High-contrast demonstration of a vector vortex coronagraph with a segmented, off-axis aperture

A.J. Eldorado Riggs; Garreth Ruane; Eugene Serabyn; Wesley Baxter; Jorge Llop-Sayson; Camilo Mejia Prada; Dimitri Mawet; Matthew Noyes; Phillip K. Poon; Nelson Tabiryan

doi:10.1117/12.2630130

27 August 2022 High-contrast demonstration of a vector vortex coronagraph with a segmented, off-axis aperture

A.J. Eldorado Riggs, Garreth Ruane, Eugene Serabyn, Wesley Baxter, Jorge Llop-Sayson, Camilo Mejia Prada, Dimitri Mawet, Matthew Noyes, Phillip K. Poon, Nelson Tabiryan

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 12180, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave; 121805I (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2630130
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2022, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Conference Poster

Abstract

One of the most profound scientific questions is whether there are other Earth-like worlds. To image such exoplanets directly, the Astro2020 Decadal Survey highly recommends technology development for a future 6- meter, space-based observatory equipped with a coronagraph. The vector vortex coronagraph (VVC) is a top candidate for providing the necessary 10⁻¹⁰ planet-to-star contrast ratio needed at small angular separations to image and characterize Earth-like exoplanets. The VVC is best suited for an unobscured aperture, but for a 6-meter, space-based observatory the primary mirror may need to be segmented. In this paper, we describe our laboratory experiments testing a charge four VVC with a segmented, off-axis entrance pupil. The extra diffraction from the pupil segmentation was suppressed with the single Boston Micromachines deformable mirror in the optical system. We achieved a mean normalized intensity of 4.7 × 10⁻⁹ from 3 − 10 λ/D in a 10% spectral bandwidth in the Decadal Survey Testbed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. To determine our current limitations and to enable 10⁻¹⁰ contrast in future tests, we compare to other testbed results with a monolithic aperture.

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A.J. Eldorado Riggs, Garreth Ruane, Eugene Serabyn, Wesley Baxter, Jorge Llop-Sayson, Camilo Mejia Prada, Dimitri Mawet, Matthew Noyes, Phillip K. Poon, and Nelson Tabiryan "High-contrast demonstration of a vector vortex coronagraph with a segmented, off-axis aperture", Proc. SPIE 12180, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave, 121805I (27 August 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2630130

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