Optical vortex coronagraphs on ground-based telescopes

Abstract

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 of the turbulent atmosphere. This note analyzes the performance of the optical vortex in these circumstances and compares to some other designs, showing that it performs similarly in this situation. There is a large class of coronagraphs of this general type, and choosing between them in particular applications depends on details of performance at small off-axis distances and uniformity of response in the focal plane. Issues of manufacturability to the necessary tolerances are also likely to be important.

32 pages, 13 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Theoretical Limits on Extrasolar Terrestrial Planet Detection with Coronagraphs
• Phase-Induced Amplitude Apodization of Telescope Pupils for Extrasolar Terrestrial Planet Imaging
• Ground-Based Coronagraphy with High Order Adaptive Optics

Cited by in corpus (21)

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• The Vector Vortex Coronagraph: Laboratory Results and First Light at Palomar Observatory
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• The W. M. Keck Observatory infrared vortex coronagraph and a first image of HIP79124 B
• Ring-apodized vortex coronagraphs for obscured telescopes. I. Transmissive ring apodizers
• Post-coronagraphic tip-tilt sensing for vortex phase masks: the QACITS technique
• Laboratory demonstration of a mid-infrared AGPM vector vortex coronagraph
• Optical vortices with starlight: Implications for ground-based stellar coronagraphy
• An Eight-Octant Phase-Mask Coronagraph
• Three years of harvest with the vector vortex coronagraph in the thermal infrared
• Advancing European High-Contrast Imaging R&D Towards the Habitable Worlds Observatory
• Astrophotonics: astronomy and modern optics
• Lyot-plane phase masks for improved high-contrast imaging with a vortex coronagraph
• Polynomial Apodizers for Centrally Obscured Vortex Coronagraphs
• An H-band Vector Vortex Coronagraph for the Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme-Adaptive Optics System
• Scalar vortex coronagraph mask design and predicted performance
• Review of high-contrast imaging systems for current and future ground- and space-based telescopes I. Coronagraph design methods and optical performance metrics
• Vortex-phase filtering technique for extracting spatial information from unresolved sources
• A Broadband Scalar Vortex Coronagraph
• Optimized focal and pupil plane masks for vortex coronagraphs on telescopes with obstructed apertures
• Analysis of azimuthal phase mask coronagraphs