Polarization-dependent beam shifts upon metallic reflection in high-contrast imagers and telescopes
Polarization-dependent beam shifts upon metallic reflection in high-contrast imagers and telescopes
(Abridged) Context. To directly image rocky exoplanets in reflected (polarized) light, future space- and ground-based high-contrast imagers and telescopes aim to reach extreme contrasts at close separations from the star. However, the achievable contrast will be limited by reflection-induced polarization aberrations. While polarization aberrations can be modeled numerically, such computations …