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O. Guyon (Subaru Telescope), S. Ridgway (NOAO), Pupil Remapping Apodization Study Group Collaboration
Pupil apodization has been proposed to "shape" the telescope pupil into an apodized pupil suitable for exoplanet detection. Unfortunately, to reach a contrast compatible with extrasolar terrestrial planet detection, apodization by partial-transmission reduces the throughput of the telescope by as much as 80% and reduces the angular resolution by a factor of 2 to 3. We present an alternative, called "pupil remapping apodization" (PRA), which exploits a recently invented class of optical surfaces (Guyon, 2003), and achieves the required pupil transformation by geometric redistribution of the light in the pupil plane rather than selective absorption. Since this technique does not absorb light from the telescope, it preserves both sensitivity and angular resolution, and makes it possible to use a 2m telescope for efficient extrasolar terrestrial planet detection.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#5
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.