A high-sensitivity polarimeter using a ferro-electric liquid crystal modulator

作者：Bailey Jeremy^*; Kedziora Chudczer Lucyna; Cotton Daniel V; Bott Kimberly; Hough J H; Lucas P W

来源：Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2015, 449(3): 3064-3073.

DOI：10.1093/mnras/stv519

• polarization
• instrumentation: polarimeters
• techniques: polarimetric

We describe the HIgh Precision Polarimetric Instrument (HIPPI), a polarimeter built at UNSW (The University of New South Wales) Australia and used on the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT). HIPPI is an aperture polarimeter using a ferro-electric liquid crystal modulator. HIPPI measures the linear polarization of starlight with a sensitivity in fractional polarization of similar to 4 x 10(-6) on low-polarization objects and a precision of better than 0.01 per cent on highly polarized stars. The detectors have a high dynamic range allowing observations of the brightest stars in the sky as well as much fainter objects. The telescope polarization of the AAT is found to be 48 +/- 5 x 10(-6) in the g' band.

• 出版日期2015-5-21