Closed-loop focal plane wavefront control with the SCExAO instrument

Abstract

This article describes the implementation of a focal plane based wavefront control loop on the high-contrast imaging instrument SCExAO (Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics). The sensor relies on the Fourier analysis of conventional focal-plane images acquired after an asymmetric mask is introduced in the pupil of the instrument. This absolute sensor is used here in a closed-loop to compensate the non-common path errors that normally affects any imaging system relying on an upstream adaptive optics system.This specific implementation was used to control low order modes corresponding to eight zernike modes (from focus to spherical). This loop was successfully run on-sky at the Subaru Telescope and is used to offset the SCExAO deformable mirror shape used as a zero-point by the high-order wavefront sensor. The paper precises the range of errors this wavefront sensing approach can operate within and explores the impact of saturation of the data and how it can be bypassed, at a cost in performance. Beyond this application, because of its low hardware impact, APF-WFS can easily be ported in a wide variety of wavefront sensing contexts, for ground- as well space-borne telescopes, and for telescope pupils that can be continuous, segmented or even sparse. The technique is powerful because it measures the wavefront where it really matters, at the level of the science detector.

9 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication by A&A

References in corpus (4)

• The Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics system: enabling high-contrast imaging on solar-system scales
• Accreting Protoplanets in the LkCa 15 Transition Disk
• On-sky speckle nulling demonstration at small angular separation with SCExAO
• Artificial incoherent speckles enable precision astrometry and photometry in high-contrast imaging

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• Focal-plane wavefront sensing with the vector Apodizing Phase Plate
• An H-band Vector Vortex Coronagraph for the Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme-Adaptive Optics System
• Kernel Phase and Coronagraphy with Automatic Differentiation
• Millisecond Exoplanet Imaging, I: Method and Simulation Results
• First on-sky demonstration of spatial Linear Dark Field Control with the vector-Apodizing Phase Plate at Subaru/SCExAO
• Probing Photon Statistics in Adaptive Optics Images with SCExAO/MEC
• Active focal-plane coronagraphy with liquid-crystal spatial-light modulators: Broadband contrast performance in the visible