The space coronagraph optical bench (SCoOB): 4. vacuum performance of a high contrast imaging testbed

Abstract

The Space Coronagraph Optical Bench (SCoOB) is a high-contrast imaging testbed built to demonstrate starlight suppression techniques at visible wavelengths in a space-like vacuum environment. The testbed is designed to achieve $<10^{-8}$ contrast from $3-10\hat{I}»/D$ in a one-sided dark hole using a liquid crystal vector vortex waveplate and a 952-actuator Kilo-C deformable mirror (DM) from Boston Micromachines (BMC). We have recently expanded the testbed to include a field stop for mitigation of stray/scattered light, a precision-fabricated pinhole in the source simulator, a Minus K passive vibration isolation table for jitter reduction, and a low-noise vacuum-compatible CMOS sensor. We report the latest contrast performance achieved using implicit electric field conjugation (iEFC) at a vacuum of $\sim 10^{-6}$ Torr and over a range of bandpasses with central wavelengths from 500 to 650nm and bandwidths (BW) from $\ll 1\%$ to 15\%. Our jitter in vacuum is $<3\times 10^{-3}\hat{I}»/D$, and the best contrast performance to-date in a half-sided D-shaped dark hole is $2.2\times 10^{-9}$ in a $\ll 1\%$ BW, $4\times 10^{-9}$ in a 2\% BW, and $2.5\times 10^{-8}$ in a 15\% BW.

16 pages, 12 figures, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024