Polarization interferometric nulling coronagraph for high-contrast imaging.
We propose a novel, high-contrast imager called a polarization interferometric nulling coronagraph (PINC) for direct detection of extrasolar planets. The PINC uses achromatic half-wave plates (HWPs) installed in a fully symmetric beam combiner based on polarizing beam splitters. Jones calculus suggests that a stellar halo suppression level of 10(-10) can be achieved at 5 lambda/D for a broad wavelength range from 1.6 to 2.2 microm by using Fresnel-rhomb HWPs made of BK7. Laboratory experiments on the PINC used two laser light sources (wavelengths of lambda=532 and 671 nm), and we obtained a halo suppression level of approximately 10(-6) at 5 lambda/D for both wavelengths.
Murakami
Naoshi
N
Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Kita-13, Nishi-8, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8588, Japan. nmurakami@eng.hokudai.ac.jp
Yokochi
Kaito
K
Nishikawa
Jun
J
Tamura
Motohide
M
Kurokawa
Takashi
T
Takeda
Mitsuo
M
Baba
Naoshi
N