Dr. Christopher B. Mendillo Profile

Dr. Christopher B. Mendillo

Research Professor at University of Massachusetts Lowell

SPIE Involvement:

Author

Publications (29)

Proceedings Article | 5 October 2023 Presentation + Paper

The PICTURE-C exoplanetary imaging balloon mission: second flight results and the transition to a new mission, PICTURE-D

Christopher Mendillo, Kuravi Hewawasam, Jason Martel, Thaddeus Potter, Sunip Mukherjee, Timothy Cook, Supriya Chakrabarti, Frans Snik, David Doelman, Dan Sirbu, Ruslan Belikov, Eduardo Bendek, Karl Stapelfeldt, Schuyler Grace Wolff

Proceedings Volume 12680, 126800F (2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2677518

KEYWORDS: Coronagraphy, Wavefronts, Polarization, Cameras, Balloons, Telescopes, Control systems, Stars, Imaging systems, Scattered light

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Proceedings Article | 5 October 2023 Poster + Paper

Reflective lyot stop low-order wavefront control for future large space telescope coronagraphs

Christopher Mendillo, Jaren Ashcraft, Kevin Zhang Derby, Ewan Douglas, Daewook Kim, Jared Males

Proceedings Volume 12680, 126802E (2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2677654

KEYWORDS: Wavefront errors, Telescopes, Coronagraphy, Wavefronts, Space telescopes, Exoplanets, Sensors, Optical simulations, Device simulation, Deformable mirrors

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Proceedings Article | 4 October 2023 Presentation + Paper

Integrated modeling of wavefront sensing and control for space telescopes utilizing active and adaptive optics

Kevin Derby, Kian Milani, Solvay Blomquist, Kyle Van Gorkom, Sebastiaan Haffert, Hyukmo Kang, Hill Tailor, Heejoo Choi, Christopher Mendillo, Jared Males, Daewook Kim, Ewan Douglas

Proceedings Volume 12677, 126770I (2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2677663

KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Wavefronts, Wavefront errors, Wavefront sensors, Point spread functions, Coronagraphy, Signal to noise ratio, Error analysis, Integrated modeling, Wavefront compensation

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Proceedings Article | 4 October 2023 Paper

The PICTURE-C exoplanetary imaging balloon mission: a refactored thermal model and framework for an end-to-end model for balloon borne coronagraphs

Thaddeus Potter, Christopher Mendillo, Kuravi Hewawasam, Jason Martel, Timothy Cook, Supriya Chakrabarti

Proceedings Volume 12676, 126760V (2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2677591

KEYWORDS: Thermal modeling, Data modeling, Coronagraphy, Balloons, Mirrors, Optical benches, Observatories, Telescopes, Boundary conditions

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SPIE Journal Paper | 24 May 2023 Open Access

Balloon flight demonstration of coronagraph focal plane wavefront correction with PICTURE-C

Christopher B. Mendillo, Kuravi Hewawasam, Jason Martel, Thaddeus Potter, Timothy A. Cook, Supriya Chakrabarti

JATIS, Vol. 9, Issue 02, 025005, (May 2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.10.1117/1.JATIS.9.2.025005

KEYWORDS: Coronagraphy, Telescopes, Wavefronts, Stars, Balloons, Control systems, Cameras, Equipment, Vibration, Mirrors

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Proceedings Article | 27 August 2022 Poster + Paper

STOP model implementation for the PICTURE-C exoplanetary imaging balloon mission, progress report I: thermal modeling and comparison with flight data

Thaddeus Potter, Christopher Mendillo, Kuravi Hewawasam, Jason Martel, Timothy Cook, Supriya Chakrabarti

Proceedings Volume 12180, 1218057 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2630418

KEYWORDS: Mirrors, Thermal modeling, Data modeling, Temperature sensors, Optical benches, Observatories, Electronics, Solar radiation models, Solids, Coronagraphy

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Proceedings Article | 27 August 2022 Poster + Paper

