Vortex coronagraphs are an attractive solution for imaging exoplanets with future space telescopes due to their relatively high throughput, large spectral bandwidth, and low sensitivity to low-order aberrations compared to other coronagraphs with similar inner working angles. Most of the vortex coronagraph mask development for space applications has focused on generating a polychromatic, vectorial, optical vortex using multiple layers of liquid crystal polymers. While this approach has been the most successful thus far, current fabrication processes achieve retardance errors of 0.1-1.0$^\circ$, which causes a nonnegligible fraction of the starlight to leak through the coronagraph. Circular polarizers are typically used to reject the stellar leakage reducing the throughput by a factor of two. Vector vortex masks also complicate wavefront control because they imprint conjugated phase ramps on the orthogonal circular polarization components, which may need to be split in order to properly sense and suppress the starlight. Scalar vortex masks can potentially circumvent these limitations by applying the same phase shift to all incident light regardless of the polarization state and thus have the potential to significantly improve the performance of vortex coronagraphs. We present scalar vortex coronagraph designs that make use of focal plane masks with multiple layers of dielectrics that (a) produce phase patterns that are relatively friendly to standard manufacturing processes and (b) achieve sufficient broadband starlight suppression, in theory, for imaging Earth-like planets with future space telescopes.
The segmented coronagraph design and analysis (SCDA) study is a coordinated effort, led by Stuart Shaklan (JPL) and supported by NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program (ExEP), to provide efficient coronagraph design concepts for exoplanet imaging with future segmented aperture space telescopes. This document serves as an update on the apodized vortex coronagraph designs devised by the Caltech/JPL SCDA team. Apodized vortex coronagraphs come in two flavors, where the apodization is achieved either by use of 1) a gray-scale semi-transparent pupil mask or 2) a pair of deformable mirrors in series. …
The vortex coronagraph is one of the most promising coronagraphs for high contrast imaging because of its simplicity, small inner working angle, high throughput, and clear off-axis discovery space. However, as with most coronagraphs, centrally-obscured on-axis telescopes degrade contrast. Based on the remarkable ability of vortex coronagraphs to move light between the interior and exterior of pupils, we propose a method, based on multiple vortices, that, without sacrificing throughput, reduces the residual light leakage to (a/A)^n, with n >=4, and a and A being the radii of the central obscura…
A set of pupil apodization functions for use with a vortex coronagraph on telescopes with obscured apertures is presented. We show analytically that pupil amplitudes given by real-valued Zernike polynomials offer ideal on-axis starlight cancellation when applied to unobscured circular apertures. The charge of the vortex phase element must be a nonzero even integer, greater than the sum of the degree and the absolute value of its azimuthal order of the Zernike polynomial. Zero-valued lines and points of Zernike polynomials, or linear combinations thereof, can be matched to obstructions in the p…
Current state-of-the-art high contrast imaging instruments take advantage of a number of elegant coronagraph designs to suppress starlight and image nearby faint objects, such as exoplanets and circumstellar disks. The ideal performance and complexity of the optical systems depends strongly on the shape of the telescope aperture. Unfortunately, large primary mirrors tend to be segmented and have various obstructions, which limit the performance of most conventional coronagraph designs. We present a new family of vortex coronagraphs with numerically-optimized gray-scale apodizers that provide t…
The vortex coronagraph is an optical instrument that precisely removes on-axis starlight allowing for high contrast imaging at small angular separation from the star, thereby providing a crucial capability for direct detection and characterization of exoplanets and circumstellar disks. Telescopes with aperture obstructions, such as secondary mirrors and spider support structures, require advanced coronagraph designs to provide adequate starlight suppression. We introduce a phase-only Lyot-plane optic to the vortex coronagraph that offers improved contrast performance on telescopes with complic…
We present methods for optimizing pupil and focal plane optical elements that improve the performance of vortex coronagraphs on telescopes with obstructed or segmented apertures. Phase-only and complex masks are designed for the entrance pupil, focal plane, and the plane of the Lyot stop. Optimal masks are obtained using both analytical and numerical methods. The latter makes use of an iterative error reduction algorithm to calculate "correcting" optics that mitigate unwanted diffraction from aperture obstructions. We analyze the achieved performance in terms of starlight suppression, contrast…
