Exoplanet imaging with mid-infrared vector vortex coronagraphs: design, manufacture, validation and first light of the annular groove phase mask

摘要

During the past twenty years, detections of extrasolar planets have flourished and grown expo- nentially, reaching almost 900 confirmed exoplanets so far. This number is doubling every two or three years. The most recent discoveries made by the Kepler mission have revealed two Earth- size exoplanets orbiting the same star, and fulfilling all the required conditions to be habitable. Imaging techniques have also come a long way. Since the first direct detection in 2004, some stunning exoplanet pictures have been captured at the telescope under special circumstances of moderate contrast and/or angular separation, thanks to the advent and continuous improvement of adaptive optics systems and data reduction methods. In this broad context, the need for high contrast imaging techniques with very small inner working angles has never been so strong. Coro- nagraphy has a key role to play in order to provide the means necessary for imaging Earth-size planets, and try to answer the recurring question of the possible presence of life outside the solar system.The present thesis is dedicated to the development of the annular groove phase mask (AGPM), a specific type of broadband vector vortex coronagraph based on subwavelength gratings. Consid- ered for several years as one of the best solutions for building high-performance mid-infrared coron- agraphs with small inner working angles, the AGPM has never been validated up to now. Although various fabrication processes are available, depending on the substrates and micro-lithography techniques considered, they often face extremely challenging constraints. In the present work, we explored the feasibility of achromatic micro-components made out of subwavelength gratings, for which two technological solutions are followed: quartz and diamond. As we focussed on the diamond option, its unique material properties making it a prime candidate for mid-infrared ap- plications, we managed to develop mid-infrared broadband half-wave plates, ideally optimized to enable the manufacturing of charge-2 vortices. Following this success, we continued our devel- opments leading to the fabrication of several AGPMs for two astronomic windows, the L and N bands, and we successfully validated several L-band AGPMs on a coronagraphic test bench at the Observatoire de Paris. In the last chapter, we expose the recent installation of our components on three world-class infrared cameras, VISIR and NACO at the Very Large Telescope in Chile, and LMIRCam at the Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona. We conclude with the very first on-sky results of both N-band and L-band AGPMs, and the discovery and successful imaging of a faint stellar companion at two beamwidths from an F-type star.