Mid-order wavefront control for exoplanet imaging: preliminary characterization of the segmented deformable mirror and Zernike wavefront sensor on HiCAT

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Buralli, B., N'Diaye, M., Pourcelot, R., Carbillet, M., Por, E. H., Laginja, I., Canas, L., Steiger, S., Petrone, P., Nguyen, M. M., Nickson, B., Redmond, S. F., Sahoo, A., Pueyo, L., Perrin, M. D., Soummer, R.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866909308530196480
author Buralli, B.
N'Diaye, M.
Pourcelot, R.
Carbillet, M.
Por, E. H.
Laginja, I.
Canas, L.
Steiger, S.
Petrone, P.
Nguyen, M. M.
Nickson, B.
Redmond, S. F.
Sahoo, A.
Pueyo, L.
Perrin, M. D.
Soummer, R.
author_facet Buralli, B.
N'Diaye, M.
Pourcelot, R.
Carbillet, M.
Por, E. H.
Laginja, I.
Canas, L.
Steiger, S.
Petrone, P.
Nguyen, M. M.
Nickson, B.
Redmond, S. F.
Sahoo, A.
Pueyo, L.
Perrin, M. D.
Soummer, R.
contents We study a mid-order wavefront sensor (MOWFS) to address fine cophasing errors in exoplanet imaging with future large segmented aperture space telescopes. Observing Earth analogs around Sun-like stars requires contrasts down to $10^{-10}$ in visible light. One promising solution consists of producing a high-contrast dark zone in the image of an observed star. In a space observatory, this dark region will be altered by several effects, and among them, the small misalignments of the telescope mirror segments due to fine thermo-mechanical drifts. To correct for these errors in real time, we investigate a wavefront control loop based on a MOWFS with a Zernike sensor. Such a MOWFS was installed on the high-contrast imager for complex aperture telescopes (HiCAT) testbed in Baltimore in June 2023. The bench uses a 37-segment Iris-AO deformable mirror to mimic telescope segmentation and some wavefront control strategies to produce a dark zone with such an aperture. In this contribution, we first use the MOWFS to characterize the Iris-AO segment discretization steps. For the central segment, we find a minimal step of 125 $\pm$ 31 pm. This result will help us to assess the contribution of the Iris-AO DM on the contrast in HiCAT. We then determine the detection limits of the MOWFS, estimating wavefront error amplitudes of 119 and 102 pm for 10 s and 1 min exposure time with a SNR of 3. These values inform us about the measurement capabilities of our wavefront sensor on the testbed. These preliminary results will be useful to provide insights on metrology and stability for exo-Earth observations with the Habitable Worlds Observatory.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_03411
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Mid-order wavefront control for exoplanet imaging: preliminary characterization of the segmented deformable mirror and Zernike wavefront sensor on HiCAT
Buralli, B.
N'Diaye, M.
Pourcelot, R.
Carbillet, M.
Por, E. H.
Laginja, I.
Canas, L.
Steiger, S.
Petrone, P.
Nguyen, M. M.
Nickson, B.
Redmond, S. F.
Sahoo, A.
Pueyo, L.
Perrin, M. D.
Soummer, R.
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
We study a mid-order wavefront sensor (MOWFS) to address fine cophasing errors in exoplanet imaging with future large segmented aperture space telescopes. Observing Earth analogs around Sun-like stars requires contrasts down to $10^{-10}$ in visible light. One promising solution consists of producing a high-contrast dark zone in the image of an observed star. In a space observatory, this dark region will be altered by several effects, and among them, the small misalignments of the telescope mirror segments due to fine thermo-mechanical drifts. To correct for these errors in real time, we investigate a wavefront control loop based on a MOWFS with a Zernike sensor. Such a MOWFS was installed on the high-contrast imager for complex aperture telescopes (HiCAT) testbed in Baltimore in June 2023. The bench uses a 37-segment Iris-AO deformable mirror to mimic telescope segmentation and some wavefront control strategies to produce a dark zone with such an aperture. In this contribution, we first use the MOWFS to characterize the Iris-AO segment discretization steps. For the central segment, we find a minimal step of 125 $\pm$ 31 pm. This result will help us to assess the contribution of the Iris-AO DM on the contrast in HiCAT. We then determine the detection limits of the MOWFS, estimating wavefront error amplitudes of 119 and 102 pm for 10 s and 1 min exposure time with a SNR of 3. These values inform us about the measurement capabilities of our wavefront sensor on the testbed. These preliminary results will be useful to provide insights on metrology and stability for exo-Earth observations with the Habitable Worlds Observatory.
title Mid-order wavefront control for exoplanet imaging: preliminary characterization of the segmented deformable mirror and Zernike wavefront sensor on HiCAT
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.03411