Three years of harvest with the vector vortex coronagraph in the thermal infrared

Abstract

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 developments and applications.

arXiv commentTo appear in SPIE proceedings vol. 9908

References in corpus (19)

• A giant planet imaged in the disk of the young star Beta Pictoris
• Fundamental limitations of high contrast imaging set by small sample statistics
• Theoretical Limits on Extrasolar Terrestrial Planet Detection with Coronagraphs
• Optical Vectorial Vortex Coronagraphs using Liquid Crystal Polymers: theory, manufacturing and laboratory demonstration
• Discovery of a Companion Candidate in the HD169142 Transition Disk and the Possibility of Multiple Planet Formation
• Speckle noise and dynamic range in coronagraphic images
• An Enigmatic Pointlike Feature within the HD 169142 Transitional Disk
• Searching for companions down to 2 AU from beta Pictoris using the L'-band AGPM coronagraph on VLT/NACO
• Low-rank plus sparse decomposition for exoplanet detection in direct-imaging ADI sequences. The LLSG algorithm
• Ring-apodized vortex coronagraphs for obscured telescopes. I. Transmissive ring apodizers
• L'-band AGPM vector vortex coronagraph's first light on VLT/NACO: Discovery of a late-type companion at two beamwidths from an F0V star
• Lyot-based Low Order Wavefront Sensor for Phase-mask Coronagraphs: Principle, Simulations and Laboratory Experiments
• Post-coronagraphic tip-tilt sensing for vortex phase masks: the QACITS technique
• Optical vortex coronagraphs on ground-based telescopes
• Laboratory demonstration of a mid-infrared AGPM vector vortex coronagraph
• L'-band AGPM vector vortex coronagraph's first light on LBTI/LMIRCam
• A dim candidate companion to εCephei
• Optimizing the subwavelength grating of L-band Annular Groove Phase Masks for high coronagraphic performance
• Lyot-plane phase masks for improved high-contrast imaging with a vortex coronagraph

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Observing Exoplanets with High Dispersion Coronagraphy. I. The scientific potential of current and next-generation large ground and space telescopes
• Observing Exoplanets with High-Dispersion Coronagraphy. II. Demonstration of an Active Single-Mode Fiber Injection Unit
• Imaging low-mass planets within the habitable zone of α Centauri
• Deep imaging search for planets forming in the TW Hya protoplanetary disk with the Keck/NIRC2 vortex coronagraph
• Minimizing the polarization leakage of geometric-phase coronagraphs with multiple grating pattern combinations
• Vortex coronagraphy from self-engineered liquid crystal spin-orbit masks
• Design, pointing control, and on-sky performance of the mid-infrared vortex coronagraph for the VLT/NEAR experiment
• Electrically-activated spin-controlled orbital angular momentum multiplexer
• Active rejection-enhancement of spectrally adaptive liquid crystal geometric phase vortex coronagraphs
• Focal plane wavefront control with model-based reinforcement learning