Related papers: Comparative Lyot Coronagraphy with Extreme AO Syst…

Described here is the design and commissioning of a coronagraph facility for the 4.2 metre William Herschel Telescope (WHT) and its Nasmyth Adaptive Optics system for Multi-purpose Instrumentation (NAOMI). The use of the NAOMI system gives…

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…

It is widely believed that adaptive optics only has a role in correcting turbulent wavefronts on large telescopes using very bright reference stars. Unfortunately these are very scarce and many astronomical targets require wavefront…

The increasing complexity of the aperture geometry of the future space- and ground based-telescopes will limit the performance of the next generation of coronagraphic instruments for high contrast imaging of exoplanets. We propose here a…

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…

Multi-object astronomical adaptive-optics (MOAO) is now a mature wide-field observation mode to enlarge the adaptive-optics-corrected field in a few specific locations over tens of arc-minutes. The work-scope provided by open-loop…

We present here new experimental results on high contrast imaging of 10^{-7} at 4.5Lambda/D (Lambda = 0.820 microns) by combining a circular focal plane mask (coronagraph) of 2.5Lambda/D diameter and a multi-Gaussian pupil plane mask. Both…

A multitude of coronagraphic techniques for the space-based direct detection and characterization of exo-solar terrestrial planets are actively being pursued by the astronomical community. Typical coronagraphs have internal shaped focal…

One important frontier for astronomical adaptive optics (AO) involves methods such as Multi-Object AO and Multi-Conjugate AO that have the potential to give a significantly larger field of view than conventional AO techniques. A second key…

The WFIRST-AFTA 2.4 m telescope will provide in the next decade the opportunity to host a coronagraph for the imaging and spectroscopy of planets and disks. The telescope, however, is not ideal, given its obscured aperture. Only recently…

In long adaptive optics corrected exposures, exoplanet detections are currently limited by speckle noise originating from the telescope and instrument optics, and it is expected that such noise will also limit future high-contrast imaging…

General arguments for optimized coronagraphy in the search for planets are presented. First, off-axis telescopes provide the best telescopic platforms for use with coronagraphy, and telescope fabrication technology now allows the…

Extreme wavefront correction is required for coronagraphs on future space telescopes to reach 1e-8 or better starlight suppression for the direct imaging and characterization of exoplanets in reflected light. Thus, a suite of wavefront…

Stellar coronagraphs rely on deformable mirrors (DMs) to correct wavefront errors and create high contrast images. Imperfect control of the DM limits the achievable contrast and, therefore, the DM control electronics must provide fine…

NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) aims to achieve starlight suppression to the $10^{-10}$ level for the detection and spectral characterization of Earth-like exoplanets. Broadband ozone absorption features are key biosignatures that…

Sky-coverage in laser-assisted AO observations largely depends on the system's capability to guide on the faintest natural guide-stars possible. Here we give an up-to-date status of our natural guide-star processing tailored to the…

We describe the current on-sky performance of the Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics (SCExAO) instrument on the Subaru telescope on Maunakea, Hawaii. SCExAO is continuing to advance its AO performance, delivering H band Strehl…

Many high contrast coronagraph designs have recently been proposed. In this paper, their suitability for direct imaging of extrasolar terrestrial planets is reviewed. We also develop a linear-algebra based model of coronagraphy that can…

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…

Broadband coronagraphy with deep nulling and small inner working angle has the potential of delivering images and spectra of exoplanets and other faint objects. In recent years, many coronagraphic schemes have been proposed, the most…