activity
20242026
collaborators

11 papers

astro-ph.IM2026

Initial modeling and testbed feasibility studies of WaveDriver: a laser guide star AO system for HWO

Dominic F. Sanchez, Benjamin L. Gerard, Peter Waswa +16

The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) will require greater wavefront stability than achieved by JWST, pushing conventional telescope architectures to picometer-level…

astro-ph.IM2026

Design and simulation of a photonic lantern-inspired astrophotonic chip for spectral sensing

Avi Patel, Kevin A. Bundy, Aditya Sengupta +10

Compact astrophotonic sensors can trade general-purpose spectral coverage for task-specific wavelength discrimination in a small integrated footprint. Developed with the Mazin Lab…

astro-ph.IM2026

Demonstrating the integration of a photonic lantern with an all-fiber-based nulling interferometer

Jordan Diaz, Rebecca Jensen-Clem, Philip M. Hinz +12

High-contrast imaging of Solar System scale exoplanets and protoplanets demands advancements in instrumentation to access deeper starlight suppression at smaller angular separation…

astro-ph.IM2026

Laboratory characterization of a multi-photonic lantern optical waveguide using off-axis holography

Aditya R. Sengupta, Benjamin L. Gerard, Dominic Sanchez +7

Photonic lanterns (PLs) are waveguides that convert multi-mode input light to single-mode outputs. Wavefront sensing (WFS) and spectroscopy using a PL have been demonstrated, but P…

astro-ph.IM2026

Experimentally-determined performance limits for joint imaging and wavefront sensing with a photonic lantern

Aditya R. Sengupta, Vincent Chambouleyron, Rebecca Jensen-Clem +16

The photonic lantern (PL) is a focal-plane wavefront sensor (WFS) that can be used for second-stage control of extreme adaptive optics (AO) systems. While the number of sensed mode…

astro-ph.IM2026

WaveDriver: a Laser Guide Star AO System for HWO

Benjamin L. Gerard, Alex Geringer-Sameth, Aditya R. Sengupta +7

Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) presents a key challenge for technology development in the coming years, requiring a more stable system than \textit{JWST}. WaveD…

astro-ph.IM2025

On-sky demonstration of second-stage wavefront control with a photonic lantern

Aditya R. Sengupta, Jordan Diaz, Matthew DeMartino +14

Ground-based direct imaging of exoplanets at high contrast requires precise correction of atmospheric turbulence using adaptive optics (AO). The planet-to-star contrast ratio at sm…

astro-ph.IM2025

WaveDriver: a Laser Guide Star AO System for HWO

Benjamin L. Gerard, Alex Geringer-Sameth, Aditya R. Sengupta +16

HWO's Tier 1 Contrast Stability Technology Gap presents a key challenge for technology development in the coming years, requiring to a >100x more stable system than JWST. WaveDrive…

astro-ph.IM2025

Experimental validation of photonic lantern imaging and wavefront sensing performance

Aditya R. Sengupta, Vincent Chambouleyron, Jordan Diaz +15

Photonic lanterns (PLs) are fiber-based waveguides that are capable of focal-plane wavefront sensing while simultaneously directing light to downstream science instruments. The opt…

astro-ph.IM2024

Laboratory demonstration of an all-fiber-based focal plane nulling interferometer

Jordan Diaz, Rebecca Jensen-Clem, Daren Dillon +6

Starlight suppression techniques for High-Contrast Imaging (HCI) are crucial to achieving the demanding contrast ratios and inner working angles required for detecting and characte…

astro-ph.IM2024

Photonic lantern wavefront reconstruction in a multi-wavefront sensor single-conjugate adaptive optics system

Aditya R. Sengupta, Jordan Diaz, Benjamin L. Gerard +6

Exoplanet direct imaging using adaptive optics (AO) is often limited by non-common path aberrations (NCPAs) and aberrations that are invisible to traditional pupil-plane wavefront…