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Occulting focal plane masks for Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph: design, fabrication, simulations and test results
Balasubramanian, Kunjithapatham; Hoppe, Daniel J.; Halverson, Peter G.; Wilson, Daniel W.; Echternach, Pierre M.; Shi, Fang; Lowman, Andrew E.; Niessner, Albert F.; Trauger, John T.; Shaklan, Stuart B.
Keywords:Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) Coronagraph; occulting masks; High Contrast Imaging Test (HCIT); high angular resolution; adaptive optics
Publisher:Pasadena, CA : Jet Propulsion Laboratory, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2005.
Citation:IAUC200 Direct Imaging of Exoplanets : Science and Techniques, Nice, France, October 3-7, 2005
Abstract:
Occulting focal plane masks for the Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph (TPF-C) could be designed with continuous gray scale profile of the occulting pattern such as 1−sinc2 on a suitable material or with micron-scale binary transparent and opaque structures of metallic pattern on glass. We have designed, fabricated and tested both kinds of masks. The fundamental characteristics of such masks and initial test results from the High Contrast Imaging Test bed (HCIT) at JPL are presented.