Astronomical demonstration of an optical vortex coronagraph

Opt Express. 2008 Jul 7;16(14):10200-7. doi: 10.1364/oe.16.010200.

Abstract

Using an optical vortex coronagraph and simple adaptive optics techniques, we have made the first convincing demonstration of an optical vortex coronagraph that is coupled to a star gazing telescope. We suppressed by 97% the primary star of a resolvable binary system, Cor Caroli. The stars had an angular separation of 1.9lambda/D at our imaging camera. The secondary star suffered no suppression from the vortex lens.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.