305 research outputs found
Fully broadband vAPP coronagraphs enabling polarimetric high contrast imaging
We present designs for fully achromatic vector Apodizing Phase Plate (vAPP)
coronagraphs, that implement low polarization leakage solutions and achromatic
beam-splitting, enabling observations in broadband filters. The vAPP is a pupil
plane optic, inducing the phase through the inherently achromatic geometric
phase. We discuss various implementations of the broadband vAPP and set
requirements on all the components of the broadband vAPP coronagraph to ensure
that the leakage terms do not limit a raw contrast of 1E-5. Furthermore, we
discuss superachromatic QWPs based of liquid crystals or quartz/MgF2
combinations, and several polarizer choices. As the implementation of the
(broadband) vAPP coronagraph is fully based on polarization techniques, it can
easily be extended to furnish polarimetry by adding another QWP before the
coronagraph optic, which further enhances the contrast between the star and a
polarized companion in reflected light. We outline several polarimetric vAPP
system designs that could be easily implemented in existing instruments, e.g.
SPHERE and SCExAO.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, presented at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and
Instrumentation 201
Laboratory demonstration of the triple-grating vector vortex coronagraph
The future Habitable Worlds Observatory aims to characterize the atmospheres
of rocky exoplanets around solar-type stars. The vector vortex coronagraph
(VVC) is a main candidate to reach the required contrast of .
However, the VVC requires polarization filtering and every observing band
requires a different VVC. The triple-grating vector vortex coronagraph (tgVVC)
aims to mitigate these limitations by combining multiple gratings that minimize
the polarization leakage over a large spectral bandwidth. In this paper, we
present laboratory results of a tgVVC prototype using the In-Air Coronagraphic
Testbed (IACT) facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Space
Coronagraph Optical Bench (SCoOB) at the University of Arizona Space
Astrophysics Lab (UASAL). We study the coronagraphic performance with
polarization filtering at 633 nm and reach a similar average contrast of between 3-18 at the IACT, and
between 3-14 at SCoOB. We explore the limitations of the tgVVC by
comparing the testbed results. We report on other manufacturing errors and ways
to mitigate their impact.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, SPIE Optics + Photonics - Techniques and
Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets X
Focal-plane wavefront sensing with the vector-Apodizing Phase Plate
Context. One of the key limitations of the direct imaging of exoplanets at small angular separations are quasi-static speckles that originate from evolving non-common path aberrations (NCPA) in the optical train downstream of the instrumentâs main wavefront
sensor split-off.
Aims. In this article we show that the vector-Apodizing Phase Plate (vAPP) coronagraph can be designed such that the coronagraphic
point spread functions (PSFs) can act as wavefront sensors to measure and correct the (quasi-)static aberrations without dedicated wavefront sensing holograms or modulation by the deformable mirror. The absolute wavefront retrieval is performed with a nonlinear algorithm.
Methods. The focal-plane wavefront sensing (FPWFS) performance of the vAPP and the algorithm are evaluated via numerical simulations to test various photon and read noise levels, the sensitivity to the 100 lowest Zernike modes, and the maximum wavefront error (WFE) that can be accurately estimated in one iteration. We apply these methods to the vAPP within SCExAO, first with the internal source and subsequently on-sky.
Results. In idealized simulations we show that for 107 photons the root mean square (RMS) WFE can be reduced to ~ λ/1000, which
is 1 nm RMS in the context of the SCExAO system. We find that the maximum WFE that can be corrected in one iteration is ~ λ/8 RMS or ~200 nm RMS (SCExAO). Furthermore, we demonstrate the SCExAO vAPP capabilities by measuring and controlling the 30 lowest Zernike modes with the internal source and on-sky. On-sky, we report a raw contrast improvement of a factor ~2 between 2 and 4 λ/D after five iterations of closed-loop correction. When artificially introducing 150 nm RMS WFE, the algorithm corrects it within five iterations of closed-loop operation.
Conclusions. FPWFS with the vAPP coronagraphic PSFs is a powerful technique since it integrates coronagraphy and wavefront sensing, eliminating the need for additional probes and thus resulting in a 100% science duty cycle and maximum throughput for the target
Existence and stability of hole solutions to complex Ginzburg-Landau equations
We consider the existence and stability of the hole, or dark soliton,
solution to a Ginzburg-Landau perturbation of the defocusing nonlinear
Schroedinger equation (NLS), and to the nearly real complex Ginzburg-Landau
equation (CGL). By using dynamical systems techniques, it is shown that the
dark soliton can persist as either a regular perturbation or a singular
perturbation of that which exists for the NLS. When considering the stability
of the soliton, a major difficulty which must be overcome is that eigenvalues
may bifurcate out of the continuous spectrum, i.e., an edge bifurcation may
occur. Since the continuous spectrum for the NLS covers the imaginary axis, and
since for the CGL it touches the origin, such a bifurcation may lead to an
unstable wave. An additional important consideration is that an edge
bifurcation can happen even if there are no eigenvalues embedded in the
continuous spectrum. Building on and refining ideas first presented in Kapitula
and Sandstede (Physica D, 1998) and Kapitula (SIAM J. Math. Anal., 1999), we
show that when the wave persists as a regular perturbation, at most three
eigenvalues will bifurcate out of the continuous spectrum. Furthermore, we
precisely track these bifurcating eigenvalues, and thus are able to give
conditions for which the perturbed wave will be stable. For the NLS the results
are an improvement and refinement of previous work, while the results for the
CGL are new. The techniques presented are very general and are therefore
applicable to a much larger class of problems than those considered here.Comment: 41 pages, 4 figures, submitte
- âŠ