for the 1DDLC, wavelengths other than the design wavelength introduce leaks with a flat wavefront on the Lyot-stop plane, preserving the same complex amplitude profile as an on-axis point source. This property supports the concept of serially coupling additional nullers after the 1DDLC. The fiber-nulling unit employs a Lyot-plane mask, relay optics (1/100$\times$), and a single-mode fiber. The Lyot-plane mask splits the incoming beam -- comprising leakage from the 1DDLC and planetary light -- into four beams so that, in principle, the on-axis single-mode fiber does not couple with the on-axis leak from the 1DDLC. For the wavelength 6-\% less than the coronagraph's design-center wavelength, we confirmed the contrast mitigation ability of $3.5 \times 10^{-5}$, which is about 1/20 times the value of the case with only 1DDLC. The resultant value approximately reaches the 1DDLC's contrast mitigation ability at the design center wavelength demonstrated in the previous study, suggesting that the combined system works robustly against the broad spectral bandwidth. Future work needs to address the demonstration of the anticipated robustness for the contrast-mitigation level lower than about $10^{-5}$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_18663
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Experimental Validation for Serial Conjunction of Diffraction-limited Coronagraph and Fiber Nuller
Itoh, Satoshi
Matsuo, Taro
Kojima, Reiki
Sumi, Takahiro
Tamura, Motohide
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Optics
We report the experimental results of a serially conjoined nuller system, which combines a type of Lyot coronagraph with a fiber nuller. The utilized one-dimensional diffraction-limited coronagraph (1DDLC) has promising features (binary nuller, small inner working angles (IWAs)). Still, it has a performance that is highly sensitive to spectral bandwidth and tilt aberrations. Nevertheless, for the 1DDLC, wavelengths other than the design wavelength introduce leaks with a flat wavefront on the Lyot-stop plane, preserving the same complex amplitude profile as an on-axis point source. This property supports the concept of serially coupling additional nullers after the 1DDLC. The fiber-nulling unit employs a Lyot-plane mask, relay optics (1/100$\times$), and a single-mode fiber. The Lyot-plane mask splits the incoming beam -- comprising leakage from the 1DDLC and planetary light -- into four beams so that, in principle, the on-axis single-mode fiber does not couple with the on-axis leak from the 1DDLC. For the wavelength 6-\% less than the coronagraph's design-center wavelength, we confirmed the contrast mitigation ability of $3.5 \times 10^{-5}$, which is about 1/20 times the value of the case with only 1DDLC. The resultant value approximately reaches the 1DDLC's contrast mitigation ability at the design center wavelength demonstrated in the previous study, suggesting that the combined system works robustly against the broad spectral bandwidth. Future work needs to address the demonstration of the anticipated robustness for the contrast-mitigation level lower than about $10^{-5}$.
title Experimental Validation for Serial Conjunction of Diffraction-limited Coronagraph and Fiber Nuller
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Optics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.18663