Dark zone maintenance for future coronagraphic space missions

Susan F. Redmond; Laurent Pueyo; Leonid Pogorelyuk; Emiel H. Por; James Noss; Keira Brooks; Iva Laginja; Marshall D. Perrin; Rémi Soummer; N. Jeremy Kasdin

doi:10.1117/12.2630682

27 August 2022 Dark zone maintenance for future coronagraphic space missions

Susan F. Redmond, Laurent Pueyo, Leonid Pogorelyuk, Emiel H. Por, James Noss, Keira Brooks, Iva Laginja, Marshall D. Perrin, Rémi Soummer, N. Jeremy Kasdin

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 12180, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave; 121802B (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2630682
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2022, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Abstract

Directly imaging exoplanets requires long integration times when using a space-based coronagraphic instrument due to the small number of photons. Wavefront stability on the same timescale is of the utmost importance; a difficult feat in the presence of thermal and mechanical instabilities. In this paper, we demonstrate that dark zone maintenance (DZM) functions in the low signal-to-noise (SNR) regime similar to that expected for the Roman Space Telescope (RST) and the “large (∼6 m aperture) infrared/optical/ultraviolet (IR/O/UV) space telescope” recommended by the 2021 decadal survey. We develop low-photon experiments with tunable noise properties to provide a representative extrapolation. The experiments are performed on the High-contrast Imager for Complex Aperture Telescopes (HiCAT) at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). High-order wavefront error drifts are injected using a pair of kilo-deformable mirrors (DMs). The drifts are corrected using the DMs via the DZM algorithm; note that the current limiting factor for the DZM results is the air environment. We show that DZM can maintain a contrast of 5.3 × 10⁻⁸ in the presence of DM random walk drift with a low SNR.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Susan F. Redmond, Laurent Pueyo, Leonid Pogorelyuk, Emiel H. Por, James Noss, Keira Brooks, Iva Laginja, Marshall D. Perrin, Rémi Soummer, and N. Jeremy Kasdin "Dark zone maintenance for future coronagraphic space missions", Proc. SPIE 12180, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave, 121802B (27 August 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2630682

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