Achromatic deep nulling with a three-dimensional Sagnac interferometer

Opt Lett. 2009 Jul 1;34(13):1985-7. doi: 10.1364/ol.34.001985.

Abstract

A 3-D Sagnac interferometer can null out light from an on-axis source achromatically. The 3-D Sagnac interferometer can make stable and achromatic pi phase shifts, because it has a common path structure. The achromaticity of the interferometer is theoretically proved by Jones calculus. The experimental setup is constructed, and its nulling characteristics are measured to be about 10(-6) at 5 lambda/d for green (lambda=532 nm) and red (lambda=633 nm) laser light simultaneously. This interferometer would be very useful for the direct detection of faint extrasolar planets.