Wide field interferometric imaging with single-mode fibers

¹ Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 640 N. A'ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720, USA
² Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris 6, 4 Place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France

Corresponding author: guyon@ifa.hawaii.edu

Received: 23 January 2002
Accepted: 12 March 2002

Abstract

Classical single-mode fiber interferometers, using one fiber per aperture, have very limited imaging capabilities and small field of view. Observations of extended sources (resolved by one aperture) cannot be fully corrected for wavefront aberrations: accurate measurements of object visibilities are then made very difficult from ground-based fiber interferometers. These limitations are very severe for the new generation of interferometers, which make use of large telescopes equipped with adaptive optics, but can be overcome by using several fibers per aperture. This technique improves the wide field imaging capabilities of both ground-based and space interferometers.