Novel method of high-accuracy wavefront-phase and amplitude correction for coronagraphy

Charles W. Bowers; Bruce E. Woodgate; Richard G. Lyon

doi:10.1117/12.532515

19 November 2003 Novel method of high-accuracy wavefront-phase and amplitude correction for coronagraphy

Charles W. Bowers, Bruce E. Woodgate, Richard G. Lyon

Proceedings Volume 5170, Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.532515
Event: Optical Science and Technology, SPIE's 48th Annual Meeting, 2003, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Detection of extra-solar, and especially terrestrial-like planets, using coronagraphy requires an extremely high level of wavefront correction. For example, the study of Woodruff et al. (2002) has shown that phase uniformity of order 10^-4λ(rms) must be achieved over the critical range of spatial frequencies to produce the ~10¹⁰ contrast needed for the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) mission. Correction of wavefront phase errors to this level may be accomplished by using a very high precision deformable mirror (DM). However, not only phase but also amplitude uniformity of the same scale (~10^-4) and over the same spatial frequency range must be simultaneously obtained to remove all residual speckle in the image plane. We present a design for producing simultaneous wavefront phase and amplitude uniformity to high levels from an input wavefront of lower quality. The design uses a dual Michelson interferometer arrangement incorporating two DM and a single, fixed mirror (all at pupils) and two beamsplitters: one with unequal (asymmetric) beam splitting and one with symmetric beam splitting. This design allows high precision correction of both phase and amplitude using DM with relatively coarse steps and permits a simple correction algorithm.

Citation Download Citation

Charles W. Bowers, Bruce E. Woodgate, and Richard G. Lyon "Novel method of high-accuracy wavefront-phase and amplitude correction for coronagraphy", Proc. SPIE 5170, Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets, (19 November 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.532515

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