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 promising being the optical vortex phase mask coronagraphs. In this paper, a new scheme of broadband optical scalar vortex coronagraph is proposed and characterized experimentally in the laboratory. Our setup employs a pair of computer generated phase gratings (one of them containing a singularity) to control the chromatic dispersion of phase plates and achieves a…
Direct imaging of exoplanets or circumstellar disk material requires extreme contrast at the 10-6 to 10-12 levels at < 100 mas angular separation from the star. Focal-plane mask (FPM) coronagraphic imaging has played a key role in this field, taking advantage of progress in Adaptive Optics on ground-based 8+m class telescopes. However, large telescope entrance pupils usually consist of complex, sometimes segmented, non-ideal apertures, which include a central obstruction for the secondary mirror and its support structure. In practice, this negatively impacts wavefront quality and coronagraphic…
Observations of binary stars for faint companions with conventional coronagraphic methods are challenging, as both targets will be bright enough to obscure any nearby faint companions if their scattered light is not suppressed. We propose coronagraphic examination of binary stars using an apodized pupil Lyot coronagraph and a pair of actively-controlled image plane masks to suppress both stars simultaneously. The performance is compared to imaging with a band-limited mask, a dual-mask Lyot coronagraph and with no coronagraph at all. An imaging procedure and control system for the masks are als…
Direct observation of extra-solar planets (exoplanets) is essential to understand how planetary systems were born, how they evolve, and ultimately, to identify biological signatures on these planets. However, the enormous contrast in flux between the central star and associated planets is the primary difficulty in the direct observation. This has required stellar coronagraphs which can improve the contrast between the star and the planet to be developed. Of the various kinds of coronagraphs, we focused on a binary-shaped pupil mask coronagraph. The reasons for using this coronagraph are robust…
In recent years, new coronagraphic schemes have been proposed, the most promising being the optical vortex phase mask coronagraphs. In our work, a new scheme of broadband optical scalar vortex coronagraph is proposed and characterized experimentally in the laboratory. Our setup employs a pair of computer generated phase gratings (one of them containing a singularity) to control the chromatic dispersion of phase plates and achieves a constant peak-to-peak attenuation below 1:1000 over a bandwidth of 120 nm centered at 700 nm. An inner working angle of $λ$/D is demonstrated along with a raw cont…
With a clear circular aperture, the vortex coronagraph perfectly cancels an on-axis point source and offers a 0.9 or 1.75 lambda/D inner working angle for topological charge 2 or 4, respectively. Current and near-future large telescopes are on-axis, however, and the diffraction effects of the central obscuration, and the secondary supports are strong enough to prevent the detection of companions 1e-3 - 1e-5 as bright as, or fainter than, their host star. Recent advances show that a ring apodizer can restore the performance of this coronagraph by compensating for the diffraction effects of a ci…
Several coronagraph designs have been proposed over the last two decades to directly image exoplanets. Among these designs, the vector vortex coronagraphs provide theoretically perfect starlight cancellation along with small inner working angles when deployed on telescopes with unobstructed pupils. However, current and planned space missions and ground-based extremely large telescopes present complex pupil geometries, including secondary mirror central obscurations, that prevent vortex coronagraphs from rejecting on-axis sources entirely. Recent solutions combining the vortex phase mask with a…
The detection of molecular species in the atmospheres of earth-like exoplanets orbiting nearby stars requires an optical system that suppresses starlight and maximizes the sensitivity to the weak planet signals at small angular separations. Achieving sufficient contrast performance on a segmented aperture space telescope is particularly challenging due to unwanted diffraction within the telescope from amplitude and phase discontinuities in the pupil. Apodized vortex coronagraphs are a promising solution that theoretically meet the performance needs for high contrast imaging with future segment…
The vector vortex coronagraph is an instrument designed for direct detection and spectroscopy of exoplanets over a broad spectral range. Our team is working towards demonstrating contrast performance commensurate with imaging temperate, terrestrial planets orbiting solar-type stars using the High Contrast Imaging Testbed facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. To date, the best broadband performance achieved is $\sim$10$^{-8}$ raw contrast over a bandwidth of $Δλ/λ$=10\% in the visible regime (central wavelengths of 550-750 nm), while monochromatic tests yield much deeper contrast ($\sim…
