Vortex-phase filtering technique for extracting spatial information from unresolved sources

Abstract

A white light vortex coronagraph was used to experimentally achieve sub-resolution detection. The angular location of the centroid, $\gamma$, and the angular extent of circular pinhole sources, $\Theta$, were measured to within errors of $\delta\gamma = \pm0.015\,\lambda/D$ and $\delta\Theta = \pm0.026\,\lambda/D$. This technique has two advantages over conventional imaging: simple power measurements are made and shorter exposure times may be required to achieve a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio.