Momen Diab

PhD Student

AO-assisted Astrophotonics

Astrophotonics -- Adaptive Optics -- Fibres -- Optical Turbulence Profiling -- Wavefront Sensing

Current Research Summary:

I am completing my PhD with focus on optimizing the starlight coupling into single-mode astrophotonic instruments, e.g. AWGs. Atmospheric turbulence distorts the incoming wavefronts collected by large telescopes and thus lessens the coupling efficiency. Two approaches have been identified to overcome that difficulty: Correcting the distortion in the spatial coherence of starlight with adaptive optics or using a photonic lantern with a large enough numerical aperture at the input to distribute the light into several single-mode fibers. A hybrid solution combining both approaches has the potential of providing a cheaper, less complex system than any of the two methods working alone. Our research is set to find the optimum trade-off between AO and photonic lanterns that maximizes the Strehl ratio and minimizes the cost.

Prior Research:

Master: Optomechanical setup for FSO receiving terminal in GEO to OGS downlink. German Aerospace Center (DLR). 10/15 - 11/16.