Optical Vectorial Vortex Coronagraphs using Liquid Crystal Polymers: theory, manufacturing and laboratory demonstration
Abstract
In this paper, after briefly reviewing the theory of vectorial vortices, we describe our technological approach to generating the necessary phase helix, and report results obtained with the first optical vectorial vortex coronagraph (OVVC) in the laboratory. To implement the geometrical phase ramp, we make use of Liquid Crystal Polymers (LCP), which we believe to be the most efficient technological path to quickly synthesize optical vectorial vortices of virtually any topological charge. With the first prototype device of topological charge 2, a maximum peak-to-peak attenuation of 1.4×10^(-2) and a residual light level of 3×10^(-5) at an angular separation of 3.5 λ/d (at which point our current noise floor is reached) have been obtained at a wavelength of 1.55 μm. These results demonstrate the validity of using space-variant birefringence distributions to generate a new family of coronagraphs usable in natural unpolarized light, opening a path to high performance coronagraphs that are achromatic and have low-sensitivity to low-order wavefront aberrations.
Additional Information
© 2008 Optical Society of America. Received 10 Oct 2008; revised 25 Nov 2008; accepted 28 Nov 2008; published 30 Jan 2009. This work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology (Caltech), under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The first author was supported by an appointment to the NASA Postdoctoral Program at the JPL, Caltech, administered by Oak Ridge Associated Universities through a contract with NASA.Attached Files
Published - oe-17-3-1902.pdf
Submitted - 0912.0311v1.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 57718
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20150520-135426309
- NASA/JPL/Caltech
- NASA Postdoctoral Program
- Created
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2015-05-20Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2023-03-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field