Phase-Induced Amplitude Apodization of Telescope Pupils for Extrasolar Terrestrial Planet Imaging

Abstract

In this paper, an alternative to the classical pupil apodization techniques (use of an amplitude pupil mask) is proposed. It is shown that an apodized pupil suitable for imaging of Extrasolar planets can be obtained by reflection of an unapodized flat wavefront on 2 mirrors. By carefully choosing the shape of these 2 mirrors, it is possible to obtain a contrast better than 10^{9} at a distance smaller than 2 \\lambda/d from the optical axis. Because this technique preserves both the angular resolution and light gathering capabilities of the unapodized pupil, it allows efficient detection of terrestrial extrasolar planets with a 1.5m telescope in the visible.