2021/09/28 by Olivier Guyon, Barnaby Norris, Guyon, Olivier +43
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing #Advanced optical system design #Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2109.13958
openalex publication_date 2021/09/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
High contrast imaging (HCI) systems rely on active wavefront control (WFC) to\ndeliver deep raw contrast in the focal plane, and on calibration techniques to\nfurther enhance contrast by identifying planet light within the residual\nspeckle halo. Both functions can be combined in an HCI system and we discuss a\npath toward designing HCI systems capable of calibrating residual starlight at\nthe fundamental contrast limit imposed by photon noise. We highlight the value\nof deploying multiple high-efficiency wavefront sensors (WFSs) covering a wide\nspectral range and spanning multiple optical locations. We show how their\ncombined information can be leveraged to simultaneously improve WFS sensitivity\nand residual starlight calibration, ideally making it impossible for an image\nplane speckle to hide from WFS telemetry. We demonstrate residual starlight\ncalibration in the laboratory and on-sky, using both a coronagraphic setup, and\na nulling spectro-interferometer. In both case, we show that bright starlight\ncan calibrate residual starlight.\n