Related papers: Coronagraphic Low Order Wavefront Sensor: Principl…
The search for life via characterization of earth-like planets in the habitable zone is one of the key scientific objectives in Astronomy. We describe a new phase-occulting (PO) interferometric nulling coronagraphy (NC) approach. The PO-NC…
We present numerical characterizations of the wavefront sensing performance for few-mode photonic lantern wavefront sensors (PLWFSs). These characterizations include calculations of throughput, control space, sensor linearity, and an…
Accurate astrometry and photometry of saturated and coronagraphic point spread functions (PSFs) are fundamental to both ground- and space-based high contrast imaging projects. For ground-based adaptive optics imaging, differential…
Stellar coronagraphs rely on deformable mirrors (DMs) to correct wavefront errors and create high contrast images. Imperfect control of the DM limits the achievable contrast and, therefore, the DM control electronics must provide fine…
[abridged] The International LOFAR Telescope is an interferometer with stations spread across Europe. With baselines of up to ~2,000 km, LOFAR has the unique capability of achieving sub-arcsecond resolution at frequencies below 200 MHz,…
A primary goal of direct imaging techniques is to spectrally characterize the atmospheres of planets around other stars at extremely high contrast levels. To achieve this goal, coronagraphic instruments have favored integral field…
Optical observations of solar corona provide key information on its magnetic geometry. The large-scale open field of the corona plays an important role in shaping the ambient solar wind and constraining the propagation dynamics of the…
Linking a coronagraph instrument to a spectrograph via a single mode optical fiber is a pathway towards detailed characterization of exoplanet atmospheres with current and future ground- and space-based telescopes. However, given the…
The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) Coronagraph Instrument (CGI) will be the first high-performance stellar coronagraph using active wavefront control for deep starlight suppression in space, providing unprecedented levels of…
This paper provides a framework for the incorporation of the wavefront sensor measurements in the context of observing modes in which the science camera takes millisecond exposures. In this formulation, the wavefront sensor measurements…
We present early laboratory simulations and extensive on-sky tests validating of the performance of a shaped pupil coronagraph (SPC) behind an extreme-AO corrected beam of the Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics (SCExAO) system. In…
Direct imaging of exoplanet systems requires the use of coronagraphs to reach high contrast levels (10^-8 to 10^-11) at small angular separations (0.1"). However, the performance of these devices is drastically limited by aberrations (in…
A coronagraphic starlight suppression system situated on a future flagship space observatory offers a promising avenue to image Earth-like exoplanets and search for biomarkers in their atmospheric spectra. One NASA mission concept that…
Reaching the high angular resolution and contrast level desired for exoplanetary science requires us to equip large telescopes with extreme adaptive optics (XAO) systems to compensate for the effect of the atmospheric turbulence at a very…
Direct imaging of exoplanets represents a challenge for astronomical instrumentation due to the high-contrast ratio and small angular separation between the host star and the faint planet. Multi-star systems pose additional challenges for…
We propose a transmission-filter coronagraph for direct imaging of Jupiter-like exoplanets with ground-based telescopes. The coronagraph is based on a transmission filter that consists of finite number of transmission steps. A discrete…
The limits for adaptive-optics (AO) imaging at high contrast and high resolution are determined by residual phase errors from non-common-path aberrations not sensed by the wavefront sensor, especially for integral field spectrographs, where…
We have built a series of notch filter image masks that make the Lyot coronagraph less susceptible to low-spatial-frequency optical aberrations. In this paper, we present experimental results of their performance in the lab using…
The advent of spatiotemporal wave packets (STWPs), represented by spatiotemporal optical vortices (STOVs), has paved the way for the exploration in optics and photonics. To date, despite considerable efforts, a comprehensive and efficient…
Second-generation exoplanet imagers using extreme adaptive optics and coronagraphy have demonstrated their great potential for studying close circumstellar environments and for detecting new companions and helping to understand their…