Optical Vectorial Vortex Coronagraphs using Liquid Crystal Polymers: theory, manufacturing and laboratory demonstration
arXiv:0912.0311 · doi:10.1364/OE.17.001902
Abstract
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 residual light level of 3e-5 at an angular separation of 3.5 l/d (at which point our current noise floor is reached) have been obtained at a wavelength of 1.55 microns. These results demonstrate the validity of using space-variant birefringence distributions to generate a new family of coronagraphs usable in natural unpolarized light, opening a path to high performance coronagraphs that are achromatic and have low-sensitivity to low-order wavefront aberrations.
References in corpus (3)
Cited by in corpus (53)
- SPHERE: the exoplanet imager for the Very Large Telescope
- The Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics system: enabling high-contrast imaging on solar-system scales
- The Vector Vortex Coronagraph: Laboratory Results and First Light at Palomar Observatory
- The Vector-APP: a Broadband Apodizing Phase Plate that yields Complementary PSFs
- Improved High Contrast Imaging with On-Axis Telescopes using a Multi-Stage Vortex Coronagraph
- Shaped Pupil Lyot Coronagraphs: High-Contrast Solutions for Restricted Focal Planes
- Post-coronagraphic tip-tilt sensing for vortex phase masks: the QACITS technique
- Performance characterization of a broadband vector Apodizing Phase Plate coronagraph
- On-sky performance analysis of the vector Apodizing Phase Plate coronagraph on MagAO/Clio2
- Vortex coronagraphs for the Habitable Exoplanet Imaging Mission (HabEx) concept: theoretical performance and telescope requirements
- Advancing European High-Contrast Imaging R&D Towards the Habitable Worlds Observatory
- Three years of harvest with the vector vortex coronagraph in the thermal infrared
- Astrophotonics: astronomy and modern optics
- On-sky demonstration of low-order wavefront sensing and control with focal plane phase mask coronagraphs
- Apodized phase mask coronagraphs for arbitrary apertures
- Minimizing the polarization leakage of geometric-phase coronagraphs with multiple grating pattern combinations
- Active stabilization of a Michelson interferometer at an arbitrary phase with sub-nm resolution
- A Family of Phase Masks For Broadband Coronagraphy Example of the Wrapped Vortex Phase Mask Theory and Laboratory demonstration
- Lyot-plane phase masks for improved high-contrast imaging with a vortex coronagraph
- Vortex fiber nulling for exoplanet observations. I. Experimental demonstration in monochromatic light
- An H-band Vector Vortex Coronagraph for the Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme-Adaptive Optics System
- Scalar vortex coronagraph mask design and predicted performance
- Broadband Vector Vortex Coronagraph Testing at NASA's High Contrast Imaging Testbed Facility
- Apodized vortex coronagraph designs for segmented aperture telescopes
- Review of high-contrast imaging systems for current and future ground- and space-based telescopes I. Coronagraph design methods and optical performance metrics
- Experimental analysis of the achromatic performance of a vector vortex coronagraph
- Vortex-phase filtering technique for extracting spatial information from unresolved sources
- Laboratory demonstration of the wrapped staircase scalar vortex coronagraph
- Development of a subwavelength grating vortex coronagraph of topological charge 4 (SGVC4)
- Vortex fiber nulling for exoplanet observations: conceptual design, theoretical performance, and initial scientific yield predictions
- Vortex coronagraphy from self-engineered liquid crystal spin-orbit masks
- Optimized focal and pupil plane masks for vortex coronagraphs on telescopes with obstructed apertures
- A Broadband Scalar Vortex Coronagraph
- Combining reference-star and angular differential imaging for high-contrast imaging of extended sources
- Propagation of Aberrations through Phase Induced Amplitude Apodization coronagraph
- Status and performance of the THD2 bench in multi-deformable mirror configuration
- The polarization-encoded self-coherent camera
- Topological Designs for Scalar Vortex Coronagraphs
- Vector speckle grid: instantaneous incoherent speckle grid for high-precision astrometry and photometry in high-contrast imaging
- Laboratory comparison of coronagraphic concepts under dynamical seeing and high-order adaptive optics correction
- First light of a holographic aperture mask: Observation at the Keck OSIRIS Imager
- Analysis of nulling phase functions suitable to image plane coronagraphy
- Optimizing Fourier-Filtering WFS to reach sensitivity close to the fundamental limit
- Analysis of azimuthal phase mask coronagraphs
- Design and experimental test of an optical vortex coronagraph
- Random Vibration Testing of Microelectromechanical Deformable Mirrors for Space-based High-Contrast Imaging
- Mid-IR AGPMs for ELT applications
- Active rejection-enhancement of spectrally adaptive liquid crystal geometric phase vortex coronagraphs
- Pupil Plane Phase Apodization
- New method to achieve the proper polarization state for a vector vortex coronagraph
- Numerical modelling of the proposed WFIRST-AFTA coronagraphs and their predicted optical performances
- High-contrast imaging of tight resolved binaries with two vector vortex coronagraphs in cascade with the Palomar SDC instrument
- Review of high-contrast imaging systems for current and future ground-based and space-based telescopes III. Technology opportunities and pathways