Fabrication and testing of phase masks for optical vortex coronagraph to observe extrasolar planets

The optical vortex coronagraph (OVC) is an innovative instrument that can be applied to both space and groundbased telescopes for direct imaging of planets around bright stars. OVC rejects the light of the on-axis star without altering that of off-axis sources, means of a spiral phase plate (SPP) used as a phase modyfing device (PMD). We present the fabrication process made by lithographic nanofabrication and tests for the characterization of two different high-quality SPPs.

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