Abstract
The ESO planet-finder VLT instrument SPHERE (Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch), scheduled for first light in 2011, aims to detected and characterize giant extra-solar planet and the circumstellar environments in the very close vicinity of bright stars. The extreme brightness contrast and small angular separation between the planets or disks and their parent stars have so far proven very challenging. SPHERE will meet this challenge by using an extreme AO system, stellar coronagraphs, an infrared dual band and polarimetric imager called IRDIS, an integral field spectrograph, and a visible polarimetric differential imager called ZIMPOL. Additional smart imaging techniques such has differential imaging and differential polarimetry will be also included to cancel out the light from the parent star and reach typical contrasts of 10 -5 . We describe here the performances and the detection limit of IRDIS polarimetric mode for imaging extended stellar environments.
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