A high-contrast polarimetric imaging coronagraph based on a vortex phase mask and liquid crystal variable retarders (LCVR) is proposed. The system takes advantage of the small inner working angle, high throughput, and large discovery area of the vortex coronagraph, and further improves imaging contrast by incorporating a polarimeter that exploits the intrinsic polarization differences between starlight and planetary light. The polarimetric module employs two LCVRs operating simultaneously, eliminating the need for manual rotation and enabling both observation and calibration modes. With a single exposure, it allows precise control of linear and circular polarization states and enables full Stokes parameter measurements. Laboratory results demonstrate that the vortex coronagraph achieves an imaging contrast on the order of 10-6 at an angular separation of 3λ/D in the visible band. After integrating the polarimeter, the overall system provides an imaging contrast of approximately 10-9 across the entire image plane at the same angular separation of 3λ/D. These results indicate that the proposed system offers significant advantages in enhancing high-contrast imaging performance at small angular distance, and is expected to provide a feasible technical solution for the direct detection of aged Jupiter-like exoplanets.
CHENG et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
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