Lessons learnt from existing instruments and R&D programs for the implementation of the polarimetric mode of the ELT’s high-contrast imager PCS
Abstract
PCS will be the ELT's dedicated instrument for direct exoplanet characterisation, with a central goal of discovering and studying rocky exoplanets, and polarimetry is expected to provide an important complementary detection and characterisation channel. We present five categories of lessons learnt from existing high-contrast polarimetric instruments and ongoing R&D programs: the science cases driving the requirements, general polarimetric architecture, instrumental polarisation effects at the Nasmyth focus, polarisation aberrations specific to the ELT’s fast beam, and integral-field spectropolarimetry. These five categories shape the open design questions for ELT/PCS: how to implement and place the polarisation modulator relative to M6, and how to mitigate the instrumental polarisation effects from M4, M5, and M6, the polarimetric efficiency loss and field rotation of the M6 K-mirror derotator and the polarisation aberrations arising from the ELT’s F/0.9 focal ratio.
Authors 8
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Affiliation as printed
Leiden Univ. (Netherlands)
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Affiliation as printed
Leiden Univ. (Netherlands)
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Affiliation as printed
Univ. of Oxford (United Kingdom)
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Affiliation as printed
Univ. of Oxford (United Kingdom)
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Affiliation as printed
The Univ. of Arizona (United States)
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Affiliation as printed
Univ. Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (France)
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Affiliation as printed
European Space Organisation (ESO) (Chile)
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Affiliation as printed
Leiden Univ. (Netherlands)
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