The Four‐Quadrant Phase Mask Coronagraph. III. Laboratory Performance

We report a laboratory experiment to assess the performance and limitations of the four-quadrant phase mask coronagraph we proposed 2 years ago. A total flux rejection factor of 4400 was reached using off-the-shelf optical components. The peak intensity of the Airy pattern is correspondingly reduced by a factor of 44,000 with a stability of a few hours. In this paper, we discuss implications of this excellent result regarding the next generation of instruments for extrasolar planet detection.