Related papers: Minimizing the polarization leakage of geometric-p…
The unparalleled theoretical performance of an ideal vector vortex coronagraph makes it one of the most promising technologies for directly imaging exoplanets with a future, off-axis space telescope. However, the image contrast required for…
We describe a dispersive unit consisting of cascaded volume-phase holographic gratings for spectroscopic applications. Each of the gratings provides high diffractive efficiency in a relatively narrow wavelength range and transmits the rest…
The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) is a flagship mission concept proposing to characterize earth-like exoplanets at high contrast with a coronagraph instrument. The most in-depth, validated contrast error budgets made to date have been…
The current generation of ground-based coronagraphic instruments uses deformable mirrors to correct for phase errors and to improve contrast levels at small angular separations. Improving these techniques, several space and ground based…
We designed and built a new astronomical photo-polarimeter that can measure linear polarization simultaneously in three spectral bands. It has a Calcite beamdisplacement prism as the analyzer. The ordinary and extra-ordinary emerging beams…
Of the over 5000 exoplanets that have been detected, only about a dozen have ever been directly imaged. Earth-like exoplanets are on the order of 10 billion times fainter than their host star in visible and near-infrared, requiring a…
Directly imaging Earth-sized exoplanets with a visible-light coronagraph instrument on a space telescope will require a system that can achieve $\sim10^{-10}$ raw contrast and maintain it for the duration of observations (on the order of…
Following the tracks of Malbet, Yu, & Shao (1995} on dark hole algorithms, we present analytical methods to measure and correct the speckle noise behind an ideal coronagraph. We show that, in a low aberration regime, wavefront sensing can…
We discuss the applicability of holographically recorded gratings in photopolymers and holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystals as neutron optical elements. An experimental investigation of their properties for light and neutrons with…
Coronagraph instruments on future space telescopes will enable the direct detection and characterization of Earth-like exoplanets around Sun-like stars for the first time. The quest for the optimal optical coronagraph designs has made rapid…
Vacuum birefringence from Lorentz and CPT violation in the Standard-Model Extension can be constrained using ground-based optical polarimetry of extragalactic sources. We describe results from a pilot program with an automated system that…
We present multiscale graph-based reduction algorithms for upscaling heterogeneous and anisotropic diffusion problems. The proposed coarsening approaches begin by constructing a partitioning of the computational domain into a set of…
High contrast coronagraphic imaging of the immediate surrounding of stars requires exquisite control of low-order wavefront aberrations, such as tip-tilt (pointing) and focus. We propose an accurate, efficient and easy to implement…
Medical differential phase contrast x-ray imaging (DPCI) promises improved soft-tissue contrast at lower x-ray dose. The dose strongly depends on both the angular sensitivity and on the visibility of a grating-based Talbot-Lau…
One highly desirable function of a diffraction grating is its ability to deflect incident light into a specific diffraction order with near-perfect efficiency. While such asymmetry can be achieved in a variety of ways, e.g., by using a…
Less than 3% of the known exoplanets were directly imaged for two main reasons. They are angularly very close to their parent star, which is several magnitudes brighter. Direct imaging of exoplanets thus requires a dedicated instrumentation…
Polariton lattice condensates provide a platform for on chip quantum emulations. Interactions in extended polariton lattices are currently limited by the intrinsic photonic disorder of microcavities. Here, we fabricate a strain compensated…
Recently, X-ray interferometers with more than one phase grating have been developed for differential phase contrast (DPC) imaging. In this study, a novel framework is developed to predict such interferometers' angular sensitivity responses…
The detection and characterization of Earth-like exoplanets around Sun-like stars for future flagship missions requires coronagraphs to achieve contrasts on the order of 1e-10 at close angular separations and over large spectral bandwidths…
Complex polarization states of photon pairs are indispensable in various quantum technologies. Conventional methods for preparing desired two-photon polarization states are realized through bulky nonlinear crystals, which can restrict the…