Laboratory demonstration of high contrast with the PIAACMC coronagraph on an obstructed and segmented aperture

Ruslan Belikov; Dan Sirbu; David Marx; Camilo Mejia Prada; Eduardo Bendek; Eugene Pluzhnik; Stephen Bryson; Brian Kern; Olivier Guyon; Kevin Fogarty; Justin Knight; Daniel Wilson; John Hagopian

doi:10.1117/12.2630474

27 August 2022 Laboratory demonstration of high contrast with the PIAACMC coronagraph on an obstructed and segmented aperture

Ruslan Belikov, Dan Sirbu, David Marx, Camilo Mejia Prada, Eduardo Bendek, Eugene Pluzhnik, Stephen Bryson, Brian Kern, Olivier Guyon, Kevin Fogarty, Justin Knight, Daniel Wilson, John Hagopian

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 12180, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave; 1218025 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2630474
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2022, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Abstract

Coronagraphs are an important technology to directly image and characterize exoplanets. Their efficiency has steadily been improving over the past several decades, but has not yet reached fundamental limits. In particular, the expected exoplanet yield for missions such as the Astro2020-recommended “IR/O/UV Flagship” can still be improved by factors of at least 2-3. One possible architecture that can enable at least a part of this improvement is the Phase-Induced Amplitude Apodization Complex Mask Coronagraph (PIAACMC). It features high throughput, small inner working angle (IWA), and almost no loss in PSF sharpness, and natively supports obstructed and segmented apertures. Historically, key disadvantages of PIAA have been poor tolerance to stellar angular sizes and maturity, but latest designs and demonstrations have made significant strides in this respect. We present the current status of our program to mature the PIAACMC technology. We first present our PIAACMC designs for LUVOIR-A and B, which resulted in improved expected yield of Exo-Earths relative to the baselines for both mission concepts. In particular, for LUVOIR-B, the yield improves from 28 to 42 due to improved tolerance to stellar angular size in our design. Our and vacuum demonstrations for the LUVOIR-A aperture at JPL’s High Contrast Imaging Testbed (HCIT) include: 1.9e-8 raw contrast in 10% broadband light between 3.5 and 8 l/D; 4.1e-8 and 1.6e-9 coherent contrasts in monochromatic light between 2-4 and 4-8 l/D, respectively. We also present measurements and analysis of sensitivity to tip/tilt jitter and stellar angular size and compare our test results to models.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Ruslan Belikov, Dan Sirbu, David Marx, Camilo Mejia Prada, Eduardo Bendek, Eugene Pluzhnik, Stephen Bryson, Brian Kern, Olivier Guyon, Kevin Fogarty, Justin Knight, Daniel Wilson, and John Hagopian "Laboratory demonstration of high contrast with the PIAACMC coronagraph on an obstructed and segmented aperture", Proc. SPIE 12180, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave, 1218025 (27 August 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2630474

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