VITRUV Precursors: IONIC2T/IONIC3T

Abstract

LAOG and its partners (LETI and IMEP) have been testing since 1996 the potential of IO (Integrated Optics) technologies to replace the heart of an interferometric beam combiner. IO technology allows to integrate in or on a substrate single/multi mode optical circuits. The motivation behind this work is our deep conviction that the use of compact IO optical circuits will result in considerable simplification of the instrument operation and increase in the quality of measurement. Our working strategy can be divided into several steps: – designing an IO circuit well suited for astronomical interferometry applications (broadband operation, througput ...); – intensive laboratory characterization phase (dispersion, birefringence, throughput ...); – on-sky experiments.

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