Intensity interferometry for observation of dark objects

Strekalov, Dmitry; Erkmen, Baris I.; Yu, Nan

doi:10.1103/physreva.88.053837

Cited by 35 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…There has been a growing interest in recent years to revive the Hanbury-Brown-Twiss method (Ofir & Ribak 2006;Millour 2008;Foellmi 2009;Borra 2013;Dravins et al 2015), which has the potential to map the spatial structure of stellar formations (Millour 2010;Dravins et al 2013), detect exoplanets (Hyland 2005;Strekalov et al 2013) and for kilometric baseline arrays to achieve micro-arcsecond resolution Borra 2013;Capraro et al 2009;LeBohec et al 2008;Nuñez 2012).…”

Section: Discussion and Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical intensity interferometry through atmospheric turbulence

Tan¹,

Chan²,

Kurtsiefer³

2016

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

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Conventional ground-based astronomical observations suffer from image distortion due to atmospheric turbulence. This can be minimized by choosing suitable geographic locations or adaptive optical techniques, and avoided altogether by using orbital platforms outside the atmosphere. One of the promises of optical intensity interferometry is its independence from atmospherically induced phase fluctuations. By performing narrowband spectral filtering on sunlight and conducting temporal intensity interferometry using actively quenched avalanche photon detectors (APDs), the Solar g (2) (τ ) signature was directly measured. We observe an averaged photon bunching signal of g (2) (τ ) = 1.693 ± 0.003 from the Sun, consistently throughout the day despite fluctuating weather conditions, cloud cover and elevation angle. This demonstrates the robustness of the intensity interferometry technique against atmospheric turbulence and opto-mechanical instabilities, and the feasibility to implement measurement schemes with both large baselines and long integration times.

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Section: Discussion and Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical intensity interferometry through atmospheric turbulence

Tan¹,

Chan²,

Kurtsiefer³

2016

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

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“… 14 ). While spatially resolving the disk of an exoplanet in its reflected light may remain unrealistic for the time being, the imaging of its dark silhouette on a stellar disk—while certainly very challenging 19 —could perhaps be not quite impossible.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical aperture synthesis with electronically connected telescopes

2015

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Highest resolution imaging in astronomy is achieved by interferometry, connecting telescopes over increasingly longer distances and at successively shorter wavelengths. Here, we present the first diffraction-limited images in visual light, produced by an array of independent optical telescopes, connected electronically only, with no optical links between them. With an array of small telescopes, second-order optical coherence of the sources is measured through intensity interferometry over 180 baselines between pairs of telescopes, and two-dimensional images reconstructed. The technique aims at diffraction-limited optical aperture synthesis over kilometre-long baselines to reach resolutions showing details on stellar surfaces and perhaps even the silhouettes of transiting exoplanets. Intensity interferometry circumvents problems of atmospheric turbulence that constrain ordinary interferometry. Since the electronic signal can be copied, many baselines can be built up between dispersed telescopes, and over long distances. Using arrays of air Cherenkov telescopes, this should enable the optical equivalent of interferometric arrays currently operating at radio wavelengths.

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“…The design of IDI experiments requires an analysis of the signal to noise ratio (SNR) that can be achieved by the method and how this depends on various experimental parameters. Estimates of the achievable SNR in images obtained by intensity interferometry of general scenes have been presented in the context of astronomy [3,[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. These studies suggest the SNR scales with intensity-that is, with the number of photons measured per coherence mode-and should improve with the square root of the number of detector pairs (and hence correlations) that contribute to the measurement.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photon statistics and signal to noise ratio for incoherent diffraction imaging

Trost,

Ayyer,

Chapman

2020

Preprint

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Intensity interferometry is a well known method in astronomy. Recently, a related method called incoherent diffractive imaging (IDI) was proposed to apply intensity correlations of x-ray fluorescence radiation to determine the 3D arrangement of the emitting atoms in a sample. Here we discuss inherent sources of noise affecting IDI and derive a model to estimate the dependence of the signal to noise ratio (SNR) on the photon counts per pixel, the temporal coherence (or number of modes), and the shape of the imaged object. Simulations in two-and three-dimensions have been performed to validate the predictions of the model. We find that contrary to coherent imaging methods, higher intensities and higher detected counts do not always correspond to a larger SNR. Also, larger and more complex objects generally yield a poorer SNR despite the higher measured counts. The framework developed here should be a valuable guide to future experimental design.

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Intensity interferometry for observation of dark objects

Cited by 35 publications

References 23 publications

Optical intensity interferometry through atmospheric turbulence

Optical intensity interferometry through atmospheric turbulence

Optical aperture synthesis with electronically connected telescopes

Photon statistics and signal to noise ratio for incoherent diffraction imaging

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