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

http://arxiv.org/abs/1503.02236


We describe the HIgh Precision Polarimetric Instrument (HIPPI), a polarimeter built at UNSW 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 ~4 x 10$^{-6}$ on low polarization objects and a precision of better than 0.01% 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 $\pm$ 5 x 10$^{-6}$ in the g’ band.

Read this paper on arXiv…

J. Bailey, L. Kedziora-Chudczer, D. Cotton, et. al.
Tue, 10 Mar 15
29/77

Comments: 12 pages, 7 figures, accepted in MNRAS