The PIAA-vortex coronagraph: a new coronagraph technology to maximize exo-Earth yields in the Astro2020 era

Detecting and characterizing the atmospheres of terrestrial exoplanets is a primary goal of the proposed next-generation IR/O/UV mission recommended by Astro2020 decadal survey. Achieving this goal with direct imaging depends critically on developing coronagraph technology that maximizes the exoEarth yield. Stringent tradeoffs between low-order aberration sensitivity, inner working angle, and throughput have been one of the main limiting factors affecting the yield of coronagraph technologies for telescopes with complex a pertures. We present preliminary hybrid PIAA-vortex coronagraph designs for obstructed apertures. PIAA-vortex designs can be used to close the performance gap between on-axis and off-axis telescopes, which in turn has the potential to translate to significant yield gains for future space missions. In our forthcoming publication, we will present further analysis of the PIAA-vortex along with the formalism for optimizing 2-D mirror shapes in the geometric-optics regime.