PSF halo reduction in adaptive optics using dynamic pupil masking

Abstract

We describe a method to reduce residual speckles in an adaptive optics system which add to the halo of the point spread function (PSF). The halo is particularly problematic in astronomical applications involving the detection of faint companions. Areas of the pupil are selected where the residual wavefront aberrations are large and these are masked using a spatial light modulator. The method is also suitable for smaller telescopes without adaptive optics as a relatively simple method to increase the resolution of the telescope. We describe the principle of the technique and show simulation results.