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Speckle polarimeter
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КАВКАЗСКОЙ ГОРНОЙ ОБСЕРВАТОРИИ
ГАИШ МГУ им.М.В.Ломоносова!

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Speckle polarimeter

Speckle polarimeter (previosly known as Multimode Fast Camera – MFC) is an instrument which will implement several observational methods of astronomy in visible (BVRI bands): speckle interferometry, polarimetry, speckle polarimetry (including polaroastrometry), and fast photometry. The speckle polarimeter will be installed in one of auxiliary Nasmyth ports of 2.5 m telescope of Sternberg Astronomical Institute.

Methods

  1. Speckle interferometry. Atmospheric turbulence is the main factor limiting angular resolution of ground-based optical telescopes. It is impossible to obtain resolution better than 0.7″ without special methods, meanwhile diffraction limited resolution of 2.5 m telescope in visible is 15 times better. The speckle interferometry allows to obtain diffraction limited resolution by means of analysis of long series of short-exposure images (Labeyrie, 1970). It is applied mainly to measurement of binary stars with component separation of 0.05-2.0″, possible objects include binary asteroids, inner parts of circumstellar environment etc. Limiting magnitude is 14-15.
  2. Polarimetry is a method of measuring polarizing properties of astronomical objects radiation. Speckle polarimeter will be capable of performing such measurements in BVRI bands. Thanks to two-beam design of polarimeter expected polarimetric precision is 1e-4 for object V=12 in 15-min integration time. In space polarization is associated with scattering, non-thermal mechanism of radiation, and with propagating of radiation in plasma. When it is detectable, measured polarization (and more importantly its dependence on time and wavelength) provides us with valuable information on physical conditions in object.
  3. Differential speckle polarimetry is a method of obtaining information of polarized flux distribution with diffraction limited resolution (Safonov, 2013). This relatively novel method is similar to technique suggested by (Norris et al., 2012). It has substantial potential for studies of circumstellar environment, active galactic nulcei, supernova and other objects where localization of polarized radiation is obstructed. One possible simplification of this method is polaroastrometry – which allows to measure deviation of photocenter of polarized flux from photocenter of total flux. Feasibility of polaroastrometry has been demonstrated during test observations on 70-cm telescope in Moscow (Safonov, 2015).
  4. Fast photometry. The detector which we use allows to obtain up to 700 frames per second. These frames can be processed in order to extract total flux of point source object. This mode can be applied to e.g. lunar occultations. Fast polarimetry is also possible.

Design

Basic optical design of the instrument is standard: collimator forms collimated beam, which is then focused on detector by objective. This scheme increases effective focal length by 8 times, it becomes as large as 160 m. The following optical components are installed in collimated beam:

  1. Half-wave plate (HWP) is used for polarization plane rotation. This allows to measure both Stokes parameters corresponding to linear polarization. Also HWP enables use of highly effective differential polarimetric techniques.
  2. Atmospheric dispersion compensator is critical because otherwise the dispersion would dramatically descrease SNR in speckle modes.
  3. Filter wheel with 8 holes contains standard astronomical filters BVRI and three passband interference filters with FWHM 50 nm centered on 500, 550 and 625 nm.
  4. Finally wollaston prism splits beam in horizontally and vertically polarized which are then focused on the same detector by objective.

Before collimator the field diaphragm is installed. Also the calibration source, linear polarizer and auxiliary camera can be inserted into the beam. The latter is necessary because the main camera has quite small field of view: 5″х10″.

As a detector the electron multiplying CCD Andor iXon 897 is used. Electron multiplying technology is critical for reaching expected performance of methods listed before. EMCCD is virtually noise free (at the cost of two-fold increase in photon noise) and allows for fast readout (35 frames per second).

Speckle polarimeter
Scheme of speckle polarimeter with basic components denoted
Speckle polarimeter
3-d model of speckle polarimeter
Speckle polarimeter
The instrument in the end of the first stage of assembly, 31 aug 2015

Development

Due to experimental nature of suggested instrument development is performed iteratively, concurrently with experiments gradually approaching scientific observations. Passed and planned stages:
  1. Investigation of EMCCD sensor made with no illumination and uniform illumination. Period: december 2011 – january 2012, status: completed, report.
  2. Observation of point and binary source emulated in laboratory. Period: march – july 2013, status: completed, report.
  3. Speckle interferometry and lucky imaging at 70 cm telescope AZT-2. Period: august – november 2013, status: completed, report.
  4. Polarimetry at 70-cm telescope AZT-2. Period: january 2014 – april 2014, status: completed, report.
  5. Study of polaroastrometry at 70-cm telescope AZT2. Period: june 2014 – october 2014, status: completed, paper.
  6. Building an instrument for 2.5 m telescope. Period february 2015 – october 2015, status: in progress, report: ADC compensator.
  7. Tests of speckle polarimeter at 2.5 m telescope. Period: october 2015 – december 2015, status: planned.

