Survey of experimental results in high-contrast imaging for future exoplanet missions

P. R. Lawson; R. Belikov; W. Cash; M. Clampin; T. Glassman; O. Guyon; N. J. Kasdin; B. D. Kern; R. Lyon; D. Mawet; D. Moody; R. Samuele; E. Serabyn; D. Sirbu; J. Trauger

doi:10.1117/12.2021302

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26 September 2013 Survey of experimental results in high-contrast imaging for future exoplanet missions

P. R. Lawson, R. Belikov, W. Cash, M. Clampin, T. Glassman, O. Guyon, N. J. Kasdin, B. D. Kern, R. Lyon, D. Mawet, D. Moody, R. Samuele, E. Serabyn, D. Sirbu, J. Trauger

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Proceedings Volume 8864, Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets VI; 88641F (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2021302
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2013, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

We present and compare experimental results in high contrast imaging representing the state of the art in coronagraph and starshade technology. These experiments have been undertaken with the goal of demonstrating the capability of detecting Earth-like planets around nearby Sun-like stars. The contrast of an Earth seen in reflected light around a Sun-like star would be about 1.2 × 10⁻¹⁰. Several of the current candidate technologies now yield raw contrasts of 1.0 × 10⁻⁹ or better, and so should enable the detection of Earths, assuming a gain in sensitivity in post-processing of a factor of 10. We present results of coronagraph and starshade experiments conducted at visible and infrared wavelengths. Cross-sections of dark fields are directly compared as a function of field angle and bandwidth. The strength and differences of the techniques are compared.

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P. R. Lawson, R. Belikov, W. Cash, M. Clampin, T. Glassman, O. Guyon, N. J. Kasdin, B. D. Kern, R. Lyon, D. Mawet, D. Moody, R. Samuele, E. Serabyn, D. Sirbu, and J. Trauger "Survey of experimental results in high-contrast imaging for future exoplanet missions", Proc. SPIE 8864, Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets VI, 88641F (26 September 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2021302

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