Related papers: SLM-based Active Focal-Plane Coronagraphy: Status …

For direct imaging of exoplanets, a stellar coronagraph helps to remove the image of an observed bright star by attenuating the diffraction effects caused by the telescope aperture of diameter D. The Dual Zone Phase Mask (DZPM) coronagraph…

Multi-plane light conversion (MPLC) has recently been developed as a versatile tool for manipulating spatial distributions of the optical field through repeated phase modulations. An MPLC Device consists of a series of phase masks separated…

Due to the limited number of photons, directly imaging planets requires long integration times with a coronagraphic instrument. The wavefront must be stable on the same time scale, which is often difficult in space due to thermal variations…

Due to turbulence in the atmosphere images taken from ground-based telescopes become distorted. With adaptive optics (AO) images can be given greater clarity allowing for better observations with existing telescopes and are essential for…

The spin angular momentum (SAM) of light has become a cornerstone of numerous photonic applications, including optical communication and chiral photonics. Because SAM is inherently associated with circularly polarized light (CPL), the…

Recent adaptive optics systems in astronomy achieve high-angular resolution. With the extreme stability of the images, detection at very low fluxes can be reached using a coronograph at the diffraction limit of the telescopes. This paper is…

MagAO-X is the coronagraphic extreme adaptive optics system for the 6.5 m Magellan Clay Telescope. We report the results of commissioning the first phase of MagAO-X. Components now available for routine observations include: the >2 kHz…

We present numerical simulations and laboratory experiments on an eight-octant phase-mask (EOPM) coronagraph. The numerical simulations suggest that an achievable contrast for the EOPM coronagraph can be greatly improved as compared to that…

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…

The coming decade will see the routine use of solar data of unprecedented spatial and spectral resolution, time cadence, and completeness. To capitalize on the new (or soon to be available) facilities such as SDO, ATST and FASR, and the…

The Evanescent Wave Coronagraph (EvWaCo) is an achromatic coronagraph mask with adjustable size over the spectral domain [600nm, 900nm] that will be installed at the Thai National Observatory. We present in this work the development of a…

Rapid and programmable shaping of light fields is central to modern microscopy, display technologies, optical communications and sensing, quantum engineering, and quantum information processing. Current wavefront shaping technologies face a…

We report on a soft route towards optical vortex coronagraphy based on self-engineered electrically tunable vortex masks based on liquid crystal topological defects. These results suggest that a nature-assisted technological approach to the…

Earlier apodized-pupil Lyot coronagraphs (APLC) have been studied and developed to enable high-contrast imaging for exoplanet detection and characterization with present-day ground-based telescopes. With the current interest in the…

We describe a new concept for a MEMS-based active spatial filter for astronomical spectroscopy. The goal of this device is to allow the use of a diffraction-limited spectrometer on a seeing limited observation at improved throughput over a…

The Magellan extreme adaptive optics (MagAO-X) instrument is a new extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) system designed for operation in the visible to near-IR which will deliver high contrast-imaging capabilities. The main AO system will be…

Arbitrary light potentials have proven to be a valuable and versatile tool in many quantum information and quantum simulation experiments with ultracold atoms. Using a phase-modulating spatial light modulator (SLM), we generate arbitrary…

Photonic Lanterns (PLs) are tapered waveguides that gradually transition from a multi-mode fiber geometry to a bundle of single-mode fibers (SMFs). They can efficiently couple multi-mode telescope light into a multi-mode fiber entrance at…

Near-field radio holography is a common method for measuring and aligning mirror surfaces for millimeter and sub-millimeter telescopes. In instruments with more than a single mirror, degeneracies arise in the holography measurement,…

The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is a next-generation, facility instrument currently being commissioned at the Gemini South observatory. GPI combines an extreme adaptive optics system and integral field spectrograph (IFS) with an…