Materials

Link[PDF: 121 kb]
TitleAtmospheric Dispersion Compensator for speckle polarimeter of 2.5 m telescope.
AuthorsSafonov, B.S.
DateSeptember 2015
CommentTechnical memorandum, 4 pages, in Russian.
Abstract

Here we give computation of basic parameters of atmospheric dispersion compensator which are needed for manufacturing and further use. ADC consists of two non-deviating prisms independtly rotating around optical axis. Thus the angular dispersion of arbitrary value (up to a certain limit) and orientation can be produced. For magnification of 1000 (case of 2.5 m telescope) the compensator will work up to zenith distance of 71 degrees. Each prism consists of F1 glass and fused silica with geometry optimized for the best accordance with atmospheric dispersion between wavelenghts of 400 and 900 nm.


Link[ADS]
TitleOn-sky demonstration of optical polaroastrometry
AuthorsSafonov, B. S.
Date8 august 2015
CommentPaper, 12 страниц. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 451, Issue 3, p.3161-3172
Abstract

A method for measuring the difference between centroids of polarized flux and total flux of an astronomical object – polaroastrometry – is proposed. The deviation of the centroid of flux corresponding to Stokes parameter Q or U from the centroid of total flux multiplied by dimensionless Stokes parameter q or u, respectively, was used as a signal. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated on the basis of observations made in the V band by using an instrument combining features of a two-beam polarimeter with a rotating half-wave plate and a speckle interferometer. The polaroastrometric signal noise is 60-70 μas rms for a total number of accumulated photoelectrons Ne of 10^9 from a 70-cm telescope; this corresponds to a total integration time of 500 s and an object magnitude V = 6 mag. At smaller Ne, the noise increases as ≈ 1.7 arcsec/√Ne, while at larger Ne, it remains the same owing to imperfection of the half-wave plate. For main-sequence stars that are unpolarized and polarized by interstellar dust and the Mira-type variable R Tri the signal was undetectable. For the Mira-type variable chi Cyg the polaroastrometric signal is found to be 310±70 and 300±70 muas for Stokes Q and U, respectively; for o Cet these values are 490±100 and 1160±100 muas. The significant value of the polaroastrometric signal provides evidence of the asymmetry of the polarized flux distribution.


Link[PDF: 518 kb]
TitlePolarimetry at AZT-2
AuthorsSafonov B.S.
Date11 october 2014
CommentTechnical memorandum, 16 pages, in Russian
Abstract

Prototype instrument is a two-beam polarimeter with rotating half-wave plate. It works in V band, polarization fraction and angle are measures. Double difference method is described. On basis of laboratory measurements we show that expected error in determination of dimensionless Stokes parameters is 2e-4 – 3e-4 for objects with polarization of several percents. This level of error was observed indeed for three polarization standards and three non-polarized stars. For other three polarization standards observed values of polarization differ significantly from expected ones, we discuss possible reasons. Instrumental polarization of AZT-2 telescope has been evaluated.

We propose the model adequately describing observed level of measurements uncertainties. Model includes photon noise, readout noise and additional noise of unknown nature which doesn't depend on object brightness. The latter limits accuracy of measurements at 1e-4 - 2e-4 and dominates for objects brighter than V=4. For fainter objects photon noise dominates.

Polarization measurements for three Mirae are given, we note significant change in polarization for two epochs separated by 2 months.


Link[PDF: 382 kb]
TitleMultimode fast camera: prototype design
AuthorsSafonov, B.S.
Date1 march 2014
CommentTechnical memorandum, 12 pages, in Russian, v. 1.0
Abstract

Slightly scattered description of design solutions applied in MFC prototype of stage 4. Optical scheme: selection of half-wave plate, selection of beam division element, evaluation of its dispersion effect, selection of optical elements arrangement. Description of optomechanics.


Link[PDF: 1600 kb]
TitleSpeckle interferometric observations at AZT-2 telescope using EMCCD sensor.
AuthorsSafonov B.S.
Date16 january 2014
CommentTechnical memorandum, 22 pages, in Russian.
Abstract

In this report we present results of first test speckle interferometric observations. We used 70-cm telescope AZT-2 located near SAI building on Vorobyevy Gory in Moscow as a feeding optics. Camera consisted of a EMCCD sensor Andor iXon+897, simple lens reducing focal ratio to F/64 and filter V or interferometric filter with center wavelength 643.4 nm and FWHM 7.9 nm. Angular scale was measured using aperture mask to be 69.98 mas/pix.

From observations of a bright single star we estimated: speckle transfer function, its dependece on wavelength and exposure, FWHM of long-exposure image, image motion spectrum and amplitude, Strehl number of short-exposure images.

