High contrast imaging with MEMS deformable mirrors in the Decadal Survey Testbed

A. J. Eldorado Riggs; Garreth Ruane; Camilo A. Mejia Prada; David S. Marx; Byoung-Joon Seo

doi:10.1117/12.2593459

1 September 2021 High contrast imaging with MEMS deformable mirrors in the Decadal Survey Testbed

A. J. Eldorado Riggs, Garreth Ruane, Camilo A. Mejia Prada, David S. Marx, Byoung-Joon Seo

Proceedings Volume 11823, Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets X; 118230S (2021) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2593459
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2021, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Deformable mirrors (DMs) are an essential part of any coronagraphic, high contrast instrument. They mitigate optical aberrations in the system and can even be used to generate contrast for the coronagraph. MEMS DMs from Boston Micromachines have been selected as the baseline for two flagship space telescopes proposed to the 2020 Decadal Survey. Although MEMS DMs have over a decade of heritage on ground-based telescopes and in in-air testbeds around the globe, they have not been tested in vacuum down to the ∼10⁻¹⁰ contrast level needed to image terrestrial exoplanets. In this paper, we describe vacuum tests of MEMS DMs in the Decadal Survey Testbed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The first challenge was a bright, temporally incoherent signal, which was identified as electronics noise and removed with a low-pass filter. After that, the contrast has been limited in broadband light by the strong print-through on the DM surfaces. We performed numerical simulations to confirm that conclusion and to characterize the improvements needed to the MEMS DM surfaces and the testbed layout to attain our goal of 10⁻¹⁰ contrast. Keywords: deformable mirror, coronagraph

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

A. J. Eldorado Riggs, Garreth Ruane, Camilo A. Mejia Prada, David S. Marx, and Byoung-Joon Seo "High contrast imaging with MEMS deformable mirrors in the Decadal Survey Testbed", Proc. SPIE 11823, Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets X, 118230S (1 September 2021); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2593459

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