High performance coronagraphic imaging at small inner working angle requires efficient control of low order aberrations. The absence of accurate pointing control at small separation not only degrades coronagraph starlight rejection but also increases the risk of confusing planet's photons with starlight leaking next to the coronagraph focal plane mask center. Addressing this issue is essential for preventing coronagraphic leaks, and we have thus developed a new concept, the Lyot-based pointing control system (LPCS), to control pointing errors and other low order aberrations within a coronagrap…
For direct imaging of exoplanets, Scalar Vortex Coronagraphs (SVCs) are an attractive alternative to the popularly used Vector Vortex Coronagraphs (VVCs). This is primarily because they are able to induce the same phase ramp regardless of the incoming light's polarization state. We tested a set of stepped SVC staircase masks in the Exoplanet Technology Laboratory (ET Lab) at Caltech on the High-Contrast Spectroscopy Testbed (HCST). Here we present some preliminary findings of their starlight suppression ability, achieving raw contrasts on the order of 1e-5 for 7 to 9 lambda/D. We also characte…
In this paper is presented an analytical study of the azimuthal phase-mask coronagraph currently envisioned for detecting and characterizing extra-solar planets. Special emphasis is put on the physical and geometrical interpretation of the mathematical development. Two necessary conditions are defined for achieving full extinction in the pupil plane of the coronagraph, stating that the complex amplitude generated by the phase mask should have zero average, on the one hand, and its Fourier coefficients should only be even, on the other hand. Examples of such phase functions are reviewed, includ…
We present the concept of a binary shaped mask coronagraph applicable to a telescope pupil including obscuration, based on previous works on binary shaped pupil mask by \citet{Kasdin2005} and \citet{Vanderbei1999}. Solutions with multi-barcode masks which "skip over" the obscuration are shown for various types of pupil of telescope, such as SUBARU, JWST, SPICA, and other examples. The number of diffraction tails in the point spread function of the coronagraphic image is reduced to two, thus offering a large discovery angle. The concept of mask rotation is also presented, which allows post-proc…
Vortex coronagraphs have been shown to be a promising avenue for high-contrast imaging in the close-in environment of stars at thermal infrared (IR) wavelengths. They are included in the baseline design of METIS. To ensure good performance of these coronagraphs, a precise control of the centering of the star image in real time is needed. We previously developed and validated the quadrant analysis of coronagraphic images for tip-tilt sensing estimator (QACITS) pointing estimator to address this issue. While this approach is not wavelength-dependent in theory, it was never implemented for mid-IR…
The optical vortex coronagraph (OVC) is one of the promising ways for direct imaging exoplanets because of its small inner working angle and high throughput. This paper presents the design and laboratory demonstration performance at 633nm and 1520nm of the OVC based on liquid crystal polymers (LCP). Two LCPs has been manufactured in partnership with a commercial vendor. The OVC can deliver a good performance in laboratory test and achieve the contrast of the order 10^-6 at angular distance 3λ/D, which is able to image the giant exoplanets at a young stage in combination with extreme adaptive o…
High performance coronagraphic imaging of faint structures around bright stars at small angular separations requires fine control of tip, tilt and other low order aberrations. When such errors occur upstream of a coronagraph, they results in starlight leakage which reduces the dynamic range of the instrument. This issue has been previously addressed for occulting coronagraphs by sensing the starlight before or at the coronagraphic focal plane. One such solution, the coronagraphic low order wave-front sensor (CLOWFS) uses a partially reflective focal plane mask to measure pointing errors for Ly…
High-contrast coronagraphy will be needed to image and characterize faint extra-solar planetary systems. Coronagraphy is a rapidly evolving field, and many enhanced alternatives to the classical Lyot coronagraph have been proposed in the past ten years. Here, we discuss the operation of the vector vortex coronagraph, which is one of the most efficient possible coronagraphs. We first present recent laboratory results, and then first light observations at the Palomar observatory. Our near-infrared H-band (centered at ~ 1.65 microns) and K-band (centered at ~ 2.2 microns) vector vortex devices de…
The vector vortex is a coronagraphic imaging mode of the recently commissioned Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme-Adaptive Optics (SCExAO) platform on the 8-m Subaru Telescope. This multi-purpose high-contrast visible and near-infrared (R- to K-band) instrument is not only intended to serve as a VLT-class "planet-imager" instrument in the Northern hemisphere, but also to operate as a technology demonstration testbed ahead of the ELTs-era, with a particular emphasis on small inner-working angle (IWA) coronagraphic capabilities. The given priority to small-IWA imaging led to the early design choice to…
