Optimal pupil mask geometries for large, AO-compensated telescopes

摘要

We consider the use of pupil masks with AO-compensated telescopes, calculating fringe energy SNR for a variety of object brightness values and for different degrees of AO compensation. We propose a way to specify the optimum subaperture diameter for an N-subaperture mask and argue for the use of masks, in combination with full-aperture data, to increase SNR at the highest spatial frequencies the telescope can sample. Use of full-aperture data in combination with high-SNR masked-aperture data can yield imagery with higher spatial resolution than full-aperture data alone.