InnoPOL: an EMCCD imaging polarimeter and 85-element curvature AO system on the 3.6-m AEOS telescope for cost effective polarimetric speckle suppression

摘要

The Hokupa'a-85 curvature adaptive optics system components have been adaptedto create a new AO-corrected coud\'{e} instrument at the 3.67m AdvancedElectro-Optical System (AEOS) telescope. This new AO-corrected optical path isdesigned to deliver an f/40 diffraction-limited focus at wavelengths longerthan 800nm. A new EMCCD-based dual-beam imaging polarimeter called InnoPOL hasbeen designed and is presently being installed behind this corrected f/40 beam.The InnoPOL system is a flexible platform for optimizing polarimetricperformance using commercial solutions and for testing modulation strategies.The system is designed as a technology test and demonstration platform as thecoud\'{e} path is built using off-the-shelf components wherever possible.Models of the polarimetric performance after AO correction show thatpolarization modulation at rates as slow as 200Hz can cause specklecorrelations in brightness and focal plane location sufficient enough to changethe speckle suppression behavior of the modulators. These models are alsoverified by initial EMCCD scoring camera data at AEOS. Substantial instrumenttrades and development efforts are explored between instrument performanceparameters and various polarimetric noise sources.