Stellar coronagraph performance is highly sensitive to optical aberrations. In order to effectively suppress starlight for exoplanet imaging applications, low-order wavefront aberrations entering a coronagraph such as tip-tilt, defocus and coma must be determined and compensated. Previous authors have established the utility of pupil-plane masks (both non-redundant/sparse-aperture and generally asymmetric aperture masks) for wavefront sensing. Here we show how a sparse aperture mask (SAM) can be integrated with a coronagraph to measure low-order, differential phase aberrations. Starlight rejec…
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 adaptive phase-mask concept using polarization interferometry is presented in this paper. Aims. Our concept aims at dynamically and achromatically optimizing the nulling efficiency of the coronagraph, making it more immune to fast low-order aberrations (tip-tilt errors, focus, ...). Methods. We performed numerical simulations to demonstrate the value of the…
High contrast imaging is the primary path to the direct detection and characterization of Earth-like planets around solar-type stars; a cleverly designed internal coronagraph suppresses the light from the star, revealing the elusive circumstellar companions. However, future large-aperture telescopes ($>$4~m in diameter) will likely have segmented primary mirrors, which causes additional diffraction of unwanted stellar light. Here we present the first high contrast laboratory demonstration of an apodized vortex coronagraph (AVC), in which an apodizer is placed upstream of a vortex focal plane m…
In this paper, after briefly reviewing the theory of vectorial vortices, we describe our technological approach to generating the necessary phase helix, and report results obtained with the first optical vectorial vortex coronagraph (OVVC) in the laboratory. To implement the geometrical phase ramp, we make use of Liquid Crystal Polymers (LCP), which we believe to be the most efficient technological path to quickly synthesize optical vectorial vortices of virtually any topological charge. With the first prototype device of topological charge 2, a maximum peak-to-peak attenuation of 1.4e-2 and a…
A high contrast coronagraph is expected to provide one of the promising ways to directly observe extra-solar planets. We present the newest results of our laboratory experiment investigating "rigid" coronagraph with a binary shaped checkerboard pupil mask, which should offer a highly stable solution for telescopes without adaptive optics (AO) for wavefront correction in space missions. The primary aim of this work was to study the stability of the coronagraph, and to demonstrate its performance without adaptive wavefront correction. Estimation of both the raw contrast and the gain of the point…
We present the fabrication and experimental demonstration of three free-standing binary shaped pupil mask coronagraphs, which are applicable for telescopes with partially obscured pupils. Three masks, designed to be complementary (labeled Mask-A, Mask-B, and Mask-C), were formed in 5 micron thick nickel. The design of Mask-A is based on a one-dimensional barcode mask. The design principle of Mask-B is similar, but has a smaller inner working angle and a lower contrast than Mask-A. Mask-C is based on a concentric ring mask and provides the widest dark region and a symmetric point spread functio…
High throughput, low inner working angle (IWA) phase masks coronagraphs are essential to directly image and characterize (via spectroscopy) earth-like planets. However, the performance of low-IWA coronagraphs is limited by residual pointing errors and other low-order modes. The extent to which wavefront aberrations upstream of the coronagraph are corrected and calibrated drives coronagraphic performance. Addressing this issue is essential for preventing coronagraphic leaks, thus we have developed a Lyot-based low order wave front sensor (LLOWFS) to control the wavefront aberrations in a corona…
An optical vortex coronagraph has been implemented within the NIRC2 camera on the Keck II telescope and used to carry out on-sky tests and observations. The development of this new L'-band observational mode is described, and an initial demonstration of the new capability is presented: a resolved image of the low-mass companion to HIP79124, which had previously been detected by means of interferometry. With HIP79124 B at a projected separation of 186.5 mas, both the small inner working angle of the vortex coronagraph and the related imaging improvements were crucial in imaging this close compa…
Coronagraphy is a powerful technique to achieve high contrast imaging and hence to image faint companions around bright targets. Various concepts have been used in the visible and near-infrared regimes, while coronagraphic applications in the mid-infrared remain nowadays largely unexplored. Vector vortex phase masks based on concentric subwavelength gratings show great promise for such applications. We aim at producing and validating the first high-performance broadband focal plane phase mask coronagraphs for applications in the mid-infrared regime, and in particular the L band with a fraction…
