Co-phasing detecting method based on grating dispersed fringe for Fizeau optical interferometric telescope

For the Fizeau optical interferometric telescope system, the co-phasing detection of piston errors between sub-apertures plays an important role in realizing the high resolution of system. In this paper, the relationship between piston error and the main peak displacement of monochromatic interferogram of two sub-aperture system is analyzed based on physical principles, then the piston error detecting method is developed and clarified based on their linear relationship in the range of one wavelength. Furthermore, an innovative co-phasing detecting method based on grating dispersed interferogram with bandwidth light source is proposed, and its feasibility, detecting precision and dynamic range are analyzed in theory and studied in simulation. The results prove that with this method, the piston error between the two sub-apertures of the system can be soundly detected and its measuring error is less than 20 nm while the piston error is not more than 50 μm. In addition, the novel method solves the problems of 2π ambiguity and direction determination that might exist within some other detecting methods. Besides its millimeter level dynamic range, this new co-phasing detecting method provides a new way and an effective reference for in-depth research of co-phasing detecting techniques.