Serabyn E, Wallace J K, Hardy G J, Schmidtlin E G, Nguyen H T
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Mail Stop 171-113, Pasadena, California 91109, USA.
Appl Opt. 1999 Dec 1;38(34):7128-32. doi: 10.1364/ao.38.007128.
Nulling interferometry, a proposed technique for dimming a star relative to its surroundings by destructively interfering the light collected by two individual telescopes [Bracewell, Nature 274, 780-781 (1978); Shao and Colavita, Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 30, 457-498 (1992)], has the potential to permit the direct detection of nearby extrasolar planets. However, because of the extremely high degree of symmetry required for useful levels of starlight nulling, the technique remains in its infancy. We present results of laboratory experiments with a rotational shearing interferometer that are aimed at demonstrating the feasibility of deep nulling at the levels needed for direct planet detection. Our first results include the successful nulling of red laser light to a part in 10(5) and the stabilization of the null leakage to a part in 10(4).
零值干涉测量法是一种通过对两台独立望远镜收集的光线进行相消干涉，使恒星相对于其周围环境变暗的技术（布雷斯韦尔，《自然》274, 780 - 781(1978)；邵和科拉维塔，《天文学与天体物理学年度评论》30, 457 - 498(1992)），它有潜力实现对附近系外行星的直接探测。然而，由于要达到有效消光所需的极高对称性，该技术仍处于起步阶段。我们展示了旋转剪切干涉仪的实验室实验结果，旨在证明在直接探测行星所需的水平上进行深度消光的可行性。我们的首批结果包括成功将红色激光消光至百万分之一，并将零值泄漏稳定至万分之一。