Also we observed 20 double stars, which includes both binaries and optical pairs. We measured separation, position angle and magnitude difference. For stars with separation greater than 4" these parameters were estimated from long-exposure images. For closer pairs we performed approximation of averaged power spectrum, i.e. speckle interferometry. Results were compared to ephemeris.


Link[PDF: 3137 kb]
TitleMultimode fast camera for 2.5 m telescope: methods and problems.
AuthorsSafonov B.S.
Date16 september 2013
CommentPresentation for report on seminar "astronomical equipment", in Russian.
AbstractMultimode Fast Camera is an instrument for 2.5 m telescope of SAI which will implement the following passive methods of reconstruction of images disturbed by atmospheric turbulence: speckle interferometry, lucky image, differential speckle polarimetry, differential speckle interferometry. In report we give a short description on methods and estimation of their performance. We present some examples of astronomical problems which can be addressed with these methods: measurement of binary stars parameters, searching for variable stars in crowded fields, cosmic dust characterisation in various astrophysical conditions (exozodiacal clouds, post-ABG stars, comets), investigation of polarization of active galactic nuclei in super-resolution regime. Also we plan to implement SCIDAR – method for measurement of vertical turbulence profile, which differs from others in object of investigation, in case of SCIDAR it is earth atmosphere. We conclude with concept of camera, its preliminary design and status of development.

Link[PDF: 550 kb]
TitleObservation of point source emulated in laboratory.
AuthorsSafonov B.S., Gorbunov I.A., Cheryasov, D.V.
Date31 July 2013
CommentTechnical report, 14 pages, in Russian, ver. 1.2
AbstractHere we present results of second phase of investigation of EMCCD sensor iXon+897 (model DU-897E-CS0-#BV, serial X-5947). The sensor is intended for installation in Multimode Fast Camera (MFC). Sensor was tested in conditions similar to observations, we formed image of point source on detector in diffraction limited regime and with simulator of atmospheric turbulence. Some characteristics of turbulence simulator have been estimated: phase structure function and Fried parameter. We also simulaled observations of double source, we measured separation, position angle and flux ratio. As by-product we investigated non-linearity of sensor during registration of image occupying few pixels.

Link[PDF, 818 kb]
TitleDifferential speckle polarimetry: ExPo method application
AuthorsSafonov B.S.
Date24 april 2013
CommentTechnical report, 3 pages, in Russian, ver. 1.0
AbstractExtreme Polarimeter is a dual-beam polarimeter which obtains sequence of short-exposure images, corresponding to orthogonal states of polarisation, swapping them after each frame by use of half-wave plate. Method includes specialized processing of data (double difference method). Exchange of beams allows to significantly reduce influence of instrumental and atmospheric effects. In this report we considered modification of DSP in the spirit of ExPo. We have shown that indeed ExPo allows to reduce effect of differential aberrations induced by optics located downstream relavite to half-wave plate, however this requires frames period to be less than 10 ms (5 ms is better) in typical conditions (atmospheric coherence time 3 ms).

Link[ADS,arXiv]
TitlePerformance analysis of differential speckle polarimetry
AuthorsSafonov B.S.
Date1 april 2013
CommentRefereed paper, 26 pages, Astronomy Letters, Vol. 39, Issue 4, pp. 237-250
AbstractWe consider a method for obtaining information on polarization of astronomical objects radiation at diffraction limited resolution–differential speckle polarimetry. As an observable we propose to use averaged cross spectrum of two short-exposure images corresponding to orthogonal polarizations, normalized by averaged power spectrum of one of images. Information on polarization can be extracted if object under study can be described by model with several parameters. We consider two examples: point-like source whose photocenter position depends on orientation of passing polarization and exozodiacal dust disc around a star. In first case the difference between photocenter positions can be measured with precision of 8 μas for 2.5 m telescope and 1.2 μas for 6-m telescope for object V = 13m. For second example method allows detection of discs around central star of V = 1m with fractional luminosities of 1.8⋅10-5 and 5.6⋅10-6 for 2.5 and 6 m telescope, respectively.

Link[PDF: 1650 kb]
TitleInvestigation of EMCCD sensor
AuthorsSafonov B. S.
Date3 February 2012
CommentTechnical report, 12 pages, in Russian, ver. 1.1
Abstract

In this report we present the results of first phase of investigation of EMCCD sensor iXon+897 (model DU-897E-CS0-#BV, serial X-5947). The sensor is intended for installation in Multimode Fast Camera (MFC).

Report consists of two parts. In first part basic parameters are given: sensitivity (preamp), readout noise, electron multiplication coefficient. Second part is dedicated for more specific characteristics of sensor: dark current, bias stability, flat field inhomogeneity, flat field stability, linearity, vertical clocking effiency, CIC noise. Measurements were made with no illumination and uniform illumination.

Contact

Boris Safonov: mailto
контакты: kgo@sai.msu.ru
©Кавказская Горная обсерватория ГАИШ МГУ им.М.В.Ломоносова - 2006-2009.

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