English

Eighth-Order Image Masks for Terrestrial Planet Finding

Astrophysics 2009-11-10 v2

Abstract

We describe a new series of band-limited image masks for coronagraphy that are insensitive to pointing errors and other low-spatial-frequency optical aberrations. For a modest cost in throughput, these ``eighth-order'' masks would allow the Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph (TPF-C) to operate with a pointing accuracy no better than that of the Hubble Space Telescope. We also provide eighth-order notch filter masks that offer the same robustness to pointing errors combined with more manageable construction tolerances: binary masks and graded masks with moderate optical density requirements.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0411077,
  title  = {Eighth-Order Image Masks for Terrestrial Planet Finding},
  author = {Marc J. Kuchner and Justin Crepp and Jian Ge},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0411077},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

21 pages, including 6 figures. Accepted to ApJ

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