Exoplanet Imaging with a Phase-induced Amplitude Apodization Coronagraph. I. Principle

By Olivier Guyon, E. Pluzhnik, R. Galicher, F. Martinache, S. Ridgway, R. Woodruff. 2004

175 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Using two aspheric mirrors, it is possible to apodize a telescope beam without losing light or angular resolution: the output beam is produced by "remapping" the entrance beam to produce the desired light intensity distribution in a new pupil. We present the phase-induced amplitude apodization coronagraph (PIAAC) concept, which uses this technique, and show that it allows efficient direct imaging of extrasolar terrestrial planets with a small-sized telescope in space. The suitability of the PIAAC for exoplanet imaging is due to a unique combination of achromaticity, small inner working angle (about 1.5λ/d), high throughput, high angular resolution, and large field of view. Three-dimensional geometrical ray tracing is used to investigate the off-axis aberrations of PIAAC configurations and show that a field of view of more than 100λ/d in radius is available thanks to the correcting optics of the PIAAC. Angular diameter of the star and tip-tilt errors can be compensated for by slightly increasing the size of the occulting mask in the focal plane, with minimal impact on the system performance. Earth-sized planets at 10 pc can be detected in less than 30 s with a 4 m telescope. Wave-front quality requirements are similar to classical techniques.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Biomedical Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/61711bd7f07eb4e0aaa3fd7c28e8dfa512d8bea8

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. Jon Fortney
2. B. Bowler
3. M. Marley
4. Sara Seager
5. D. Weinberg
6. C. Hirata
7. Kerri L. Cahoy
8. N. Madhusudhan

In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

1. B. Bowler
2. Olivier Guyon
3. S. Ridgway
4. E. Pluzhnik
5. P. Bordé
6. Benoît Collins
7. M. Kuchner
8. Wesley A. Traub

In Biomedical Engineering

1. B. Bowler
2. S. Ridgway
3. E. Pluzhnik
4. N. Jeremy Kasdin
5. Olivier Guyon
6. Benoît Collins
7. M. Kuchner
8. M. Marley

Citations in the corpus

• Limits of Adaptive Optics for High-Contrast Imaging (2005, background): “• (3) Reduced throughput due to pupil and/or focal plane masks (Kasdin et al. 2003; Kuchner & Spergel 2003; Soummer et al. 2003), or splitting of light (Baudoz et al. 2000): Lossless apodization can be used to avoid this problem (Guyon et al. 2005).”
• Theoretical Limits on Extrasolar Terrestrial Planet Detection with Coronagraphs (2006, methodology): “This coronagraph uses a lossless amplitude apodization of the pupil performed by geometric redistribution of the light rather than selective absorption (Guyon 2003; Traub & Vanderbei 2003; Guyon et al. 2005; Vanderbei & Traub 2005; Martinache et al. 2006; Vanderbei 2006; Pluzhnik et al. 2006).”
• Wide-Field InfrarRed Survey Telescope-Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets WFIRST-AFTA 2015 Report (2015, methodology): “PIAACMC Status 3.4.2.4 The backup Phased-Induced Amplitude Apodization Complex Mask Coronagraph (PIAACMC) architecture is based on the concept of apodizing the telescope pupil using reflections from two carefully shaped aspheric mirrors (Guyon et al. 2005).”
• EXOPLANET ALBEDO SPECTRA AND COLORS AS A FUNCTION OF PLANET PHASE, SEPARATION, AND METALLICITY (2010, methodology): “The simulations are performed for a 4 m diameter space telescope, where the light from the parent star has been suppressed by a Phase Induced Amplitude Apodization (PIAA) coronagraph (Guyon et al. 2005), and stellar leakage is included as one of several background sources.”
• Imaging Extrasolar Giant Planets (2016, background): “…and specialized coronagraphs (e.g., apodized Lyot coronagraph, annular groove phase mask coronagraph, vector vortex coronagraph, apodizing phase plate, and four quadrant phase mask; Rouan et al. 2000; Guyon et al. 2005; Soummer 2005; Mawet et al. 2005; Kenworthy et al. 2007; Mawet et al. 2010).”
• High-Contrast Imaging from Space: Speckle Nulling in a Low-Aberration Regime (2005, background): “…underlying these speckle-nulling techniques are general, it should be possible to use them in conjunction with most coronagraph designs, including those with band-limited masks (Kuchner & Traub 2002), pupil mapping (Guyon et al. 2005; Vanderbei & Traub 2005), and shaped pupils (Kasdin et al. 2003).”