Specific high contrast imaging instruments are mandatory to characterize circumstellar disks and exoplanets around nearby stars. Coronagraphs are commonly used in these facilities to reject the diffracted light of an observed star and enable the direct imaging and spectroscopy of its circumstellar environment. One important property of the coronagraph is to be able to work in broadband light. Among several proposed coronagraphs, the dual-zone phase mask coronagraph is a promising solution for starlight rejection in broadband light. In this paper, we perform the first validation of this concept…
The vortex coronagraph (VC) is a new generation small inner working angle (IWA) coronagraph currently offered on various 8-meter class ground-based telescopes. On these observing platforms, the current level of performance is not limited by the intrinsic properties of actual vortex devices, but by wavefront control residuals and incoherent background (e.g. thermal emission of the sky) or the light diffracted by the imprint of the secondary mirror and support structures on the telescope pupil. In the particular case of unfriendly apertures (mainly large central obscuration) when very high contr…
We conducted a number of multi-band coronagraph experiments using a vacuum chamber and a binary-shaped pupil mask which in principle should work at all wavelengths, in the context of the research and development on a coronagraph to observe extra-solar planets (exoplanets) directly. The aim of this work is to demonstrate that subtraction of Point Spread Function (PSF) and multi-band experiments using a binary-shaped pupil mask coronagraph would help improve the contrast in the observation of exoplanets. A checkerboard mask, a kind of binary-shaped pupil mask, was used. We improved the temperatu…
We propose a class of graded coronagraphic "amplitude" image masks for a high throughput Lyot-type coronagraph that transmits light from an annular region around an extended source and suppresses light, with extremely high ratio, from elsewhere. The interior radius of the region is comparable with its exterior radius. The masks are designed using an idea inspired by approach due M.J. Kuchner and W.A. Traub ("band-limited" masks) and approach to optimal apodization by D.Slepian. One potential application of our masks is direct high-resolution imaging of exo-planets with the help of the Solar Gr…
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 (>=20%). We present our progress thus far on exploring the potential for scalar vortex coronagraphs (SVCs) in direct exoplanet imaging. SVCs are an attractive alternative to vector vortex coronagraphs (VVCs), which have recently demonstrated 6e-9 raw contrast in 20% broadband light but are polarization dependent. SVCs imprint the same phase ramp on the incom…
A vortex coronagraph is now available for high contrast observations with the Keck/NIRC2 instrument at L band. Reaching the optimal performance of the coronagraph requires fine control of the wavefront incident on the phase mask. In particular, centering errors can lead to significant stellar light leakage that degrades the contrast performance and prevents the observation of faint planetary companions around the observed stars. It is thus critical to correct for the possible slow drift of the star image from the phase mask center, generally due to mechanical flexures induced by temperature an…
Reference star differential imaging (RDI) is a powerful strategy for high contrast imaging. Using example observations taken with the vortex coronagraph mode of Keck/NIRC2 in $L^\prime$ band, we demonstrate that RDI provides improved sensitivity to point sources at small angular separations compared to angular differential imaging (ADI). Applying RDI to images of the low-mass stellar companions HIP 79124 C (192 mas separation, $ΔL^\prime$=4.01) and HIP 78233 B (141 mas separation, $ΔL^\prime$=4.78), the latter a first imaging detection, increases the significance of their detections by up to a…
For several years, we have been developing vortex phase masks based on sub-wavelength gratings, known as Annular Groove Phase Masks. Etched onto diamond substrates, these AGPMs are currently designed to be used in the thermal infrared (ranging from 3 to 13 μm). Our AGPMs were first installed on VLT/NACO and VLT/VISIR in 2012, followed by LBT/LMIRCam in 2013 and Keck/NIRC2 in 2015. In this paper, we review the development, commissioning, on-sky performance, and early scientific results of these new coronagraphic modes and report on the lessons learned. We conclude with perspectives for future d…
Small inner working angle coronagraphs, like the vortex phase mask, are essential to exploit the full potential of ground-based telescopes in the context of exoplanet detection and characterization. However, the drawback of this attractive feature is a high sensitivity to pointing errors, which degrades the performance of the coronagraph. We propose a tip-tilt retrieval technique based on the analysis of the final coronagraphic image, hereafter called Quadrant Analysis of Coronagraphic Images for Tip-tilt Sensing (QACITS). Under the assumption of small phase aberrations, we show that the behav…
