Context. NOTT (formerly Hi-5) is a new high-contrast L′ band (3.5–4.0 µm) beam combiner for the VLTI designed with an ambitious aim to be sensitive to young giant exoplanets down to 5 mas separation around nearby stars. The performance of nulling interferometers in these wavelengths is affected both by fundamental noise from the background and contributions of instrumental noise. This motivates the development of end-to-end simulations to optimize these instruments. Aims. The aim of this study is to enable a performance evaluation of NOTT and inform the design of such instruments with current and future infrastructures in mind, taking into account the different sources of noise and their correlation. Methods. SCIFYsim is an end-to-end simulator for single-mode-filtered beam combiners, with an emphasis on nulling interferometers. We use it to compute a covariance matrix of the errors. We then use statistical detection tests based on likelihood ratios to compute compound detection limits for the instrument. Results. With the current assumptions as to the performance of the wavefront correction systems, the errors are dominated by correlated instrumental errors down to stars of magnitude 6–7 in the L band, beyond which thermal background from the telescopes and relay system becomes dominant. Conclusions. SCIFYsim is suited to anticipating some of the challenges of design, tuning, operation, and signal processing for integrated-optics beam combiners. The detection limits found for this early version of NOTT simulation with the unit telescopes are compatible with detections at contrasts up to 105 in the L band at separations of 5–80 mas around bright stars.@en

Asgard/NOTT (previously Hi-5) is a European Research Council (ERC)-funded project hosted at KU Leuven and a new visitor instrument for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). Its primary goal is to image the snow line region around young stars using nulling interferometry in the L′-band (3.5 to 4.0) μm, where the contrast between exoplanets and their host stars is advantageous. The breakthrough is the use of a photonic beam combiner, which only recently allowed the required theoretical raw contrast of 10-3 in this spectral range. Nulling interferometry observations of exoplanets also require a high degree of balancing between the four pupils of the VLTI in terms of intensity, phase, and polarization. The injection into the beam combiner and the requirements of nulling interferometry are driving the design of the warm optics and the injection system. The optical design up to the beam combiner is presented. It offers a technical solution to efficiently couple the light from the VLTI into the beam combiner. During the coupling, the objective is to limit throughput losses to 5% of the best expected efficiency for the injection. To achieve this, a list of different loss sources is considered with their respective impact on the injection efficiency. Solutions are also proposed to meet the requirements of beam balancing for intensity, phase, and polarization. The different properties of the design are listed, including the optics used, their alignment and tolerances, and their impact on the instrumental performances in terms of throughput and null depth. The performance evaluation gives an expected throughput loss <6.4% of the best efficiency for the injection and a null depth of 1/42.10-3, mainly from optical path delay errors outside the scope of this work.@en