title: PSF halo reduction in adaptive optics using dynamic pupil masking.
abstract: We describe a method to reduce residual speckles in an adaptive optics system which add to the halo of the point spread function (PSF). The halo is particularly problematic in astronomical applications involving the detection of faint companions. Areas of the pupil are selected where the residual wavefront aberrations are large and these are masked using a spatial light modulator. The method is also suitable for smaller telescopes without adaptive optics as a relatively simple method to increase the resolution of the telescope. We describe the principle of the technique and show simulation results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Centre for Advanced Instrumentation, University of Durham, South Road, Durham, UK, DH1 3LE. james.osborn@durham.ac.uk
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Osborn
authors.forename: Richard M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Myers
authors.forename: Gordon D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Love
mesh_terms: D016477:Artifacts; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation*; D007909:Lenses; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity