Six years of harvest with the vortex coronagraph

While the concept of vortex coronagraphy dates back to 2005, the first science-grade Annular Groove Phase Masks (AGPM), working in the thermal infrared regime, have been installed at the VLT only in 2012. They are now also equipping the Keck telescope and the Large Binocular Telescope, and will soon be at the core of more ground-based high-contrast imaging instruments. In this seminar, I will shortly review the technology development undertaken over the last 10 years, and describe the on-sky operations and performance of the vortex coronagraph. I will then present the main scientific results obtained since 2012, and explain how we have recently adapted deep learning techniques to the problem of post-processing in high-contrast imaging. I will finally discuss the perspectives with new instruments, including the Breakthrough Watch project.