Tolerance analysis of a self-coherent camera for wavefront sensing and dark hole maintenance

Kevin Derby, Sebastiaan Haffert, Jaren Ashcraft, Kian Milani, Heejoo Choi, Young-Sik Kim, Laird Close, Christopher Mendillo, Supriya Chakrabarti, Gregory Allan, Leonid Pogorelyuk, Kerri Cahoy, Mamadou N'Diaye, Daewook Kim, Jared Males, Ewan Douglas

Proceedings Volume 12180, 1218069 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629578

KEYWORDS: Wavefronts, Sensors, Coronagraphy, Wavefront sensors, Tolerancing, Cameras, Stars, Telescopes, Photodetectors, Error analysis

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Proceedings Article | 27 August 2022 Presentation + Paper

The PICTURE-C exoplanetary imaging balloon mission: laboratory coronagraph demonstrations of high-contrast imaging and low-order wavefront control

Christopher Mendillo, Kuravi Hewawasam, Jason Martel, Thaddeus Potter, Timothy Cook, Supriya Chakrabarti

Proceedings Volume 12180, 1218022 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2630237

KEYWORDS: Coronagraphy, Wavefronts, Speckle, Sensors, Mirrors, Telescopes, Control systems, Cameras, Distortion, Actuators

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SPIE Journal Paper | 26 March 2022

Compact multichannel imaging camera for wide-field imaging of diffused sources

Sunip Mukherjee, Jeffrey Baumgardner, Jason Martel, Christopher Mendillo, Timothy Cook, Supriya Chakrabarti

OE, Vol. 61, Issue 03, 034109, (March 2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.10.1117/1.OE.61.3.034109

KEYWORDS: Optical filters, Cameras, Sensors, Bandpass filters, Image filtering, Spatial resolution, Potassium, Sodium, Remote sensing, Image segmentation

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Proceedings Article | 1 September 2021 Presentation + Paper

The PICTURE-C exoplanetary imaging balloon mission: first flight results and second flight preparation

Christopher Mendillo, Kuravi Hewawasam, Jason Martel, Thaddeus Potter, Timothy Cook, Supriya Chakrabarti

Proceedings Volume 11823, 118230X (2021) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2594749

KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Coronagraphy, Cameras, Mirrors, Wavefronts, Fourier transforms, Imaging systems, CCD cameras, Sensors, Exoplanets

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Proceedings Article | 1 September 2021 Poster + Presentation + Paper

Dual-polarization electric field conjugation and applications for vector vortex coronagraphs

Christopher Mendillo, Kuravi Hewawasam, Jason Martel, Timothy Cook, Supriya Chakrabarti, Frans Snik, David Doelman

Proceedings Volume 11823, 118231T (2021) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2594775

KEYWORDS: Polarization, Coronagraphy, Actuators, Polarimetry, Deformable mirrors, Modulation, Exoplanets, Cameras, Imaging systems, Adaptive optics

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Proceedings Article | 13 December 2020 Poster + Paper

The PICTURE-C MKID camera

Noah Swimmer, Benjamin Mazin, Clint Bockstiegel, John Bailey, Gregoire Coiffard, Miguel Daal, Kristina Davis, Neelay Fruitwala, Isabel Lipartito, Jennifer Smith, Sarah Steiger, Nicholas Zobrist, Timothy Cook, Supriya Chakrabarti, Christopher Mendillo, Jason Martel, Kuravi Hewawasam

Proceedings Volume 11447, 114479B (2020) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2561770

KEYWORDS: Cameras, Exoplanets, Iterated function systems, Optical imaging, Sensors, Photon counting, Spectrographs, Microwave radiation, Inductance, Spatial resolution

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SPIE Journal Paper | 7 October 2020

Microelectromechanical deformable mirror development for high-contrast imaging, part 1: miniaturized, flight-capable control electronics

