Shaped pupil design for the Gemini Planet Imager

TL;DR

This paper explores the use of binary star-shaped pupils in the Gemini Planet Imager to achieve high-contrast imaging of exoplanets, providing design guidelines for implementing shaped pupils in coronagraph systems.

Contribution

It introduces a new binary apodization design for the GPI's coronagraph, offering comparable performance to existing designs and establishing general design principles.

Findings

Binary shaped pupils can match the performance of partially-transmitting apodizers.

The paper provides practical design guidelines for shaped pupil coronagraphs.

The approach enhances high-contrast imaging capabilities for exoplanet detection.

Abstract

The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is an instrument designed for the Gemini South telescope to image young Jupiter-mass planets in the infrared. To achieve the high contrast needed for this, it employs an apodized pupil Lyot coronagraph (APLC) to remove most of the starlight. Current designs use a partially-transmitting apodizer in the pupil; we examine the use of binary apodizations in the form of starshaped shaped pupils, and present a design that could achieve comparable performance, along with a series of design guidelines for creating shaped pupil versions of APLCs in other systems.