Hexabundles: imaging fiber arrays for low-light astronomical applications.
Opt Express
; 19(3): 2649-61, 2011 Jan 31.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-21369086
ABSTRACT
We demonstrate a novel imaging fiber bundle ("hexabundle") that is suitable for low-light applications in astronomy. The most successful survey instruments at optical-infrared wavelengths use hundreds to thousands of multimode fibers fed to one or more spectrographs. Since most celestial sources are spatially extended on the celestial sphere, a hexabundle provides spectroscopic information at many distinct locations across the source. We discuss two varieties of hexabundles (i) lightly fused, closely packed, circular cores; (ii) heavily fused non-circular cores with higher fill fractions. In both cases, we find the important result that the cladding can be reduced to ~2 µm over the short fuse length, well below the conventional ~10λ thickness employed more generally, with a consequent gain in fill factor. Over the coming decade, it is to be expected that fiber-based instruments will be upgraded with hexabundles in order to increase the spatial multiplex capability by two or more orders of magnitude.
Texto completo:
1
Bases de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Astronomia
/
Aumento da Imagem
/
Tecnologia de Fibra Óptica
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Opt Express
Assunto da revista:
OFTALMOLOGIA
Ano de publicação:
2011
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Austrália