Evaluation of the stray light from the diffraction of METIS coronagraph external occulter

METIS (Multi Element Telescope for Imaging and Spectroscopy) is an externally occulted coronagraph part of the Solar Orbiter payload. METIS innovative occulting system, called inverted externally occulter (IEO), consists of a circular aperture, IEO, that acts also as the entrance pupil of the instrument, and a solar disk rejection mirror (M0), placed at the bottom end of the coronagraph boom. M0 reflects back through IEO the solar disk radiation, letting the coronal radiation enter the coronagraph telescope. Light diffracted by IEO enters the telescope and has to be minimized with a proper shape of the IEO edge. The paper describes the theoretical results of the diffraction analysis extended to the scattered light by the primary mirror of the telescope onto the primary focal plane. A summary of the entire stray light reduction capabilities of METIS is also given.