Eduardo Bendek, Garreth Ruane, Camilo Mejia Prada, Christopher Mendillo, A.J. Eldorado Riggs, Eugene Serabyn

JATIS, Vol. 6, Issue 04, 045001, (October 2020) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.10.1117/1.JATIS.6.4.045001

KEYWORDS: Actuators, Electronics, Microelectromechanical systems, Coronagraphy, Deformable mirrors, Control systems, Exoplanets, Power supplies, Wavefronts, Stars

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Deformable mirrors (DMs) are a critical technology to enable coronagraphic direct imaging of exoplanets with current and planned ground- and space-based telescopes as well as future mission concepts, such as the Habitable Exoplanet Observatory and the Large UV/Optical/IR Surveyor. The latter concepts aim to image exoplanet types ranging from gas giants to Earth analogs. This places several requirements on the DMs such as requires a large actuator count (≳3000), fine surface height resolution (≲10 pm), and radiation hardened driving electronics with low mass and volume. We present the design and testing of a flight-capable, miniaturized DM controller. Having achieved contrasts on the order of 5 × 10 − 9 on a coronagraph testbed in vacuum in the high contrast imaging testbed facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), we demonstrate that the electronics are capable of meeting the requirements of future coronagraph-equipped space telescopes. We also report on functionality testing on-board the high-altitude balloon experiment “Planetary Imaging Concept Testbed Using a Recoverable Experiment – Coronagraph,” which aims to directly image debris disks and exozodiacal dust around nearby stars. The controller is designed for the Boston Micromachines Corporation Kilo-DM and is readily scalable to larger DM formats. The three main components of the system (the DM, driving electronics, and mechanical and heat management) are designed to be compact and have low-power consumption to enable its use not only on exoplanet missions, but also in a wide-range of applications that require precision optical systems, such as direct line-of-sight laser communications. The controller is capable of handling 1024 actuators with 220 V maximum dynamic range, 16-bit resolution, 14-bit accuracy, and 1 kHz operating frequency. The system fits in a 10 × 10 × 5 cm3 volume, weighs <0.5 kg, and consumes <8 W. We have developed a turnkey solution reducing the risk for future missions, lowering their cost by significantly reducing volume, weight, and power consumption of the wavefront control hardware.

Proceedings Article | 9 September 2019 Paper

Decoupling the image-plane and low-order wavefront sensors for the PICTURE-C coronagraph

Christopher Mendillo, Kuravi Hewawasam, Glenn Howe, Jason Martel, Timothy Cook, Supriya Chakrabarti

Proceedings Volume 11117, 111171R (2019) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2529724

KEYWORDS: Calibration, Coronagraphy, Wavefront sensors, Wavefronts, Sensors, Control systems, Deformable mirrors, Cameras, Exoplanets, CCD cameras

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Proceedings Article | 9 September 2019 Presentation + Paper

The PICTURE-C exoplanetary direct imaging balloon mission: first flight preparation

Christopher Mendillo, Kuravi Hewawasam, Glenn Howe, Jason Martel, Timothy Cook, Supriya Chakrabarti

Proceedings Volume 11117, 1111707 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2529710

KEYWORDS: Mirrors, Coronagraphy, Telescopes, Wavefronts, Sensors, Calibration, Wavefront sensors, Cameras, Stars, Control systems

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Proceedings Article | 9 September 2019 Paper

The low-order wavefront control system for the PICTURE-C mission: deformable mirror anti-aliasing through temporal dithering

Kuravi Hewawasam, Christopher Mendillo, Glenn Howe, Jason Martel, Susanna Finn, Timothy Cook, Julien Charton, Pierre Mahiou, Supriya Chakrabarti

Proceedings Volume 11117, 111171Q (2019) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2529706

KEYWORDS: Actuators, Wavefronts, Wavefront sensors, Interfaces, Control systems, Mirrors, Clocks, Deformable mirrors, Analog electronics, Coronagraphy

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SPIE Journal Paper | 14 May 2019

