Performance estimation of photonic integrated wavefront corrector for single-mode fiber coupling

Many modern astronomical instruments rely on the optimal coupling of starlight into single-mode fibers (SMFs). For ground-based telescopes, this coupling is limited by atmospheric turbulence. We propose an integrated wavefront corrector based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) photonics, which samples th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2024-08
Main Authors: Patel, Dhwanil, Diab, Momen, Cheriton, Ross, Taylor, Jacob, Rojas, Libertad, Sivanandam, Suresh
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arrays
Astronomical instruments
Atmospheric correction
Atmospheric turbulence
Coupling
Impact analysis
Microlenses
Phase shifters
Photonics
Telescopes
Wave fronts
Waveguides
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Summary:Many modern astronomical instruments rely on the optimal coupling of starlight into single-mode fibers (SMFs). For ground-based telescopes, this coupling is limited by atmospheric turbulence. We propose an integrated wavefront corrector based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) photonics, which samples the aberrated wavefront via a microlens array (MLA). The MLA focuses the sampled wavefront onto an array of grating couplers that inject the beamlets into the single-mode waveguides of the corrector. The beams in each waveguide are then shifted in phase using thermo-optic phase shifters before combining the co-phased beams into one single-mode waveguide. In this work, we analyze the external factors that we anticipate will impact the performance of the corrector. Specifically, we study the effects of the telescope pupil function with obscuration, determine whether the corrector requires tip/tilt pre-correction, and analyze the impact of scintillation on the correction quality.
ISSN:2331-8422