Observations of circumstellar environments that look for the direct signal of exoplanets and
the scattered light from disks have significant instrumental implications. In the past 15 years …

Many high-contrast coronagraph designs have recently been proposed. In this paper, their
suitability for direct imaging of extrasolar terrestrial planets is reviewed. We also develop a …

In this paper, an alternative to classical pupil apodization techniques (use of an amplitude
pupil mask) is proposed. It is shown that an achromatic apodized pupil suitable for imaging …

In the context of high dynamic range imaging, this study presents a breakthrough for the
understanding of apodized pupil Lyot coronagraphs, making them available for arbitrary …

Context. With a clear circular aperture, the vortex coronagraph perfectly cancels an on-axis
point source and offers a 0.9 or 1.75λ/D inner working angle for topological charge 2 or 4 …

We present a new method for numerical propagation through Lyot-style coronagraphs using
finite occulting masks. Standard methods for coronagraphic simulations involve Fast Fourier …

We describe a new instrument that forms the core of a long-term high contrast imaging
program at the 200 inch (5 m) Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory. The primary …

This paper generalizes to circular apertures the theoretical study of stellar coronagraphy
with prolate apodized rectangular entrance apertures of Aime et al.(2002). The main …

We describe the symmetries present in the point-spread function (PSF) of an optical system
either located in space or corrected by an adaptive optics (AO) system to Strehl ratios of …

This paper is concerned with the theoretical properties of high-contrast coronagraphic
images in the context of exoplanet searches. We derive and analyze the statistical properties …