We present the first observations obtained with the L'-band AGPM vortex coronagraph recently installed on LBTI/LMIRCam. The AGPM (Annular Groove Phase Mask) is a vector vortex coronagraph made from diamond subwavelength gratings. It is designed to improve the sensitivity and dynamic range of high-resolution imaging at very small inner working angles, down to 0.09 arcseconds in the case of LBTI/LMIRCam in the L' band. During the first hours on sky, we observed the young A5V star HR\,8799 with the goal to demonstrate the AGPM performance and assess its relevance for the ongoing LBTI planet surve…
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 constitutes a promising concept since it theoretically offers a small inner working angle (IWA \sim λ_0/D), good achromaticity and high starlight rejection, typically reaching a 1e6 contrast at 5 λ_0/D from the star over a spectral bandwidth Δλ/λ_0 of 25% (similar to H-band). This last value proves to be encouraging for broadband imaging of young and warm Ju…
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 with large telescopes and accurate wavefront control devices for high-angular resolution and coronagraphs for attenuating the stellar light. Coronagraphs are usually chromatic and they cannot perform high-contrast imaging over a wide spectral bandwidth. That chromaticity will be critical for future instruments. Enlarging the coronagraph spectral range is a …
Future instruments need efficient coronagraphs over large spectral ranges to enable broadband imaging or spectral characterization of exoplanets 1e8 fainter than their star. Several solutions were proposed. Pupil apodizers can attenuate the star intensity by a 1e10 factor but they transmit a few percents of the planet light only. Cascades of phase/amplitude masks can both attenuate the starlight and transmit most of the planet light but the number of optics to align is not a practical solution for an instrument. Finally, vector phase masks can be used to detect faint sources close to bright st…
The vector vortex coronagraph (VVC) performance in the laboratory and in ground-based observatories has earned it a spot on the NASA mission concepts HabEx and LUVOIR. The VVC induces a phase ramp through the manipulation of the polarization state. Left- and right-circular polarizations get imprinted a phase ramp of opposite signs, which prevents model-based focal plane wavefront sensing and control strategies in natural light. We thus have to work with a polarization state than ensures circularly polarized light at the VVC mask. However, achieving this polarization state can be non trivial if…
With the recent commissioning of ground instruments such as SPHERE or GPI and future space observatories like WFIRST-AFTA, coronagraphy should probably become the most efficient tool for identifying and characterizing extra-solar planets in the forthcoming years. Coronagraphic instruments such as Phase mask coronagraphs (PMC) are usually based on a phase mask or plate located at the telescope focal plane, spreading the starlight outside the diameter of a Lyot stop that blocks it. In this communication is investigated the capability of a PMC to act as a phase-shifting wavefront sensor for bette…
The Habitable Exoplanet Imaging Mission (HabEx) concept requires an optical coronagraph that provides deep starlight suppression over a broad spectral bandwidth, high throughput for point sources at small angular separation, and insensitivity to temporally-varying, low-order aberrations. Vortex coronagraphs are a promising solution that perform optimally on off-axis, monolithic telescopes and may also be designed for segmented telescopes with minor losses in performance. We describe the key advantages of vortex coronagraphs on off-axis telescopes: 1) Unwanted diffraction due to aberrations is …
Phase masks coronagraphs can be seen as linear systems that spatially redistribute, in the pupil plane, the energy collected by the telescope. Most of the on-axis light must ideally be rejected outside the aperture to be blocked with a Lyot stop, while almost all off-axis light must go through it. The unobstructed circular apertures of off-axis telescopes make this possible but all major telescopes are however on-axis and the performance of these coronagraphs is dramatically reduced by the central obstruction. Their performance can be restored by using an additional optimally designed apodizer…
Two high performance coronagraphic approaches compatible with segmented and obstructed telescope pupils are described. Both concepts use entrance pupil amplitude apodization and a combined phase and amplitude focal plane mask to achieve full coronagraphic extinction of an on-axis point source. While the first concept, named Apodized Pupil Complex Mask Lyot Coronagraph (APCMLC), relies on a transmission mask to perform the pupil apodization, the second concept, named Phase-Induced Amplitude Apodization complex mask coronagraph (PIAACMC), uses beam remapping for lossless apodization. Both concep…
