A Coronagraph Experiment in a High Thermal Stability Environment with a Binary Shaped Pupil Mask

We present our results from a laboratory experiment on a binary-shaped pupil mask coronagraph in the context of instrumentation R&D for the direct observation of exo-planets. The aim of this work is testing an axiom of the coronagraph using the method employing the PSF (point spread function) subtraction in thermally-stable condition. Both the raw coronagraphic contrast and the contrast after the PSF subtraction are evaluated. A contrast of 2.6 x 10(-7) was achieved for the raw coronagraphic images by analyzing the areal mean of the observed dark regions. A contrast of 1.8 x 10(-9) was achieved for the PSF subtraction by the areal variance (1 sigma) of the observed dark regions. Application of the PSF subtraction to the coronagraph can ease the requirements for the raw contrast.