AstroPIC III: advancing the near-infrared photonic integrated coronagraph for the Habitable Worlds Observatory
AstroPIC is a photonic integrated coronagraph concept for the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) that uses a programmable Mach-Zehnder interferometer mesh to perform coronagraphic mode-sorting of starlight while preserving off-axis exoplanet light. This paper presents a Gen-2 technology update and modeling study. The G...