SIM Internal Metrology Beam Launcher Development

摘要

To accomplish micro-arcsecond astrometric measurement, stellar interferometers such as SIM require the measurement of internal optical path length delay with an accuracy of ~10 picometers level. A novel common-path laser heterodyne interferometer suitable for this application was proposed and demonstrated at JPL. In this paper, we present some of the experimental results from a laboratory demonstration unit and design considerations for SIM's internal metrology beam launcher.