Analytical analysis of Lyot coronographs

Abstract

We derive an analytical solution to the computation of the output of a Lyot coronagraph for a given complex amplitude on the pupil plane. This solution, which does not require any simplifying assumption, relies on an expansion of the entrance complex amplitude on a Zernike base. According to this framework, the main contribution of the paper is the expression of the response of the coronagraph to a single base function. This result is illustrated by a computer simulation which describes the classical effect of propagation of a tip-tilt error in a coronagraph.