Shaped pupil coronagraphs for planet finding: optimization, manufacturing, and experimental results

N. Jeremy Kasdin; Ruslan Belikov; James Beall; Robert J. Vanderbei; Michael G. Littman; Michael Carr; Amir Give'on

doi:10.1117/12.617768

14 September 2005 Shaped pupil coronagraphs for planet finding: optimization, manufacturing, and experimental results

N. Jeremy Kasdin, Ruslan Belikov, James Beall, Robert J. Vanderbei, Michael G. Littman, Michael Carr, Amir Give'on

Proceedings Volume 5905, Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets II; 59050G (2005) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.617768
Event: Optics and Photonics 2005, 2005, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Current plans call for the first Terrestrial Planet Finder mission, TPF-C, to be a monolithic space telescope with a coronagraph for achieving high contrast. Our group at Princeton pioneered the concept of shaped pupils for high contrast imaging and planet detection. In previous papers we introduced a number of families of optimal shaped pupils in square, circular, and elliptical apertures. Here, we show our most promising designs and present our laboratory results for the elliptical shaped pupil. We are currently achieving better than 10⁻⁷ contrast at 10 λ/D and 10⁻⁵ contrast at 4 λ/D, without wavefront control. We describe the deep ion etching manufacturing process to make free standing masks. We also discuss what is limiting contrast in the laboratory and our progress in wavefront correction.

Citation Download Citation

N. Jeremy Kasdin, Ruslan Belikov, James Beall, Robert J. Vanderbei, Michael G. Littman, Michael Carr, and Amir Give'on "Shaped pupil coronagraphs for planet finding: optimization, manufacturing, and experimental results", Proc. SPIE 5905, Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets II, 59050G (14 September 2005); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.617768

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