Polarization aberration analysis for the PICTURE-C exoplanetary coronagraph

Christopher Mendillo, Glenn Howe, Kuravi Hewawasam, Jason Martel, Timothy Cook, Supriya Chakrabarti

JATIS, Vol. 5, Issue 02, 025003, (May 2019) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.10.1117/1.JATIS.5.2.025003

KEYWORDS: Polarization, Coronagraphy, Coating, Mirrors, Ray tracing, Geometrical optics, Wavefronts, Telescopes, Reflection, Reflectivity

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SPIE Journal Paper | 9 March 2018

Wavefront sensing in space: flight demonstration II of the PICTURE sounding rocket payload

Ewan Douglas, Christopher Mendillo, Timothy Cook, Kerri Cahoy, Supriya Chakrabarti

JATIS, Vol. 4, Issue 01, 019003, (March 2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.10.1117/1.JATIS.4.1.019003

KEYWORDS: Space telescopes, Wavefront sensors, Wavefronts, Coronagraphy, Mirrors, Actuators, Rockets, Telescopes, Phase measurement, Interferometers

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Proceedings Article | 1 September 2017 Paper

The low-order wavefront control system for the PICTURE-C mission: high-speed image acquisition and processing

Kuravi Hewawasam, Christopher Mendillo, Glenn Howe, Jason Martel, Susanna Finn, Timothy Cook, Supriya Chakrabarti

Proceedings Volume 10400, 1040020 (2017) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2274125

KEYWORDS: Control systems, Imaging systems, Wavefronts, Image acquisition, Image processing, Wavefront sensors, Operating systems, Computing systems, Exoplanets

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Proceedings Article | 1 September 2017 Paper

The low-order wavefront control system for the PICTURE-C mission: preliminary testbed results from the Shack-Hartmann sensor

Glenn Howe, Christopher Mendillo, Kuravi Hewawasam, Jason Martel, Susanna Finn, Timothy Cook, Supriya Chakrabarti

Proceedings Volume 10400, 104001Z (2017) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2274122

KEYWORDS: Control systems, Sensors, Imaging systems, Wavefronts, Wavefront sensors, Stars, Telescopes, Mirrors, Deformable mirrors

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Proceedings Article | 1 September 2017 Presentation + Paper

Optical tolerances for the PICTURE-C mission: error budget for electric field conjugation, beam walk, surface scatter, and polarization aberration

Christopher Mendillo, Glenn Howe, Kuravi Hewawasam, Jason Martel, Susanna Finn, Timothy Cook, Supriya Chakrabarti

Proceedings Volume 10400, 1040010 (2017) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2274105

KEYWORDS: Polarization, Tolerancing, Scattering, Imaging systems, Adaptive optics, Exoplanets, Optical fabrication

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Proceedings Article | 29 July 2016 Paper

Wavefront sensing in space from the PICTURE-B sounding rocket

Ewan Douglas, Christopher Mendillo, Timothy Cook, Supriya Chakrabarti

Proceedings Volume 9904, 99046A (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2235631

KEYWORDS: Wavefront sensors, Rockets, Mirrors, Wavefronts, Actuators, Phase measurement, Monochromatic aberrations, Coronagraphy, Visibility, Ferroelectric materials

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Proceedings Article | 16 September 2015 Paper

The low-order wavefront sensor for the PICTURE-C mission

Christopher Mendillo, Joshua Brown, Jason Martel, Glenn Howe, Kuravi Hewawasam, Susanna Finn, Timothy Cook, Supriya Chakrabarti, Ewan Douglas, Dimitri Mawet, Olivier Guyon, Garima Singh, Julien Lozi, Kerri Cahoy, Anne Marinan

Proceedings Volume 9605, 960519 (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2188238

KEYWORDS: Sensors, Wavefront sensors, Coronagraphy, Wavefronts, Control systems, Telescopes, Data modeling, Mirrors, Visible radiation, Stars

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Proceedings Article | 16 September 2015 Paper

