The optical vortex coronagraph

摘要

An optical vortex coronagraph is a high contrast imaging system which has the potential tocompletely extinguish light from an on-axis point source, allowing glare-free, high throughputimaging of off-axis targets. An important application is the direct detection of exoplanetsorbiting distant stars. The optical physics of the OVC is reviewed, a heuristic argumentdescribing its operation is presented for the first time, and performance limitations are explored.