Optical verification of occulter-based high contrast imaging

Dan Sirbu; Eric J. Cady; N. Jeremy Kasdin; Robert J. Vanderbei; Jianxiao Lu; Emmeline Kao

doi:10.1117/12.894213

15 September 2011 Optical verification of occulter-based high contrast imaging

Dan Sirbu, Eric J. Cady, N. Jeremy Kasdin, Robert J. Vanderbei, Jianxiao Lu, Emmeline Kao

Proceedings Volume 8151, Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets V; 815114 (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.894213
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2011, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

An external occulter precisely flown in formation with a space telescope has been recently studied as a mission scenario for direct imaging of exoplanets. 10^-10 contrast must be attained to permit imaging of the faint reflected light of an Earth-like exoplanet. Here we report on experimental verification of a scaled occulter design that maintains a constant Fresnel number to an equivalent 400 mas space mission in monochromatic light at 632 nm using a diverging beam and an outer mask to suspend the occulter mask. We report contrast in regions of the discovery zone at 4.71 × 10^-10 and suppression in the pupil plane of 3.7 × 10^-7.

Citation Download Citation

Dan Sirbu, Eric J. Cady, N. Jeremy Kasdin, Robert J. Vanderbei, Jianxiao Lu, and Emmeline Kao "Optical verification of occulter-based high contrast imaging", Proc. SPIE 8151, Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets V, 815114 (15 September 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.894213

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