Starlight is generally unpolarized,but the light reflected from the planet is linearly polarized as the result of the Rayleigh scattering.For ground-based exoplanet imaging,atmospheres turbulence is changing from time...Starlight is generally unpolarized,but the light reflected from the planet is linearly polarized as the result of the Rayleigh scattering.For ground-based exoplanet imaging,atmospheres turbulence is changing from time to time,which induces speckle noise and hampers the high-contrast imaging of the faint exoplanets.In this paper,we propose a differential-imaging polarimeter dedicated for exoplanet high-contrast imaging.The system contains a zero-order half-wave plate(HWP)located on the optical pupil plane,which can rotate to modulate the incoming light,and a Wollaston prism(WP)is used to generate two polarized images,which is used for simultaneously polarization differential imaging and thus our system is fundamentally immune to the atmospheric turbulence induced temporally-variable wavefront aberration.Our polarimeter can be inserted near the telescope image focal plane,and provide an extra contrast for the exoplanet high-contrast imaging.To achieve best differential-imaging performance,dedicated algorithm is developed,which can effectively correct the distortion and the intensity unbalance between the two differential images.The system successfully achieves an extra contrast of^30~50 times,which can be used with current adaptive optics and coronagraph system for directly imaging of giant Jupiter-like exoplanets.展开更多
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, 11703058, 11703056, 11661161011, 11433007, 11220101001, 11328302, 11373005 and 11303064)the Opening Project of Key Laboratory of Astronomical Optics & Technology, Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics & Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CASKLAOT-KF201606)+5 种基金the “Strategic Priority Research Program” of the ChineseAcademy of Sciences (XDA04075200)the Special Fund for astronomy of CAS (2015–2016)the Special Fund for Young Researcher of Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics & Technologythe International Partnership Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (114A32KYSB20160018)carried out at California State University Northridge with the support from NSF AST-1607921the Mt. Cuba Astronomical Foundation
文摘Starlight is generally unpolarized,but the light reflected from the planet is linearly polarized as the result of the Rayleigh scattering.For ground-based exoplanet imaging,atmospheres turbulence is changing from time to time,which induces speckle noise and hampers the high-contrast imaging of the faint exoplanets.In this paper,we propose a differential-imaging polarimeter dedicated for exoplanet high-contrast imaging.The system contains a zero-order half-wave plate(HWP)located on the optical pupil plane,which can rotate to modulate the incoming light,and a Wollaston prism(WP)is used to generate two polarized images,which is used for simultaneously polarization differential imaging and thus our system is fundamentally immune to the atmospheric turbulence induced temporally-variable wavefront aberration.Our polarimeter can be inserted near the telescope image focal plane,and provide an extra contrast for the exoplanet high-contrast imaging.To achieve best differential-imaging performance,dedicated algorithm is developed,which can effectively correct the distortion and the intensity unbalance between the two differential images.The system successfully achieves an extra contrast of^30~50 times,which can be used with current adaptive optics and coronagraph system for directly imaging of giant Jupiter-like exoplanets.
