Astrophotonics: a new era for astronomical instruments.

摘要: Astrophotonics lies at the interface of astronomy and photonics. This burgeoning field has emerged over past decade in response to increasing demands astronomical instrumentation. Early successes include: (i) planar waveguides combine signals from widely spaced telescopes stellar interferometry; (ii) frequency combs for ultra-high precision spectroscopy detect planets around nearby stars; (iii) ultra-broadband fibre Bragg gratings suppress unwanted background; (iv) photonic lanterns that allow single-mode behaviour within a multimode fibre; (v) miniaturize spectrographs; (vi) large mode area fibres generate artificial stars upper atmosphere adaptive optics correction; (vii) liquid crystal polymers optical vortex coronographs systems. Astrophotonics, already created new capabilities, is now extending its reach down Rayleigh scattering limit ultraviolet wavelengths, out mid infrared wavelengths beyond 2500nm.