Eclipse apodization: realization of occulting spots and Lyot masks

Daniel W. Wilson; Paul D. Maker; John T. Trauger; Tony B. Hull

doi:10.1117/12.457886

3 March 2003 Eclipse apodization: realization of occulting spots and Lyot masks

Daniel W. Wilson, Paul D. Maker, John T. Trauger, Tony B. Hull

Proceedings Volume 4860, High-Contrast Imaging for Exo-Planet Detection; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.457886
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2002, Waikoloa, Hawai'i, United States

Abstract

A key element in the Eclipse coronagraph is the apodized occulting spot. For exo-planet detection in the presence of a sun-like star, the specification for intensity transmittance at the center of the spot is less than 1×10^-8. It must also taper smoothly with a desired functional form to avoid diffraction artifacts in the angular region of planet detection. From a fabrication point of view, these requirements are very challenging. A candidate technology for fabricating such spots is electron-beam exposure of high-energy beam sensitive (HEBS) glass (a product of Canyon Materials, San Diego, CA). In this work, we have calibrated HEBS glass optical density as a function of electron-beam exposure and attained optical densities up to 7.66 without saturation. We then fabricated occulting spots having various functional forms including circular Gaussian, one-dimensional sinc², and circular sinc². Preliminary quantitative analysis of the circular sinc2 occulting spot is encouraging.

Citation Download Citation

Daniel W. Wilson, Paul D. Maker, John T. Trauger, and Tony B. Hull "Eclipse apodization: realization of occulting spots and Lyot masks", Proc. SPIE 4860, High-Contrast Imaging for Exo-Planet Detection, (3 March 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.457886

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