End-to-end simulation of high-contrast imaging systems: methods and results for the PICTURE mission family

Ewan Douglas, Kuravi Hewawasam, Christopher Mendillo, Kerri Cahoy, Timothy Cook, Susanna Finn, Glenn Howe, Marc Kuchner, Nikole Lewis, Anne Marinan, Dimitri Mawet, Supriya Chakrabarti

Proceedings Volume 9605, 96051A (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2187262

KEYWORDS: Wavefronts, Coronagraphy, Rockets, Telescopes, Device simulation, Wave propagation, Space telescopes, Sensors, Point spread functions, Mirrors

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SPIE Journal Paper | 11 September 2015 Open Access

Planetary Imaging Concept Testbed Using a Recoverable Experiment–Coronagraph (PICTURE C)

Timothy Cook, Kerri Cahoy, Supriya Chakrabarti, Ewan Douglas, Susanna Finn, Marc Kuchner, Nikole Lewis, Anne Marinan, Jason Martel, Dimitri Mawet, Benjamin Mazin, Seth Meeker, Christopher Mendillo, Gene Serabyn, David Stuchlik, Mark Swain

JATIS, Vol. 1, Issue 04, 044001, (September 2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.10.1117/1.JATIS.1.4.044001

KEYWORDS: Coronagraphy, Planets, Imaging systems, Telescopes, Stars, Exoplanets, Mirrors, Sensors, Wavefronts, Infrared imaging

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Proceedings Article | 26 September 2013 Paper

Direct imaging of exoplanetary systems with a monolithic multispectral camera

Brian Hicks, Kathleen Oram, Nikole Lewis, Christopher Mendillo, Paul Bierden, TImothy Cook, Supriya Chakrabarti

Proceedings Volume 8864, 886408 (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2026991

KEYWORDS: Cameras, Exoplanets, Nulling interferometry, Imaging systems, Mirrors, Sensors, Wavefronts, Wavefront sensors, Diffraction, Point spread functions

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Proceedings Article | 21 September 2012 Paper

PICTURE: a sounding rocket experiment for direct imaging of an extrasolar planetary environment

Christopher Mendillo, Brian Hicks, Timothy Cook, Thomas Bifano, David Content, Benjamin Lane, B. Martin Levine, Douglas Rabin, Shanti Rao, Rocco Samuele, Edouard Schmidtlin, Michael Shao, J. Kent Wallace, Supriya Chakrabarti

Proceedings Volume 8442, 84420E (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.926408

KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Nulling interferometry, Mirrors, Calibration, Cameras, Space telescopes, National Ignition Facility, Interferometers, Rockets, Ferroelectric materials

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Proceedings Article | 20 August 2009 Paper

The Monolithic Achromatic Nulling Interference Coronagraph (MANIC) testbed

Brian Hicks, Timothy Cook, Benjamin Lane, Christopher Mendillo, Paul Jung, Supriya Chakrabarti

Proceedings Volume 7440, 74401B (2009) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.826455

KEYWORDS: Nulling interferometry, Ferroelectric materials, Coronagraphy, Mirrors, Prisms, Sensors, Exoplanets, Beam splitters, Adaptive optics, Polarization

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Proceedings Article | 8 February 2008 Paper

Path length control in a nulling coronagraph with a MEMS deformable mirror and a calibration interferometer

Shanti Rao, J. Kent Wallace, Rocco Samuele, Supriya Chakrabarti, Timothy Cook, Brian Hicks, Paul Jung, Benjamin Lane, B. Martin Levine, Chris Mendillo, Edouard Schmidtlin, Mike Shao, Jason Stewart

Proceedings Volume 6888, 68880B (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.763652

KEYWORDS: Nulling interferometry, Calibration, Targeting Task Performance metric, Interferometers, Mirrors, Actuators, Coronagraphy, Deformable mirrors, Cameras, Microelectromechanical systems

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Showing 5 of 29 publications

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