Numerical Simulations of Imaging Extrasolar Planets using Circular and Square Apodize Apertures

Numerical simulations are carried out to assess the quality of the circular and square apodize apertures in observing extrasolar planets. The logarithmic scale of the normalized point spread function of these apertures showed sharp decline in the radial frequency components reaching to 10-36 and 10-34 respectively and demonstrating promising results. This decline is associated with an increase in the full width of the point spread function. A trade off must be done between this full width and the radial frequency components to overcome the problem of imaging extrasolar planets.