Related papers: Speckle nulling for exoplanet detection with space…
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…
We demonstrate spectroscopy of incoherent light with sub-diffraction resolution. In a proof-of-principle experiment we analyze the spectrum of a pair of incoherent point-like sources whose separation is below the diffraction limit. The two…
I derive analytic scalings for coronagraphic imaging searches for extrasolar planets. I compute the efficiency of detecting planets about any given star, and from this compute dimensionless distribution functions for the detected planets as…
Imaging planets in reflected light, a key focus of future NASA missions and ELTs, requires advanced wavefront control to maintain a deep, temporally correlated null of stellar halo -- i.e. a dark hole -- at just several diffraction beam…
Very high dynamical range coronagraphs targeting direct exo-planet detection (10^9 - 10^10 contrast) at small angular separation (few lambda/D units) usually require an input wavefront quality on the order of ten thousandths of wavelength…
The Roman Space Telescope will have the first advanced coronagraph in space, with deformable mirrors for wavefront control, low-order wavefront sensing and maintenance, and a photon-counting detector. It is expected to be able to detect and…
The second-generation instrument SPHERE, dedicated to high-contrast imaging, will soon be in operation on the European Very Large Telescope. Such an instrument relies on an extreme adaptive optics system coupled with a coronagraph that…
The optical vortex coronagraph is potentially a remarkably effective device, at least for an ideal unobstructed telescope. Most ground-based telescopes however suffer from central obscuration and also have to operate through the aberrations…
The mission of NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) is to find Earth-like planets orbiting other stars and characterize the atmospheres of these planets using spectroscopy. Because of the enormous brightness ratio between the star and the…
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…
Discovering exoplanets in orbit around distant stars via direct imaging is fundamentally impeded by the combined effect of optical diffraction and photon shot noise under extreme star-planet contrast. Coronagraphs strive to increase the…
Technological advances in instrumentation have led to an exponential increase in exoplanet detection and scrutiny of stellar features such as spots and faculae. While the spots and faculae enable us to understand the stellar dynamics,…
Exoplanet research is essential for understanding planetary formation and the potential for life beyond our solar system. The direct imaging method captures exoplanet light while minimizing light from the host star. This is conventionally…
Coronagraphy is a very efficient technique for identifying and characterizing extra-solar planets orbiting in the habitable zone of their parent star, especially when used in a space environment. An important family of coronagraphs is based…
Nulling interferometry is a promising technique for direct detection of exoplanets. However, the performance of current devices is limited by different perturbations sources and especially by its sensitivity to any phase aberrations. The…
High-contrast imaging and spectroscopy provide unique constraints for exoplanet formation models as well as for planetary atmosphere models. Instrumentation techniques in this field have greatly improved over the last two decades, with the…
An acousto-optic cell was used to reduce the speckle noise that reduces the quality of Hartmann-Shack and other wave-front sensors measuring ocular aberrations. In the method presented here, a laser beam traverses an acousto-optic cell,…
An extrasolar planet can be detected via microlensing from the perturbation it makes in the smooth lensing light curve of the primary. In addition to the conventional photometric microlensing, astrometric observation of the center-of-light…
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…
High-precision ground-based observations of the inner corona (1.05-2.0 R_sun) are fundamentally constrained by instrumental stray light, particularly the additive background from dynamic dust accumulation on the objective lens. To address…