Self-eclipsing: alignment-free vortex coronagraphy

Artur Aleksanyan (1) , Etienne Brasselet (1)

1 LOMA - Laboratoire Ondes et Matière d'Aquitaine

We report on a self-induced strategy to achieve high-contrast optical imaging, without the need for any man-made optical masks, which relies on the self-induced spin-to-orbital angular momentum conversion phenomenon. This is experimentally demonstrated by realizing a laboratory demonstration of self-eclipsing of a light source following the generation of a self-adapted vectorial optical vortex transmission mask. The proposed concept, namely the realization of an alignment-free optical vortex corona-graph, may inspire the development of future generations of smart astronomical imaging instruments.

Mots clés: Photothermal effects; Optical vortices

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Artur Aleksanyan, Etienne Brasselet. Self-eclipsing: alignment-free vortex coronagraphy. Optics Letters, 2017, 42 (7), pp.1237-1240. ⟨10.1364/OL.42.001237⟩. ⟨hal-01494646⟩