Related papers: Phase-Apodized-Pupil Lyot Coronagraphs for Arbitra…
CONTEXT: The four-quadrant phase mask stellar coronagraph, introduced by D. Rouan et al., is capable of achieving very high dynamical range imaging and was studied in the context of the direct detection of extra-solar planets. Achromatic…
Aims. We present a solution to improve the performance of coronagraphs for the detection of exo-planets. Methods. We simulate numerically several kinds of coronagraphic systems, with the aim of evaluating the gain obtained with an adaptive…
We summarize the theory of coronagraphic optics, and identify a dimensionless fine-tuning parameter, F, which we use to describe the Lyot stop size in the natural units of the coronagraphic optical train and the observing wavelength. We…
Direct imaging of exoplanets requires very high contrast levels, which are obtained using coronagraphs. But residual quasi-static aberrations create speckles in the focal plane downstream of the coronagraph which mask the planet. This…
We describe a new instrument that forms the core of a long-term high contrast imaging program at the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory. The primary scientific thrust is to obtain images and low-resolution spectroscopy of brown…
The segmented pupil experiment for exoplanet detection (SPEED) facility aims to improve knowledge and insight into various areas required for gearing up high-contrast imaging instruments adapted to the unprecedented high angular resolution…
Pupil mapping is a promising and unconventional new method for high contrast imaging being considered for terrestrial exoplanet searches. It employs two (or more) specially designed aspheric mirrors to create a high-contrast amplitude…
Polarimetric imaging enables advanced vision applications such as normal estimation and de-reflection by capturing unique surface-material interactions. However, existing applications (alternatively called downstream tasks) rely on datasets…
In this paper, after briefly reviewing the theory of vectorial vortices, we describe our technological approach to generating the necessary phase helix, and report results obtained with the first optical vectorial vortex coronagraph (OVVC)…
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…
Pupil mapping is a promising and unconventional new method for high contrast imaging being considered for terrestrial exoplanet searches. It employs two (or more) specially designed aspheric mirrors to create a high-contrast amplitude…
We propose a high-contrast coronagraph for direct imaging of young Jupiter-like planets orbiting nearby bright stars. The coronagraph employs a step-transmission filter in which the intensity is apodized with a finite number of steps of…
The design of liquid-crystal diffractive phase plate coronagraphs for ground-based and space-based high-contrast imaging systems is limited by the trade-off between spectral bandwidth and polarization leakage. We demonstrate that by…
Directly imaging Earth-like exoplanets (``exoEarths'') with a coronagraph instrument on a space telescope requires a stable wavefront with optical path differences limited to tens of picometers RMS during exposure times of a few hours.…
An adaptive optics (AO) system based on stochastic parallel gradient descent (SPGD) algorithm is proposed to reduce the speckle noises in the optical system of stellar coronagraph in order to further improve the contrast. The principle of…
The exploration of circumstellar environments by means of direct imaging to search for Earth-like exoplanets is one of the challenges of modern astronomy. One of the current limitations are evolving non-common path aberrations (NCPA) that…
A major science goal of future, large-aperture, optical space telescopes is to directly image and spectroscopically analyze reflected light from potentially habitable exoplanets. To accomplish this, the optical system must suppress…
Axion-like particles (ALPs) have been searched for with a quasi-parallel stimulated resonant photon-photon collider sensitive to the sub-eV mass range by focusing two-color near-infrared pulse lasers into a vacuum. In this work, we have…
We present an overview of the performances of a plenoptic microscope which combines the high sensitivity of a laser optical feedback imaging setup , the high resolution of optical synthetic aperture and a shot noise limited signal to noise…
Active coronagraphy is deemed to play a key role for the next generation of high-contrast instruments, notably in order to deal with large segmented mirrors that might exhibit time-dependent pupil merit function, caused by missing or…