Related papers: Focal-plane wavefront sensing with the vector Apod…
Polarisation holography generally demands polarisation-sensitive holograms for reconstructing either polarisation-multiplexed holographic images or polarisation-sensitive image channels. To date, polarisation holography is underpinned by…
In astronomy, upcoming space telescopes with wide-field optical instruments have a spatially varying point spread function (PSF). Specific scientific goals require a high-fidelity estimation of the PSF at target positions where no direct…
Wave front sensing of the surface of equal phase for a propagating electromagnetic wave is a vital technology in fields ranging from real time adaptive optics, to high accuracy metrology, to medical optometry. We have developed a new method…
Accurately predicting the performance of coronagraphs and tolerancing optical surfaces for high-contrast imaging requires a detailed accounting of diffraction effects. Unlike simple Fraunhofer diffraction modeling, near and far-field…
Single-shot volumetric fluorescence (SVF) imaging offers a significant advantage over traditional imaging methods that require scanning across multiple axial planes as it can capture biological processes with high temporal resolution. The…
Differential wavefront sensing is an essential technique for optimising the performance of many precision interferometric experiments. Perhaps the most extensive application of this is for alignment sensing using radio-frequency beats…
Wavefront sensing is a set of techniques providing efficient means to ascertain the shape of an optical wavefront or its deviation from an ideal reference. Due to its wide dynamical range and high optical efficiency, the Shack-Hartmann is…
This paper is the third part of a trilogy dealing with the principles, performance and limitations of what I named "Telescope-Interferometers" (TIs). The basic idea consists in transforming one telescope into a Wavefront Error (WFE) sensing…
Context. Phase-mask coronagraphy is advantageous in terms of inner working angle and discovery space. It is however still plagued by drawbacks such as sensitivity to tip-tilt errors and chromatism. A nulling stellar coronagraph based on the…
Pyramid wavefront sensors (PWFSs) are the preferred choice for current and future extreme adaptive optics (XAO) systems. Almost all instruments use the PWFS in its modulated form to mitigate its limited linearity range. However, this…
SAXO+ is a planned enhancement of the existing SAXO, the VLT/ SPHERE adaptive optics system, deployed on ESO's Very Large Telescope. This upgrade is designed to significantly enhance the instrument's capacity to detect and analyze young…
Context. Proxima Cen b is the prime target for the search of life around a nearby exoplanet by characterizing its atmosphere in reflected light. Due to the very high star/companion contrast (<1E-6), High Dispersion Coronagraphy is the most…
We present a practical apparatus for characterizing optical aberrations of large collimation mirrors and lenses, and give a detailed analysis of wavefront-detection errors. We utilize a scanning pentaprism technique for precise measurements…
Atmospheric turbulence causes fluctuations in the local refractive index of air that accumulatively disturb a wave's phase and amplitude distribution as it propagates. This impairs the effective range of laser weapons as well as the…
Extreme adaptive optics (AO) is crucial for enabling the contrasts needed for ground-based high contrast imaging instruments to detect exoplanets. Pushing exoplanet imaging detection sensitivities towards lower mass, closer separations, and…
This paper presents a microscopic imaging technique that uses variable-angle illumination to recover the complex polarimetric properties of a specimen at high resolution and over a large field-of-view. The approach extends Fourier…
The ultimate performance of coronagraphic high contrast exoplanet imaging systems such as SPHERE or GPI is limited by quasi-static aberrations. These aberrations produce speckles that can be mistaken for planets in the image. In order to…
The phase-apodized-pupil Lyot coronagraph (PAPLC) is a pairing of the apodized-pupil Lyot coronagraph (APLC) and the apodizing phase plate (APP) coronagraph. We describe a numerical optimization method to obtain globally-optimal solutions…
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 propose the application of coronagraphic techniques to the spectroscopic direct detection of exoplanets via the Doppler shift of planetary molecular lines. Even for an unresolved close-in planetary system, we show that the combination of…