A co-phasing technique for segmented mirror telescopes

Abstract

In the new era of astronomy, we go for bigger telescopes having segmented primary and secondary mirrors. But once segmentation is done, aligning and phasing mirror segments so that altogether they act like a monolithic mirror of a large diameter, becomes critical. Co-phasing is a complex task that needed to be done after aligning the segments. Diffraction limited resolution is only possible by a large segmented telescope, if mirror segments are co-phased. Co-phasing techniques rely on physical optics and in one of the technique implemented in Keck telescope is based on analysis of diffraction pattern generated by Shack Hartmann sensor. This same technique is being further explored by us in laboratory experimentation. In this paper we present our effort to develop a simple but robust phasing technique for a large segmented mirror telescope proposed to be installed in India. After rigorous mathematical exercise , analytical formulation for the phasing technique is derived, which is further used to simulate in MATLAB. The MATLAB results are cross checked with the ZEMAX. There after, a preliminary laboratory experiment has been conducted to check the feasibility of using this technique for phasing segmented mirrors.