High Contrast Imaging Testbed Research Articles

Wavefront sensing and control in space-based coronagraph instruments using Zernike’s phase-contrast method

Future space telescopes with coronagraph instruments will use a wavefront sensor (WFS) to measure and correct for phase errors and stabilize the stellar intensity in high-contrast images. The HabEx and LUVOIR mission concepts baseline a Zernike wavefront sensor (ZWFS), which uses Zernike's phase contrast method to convert phase in the pupil into intensity at the WFS detector. In preparation for these potential future missions, we experimentally demonstrate a ZWFS in a coronagraph instrument on the Decadal Survey Testbed in the High Contrast Imaging Testbed facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. We validate that the ZWFS can measure low- and mid-spatial frequency aberrations up to the control limit of the deformable mirror, with surface height sensitivity as small as 1 pm, using a configuration similar to the HabEx and LUVOIR concepts. Furthermore, we demonstrate closed-loop control, resolving an individual DM actuator, with residuals consistent with theoretical models. In addition, we predict the expected performance of a ZWFS on future space telescopes using natural starlight from a variety of spectral types. The most challenging scenarios require ~1 hr of integration time to achieve picometer sensitivity. This timescale may be drastically reduced by using internal or external laser sources for sensing purposes. The experimental results and theoretical predictions presented here advance the WFS technology in the context of the next generation of space telescopes with coronagraph instruments.

Microelectromechanical deformable mirror development for high-contrast imaging, part 2: the impact of quantization errors on coronagraph image contrast

Stellar coronagraphs rely on deformable mirrors (DMs) to correct wavefront errors and create high contrast images. Imperfect control of the DM limits the achievable contrast and, therefore, the DM control electronics must provide fine surface height resolution and low noise. Here, we study the impact of quantization errors due to the DM electronics on the image contrast using experimental data from the High Contrast Imaging Testbed (HCIT) facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). We find that the simplest analytical model gives optimistic predictions compared to real cases, with contrast up to 3 times better, which leads to DM surface height resolution requirements that are incorrectly relaxed by 70%. We show that taking into account the DM actuator shape, or influence function, improves the analytical predictions. However, we also find that end-to-end numerical simulations of the wavefront sensing and control process provide the most accurate predictions and recommend such an approach for setting robust requirements on the DM control electronics. From our experimental and numerical results, we conclude that a surface height resolution of approximately 6pm is required for imaging temperate terrestrial exoplanets around Solar-type stars at wavelengths as small as 450nm with coronagraph instruments on future space telescopes. Finally, we list the recognizable characteristics of quantization errors that may help determine if they are a limiting factor.

WFIRST-AFTA coronagraph shaped pupil masks: design, fabrication, and characterization

NASA WFIRST-AFTA mission study includes a coronagraph instrument to find and characterize exoplanets. Various types of masks could be employed to suppress the host starlight to about 10−9 level contrast over a broad spectrum to enable the coronagraph mission objectives. Such masks for high-contrast internal coronagraphic imaging require various fabrication technologies to meet a wide range of specifications, including precise shapes, micron scale island features, ultralow reflectivity regions, uniformity, wave front quality, and achromaticity. We present the approaches employed at JPL to produce pupil plane and image plane coronagraph masks by combining electron beam, deep reactive ion etching, and black silicon technologies with illustrative examples of each, highlighting milestone accomplishments from the High Contrast Imaging Testbed at JPL and from the High Contrast Imaging Lab at Princeton University.

A Multiwavelength Differential Imaging Experiment for the High Contrast Imaging Testbed

ABSTRACTWe discuss the results of a multiwavelength differential imaging lab experiment with the High Contrast Imaging Testbed (HCIT) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The HCIT combines a Lyot coronagraph with a Xinetics deformable mirror in a vacuum environment to simulate a space telescope in order to test technologies and algorithms for a future exoplanet coronagraph mission. At present, ground-based telescopes have achieved significant attenuation of speckle noise using the technique of spectral differential imaging (SDI). We test whether ground-based SDI can be generalized to a nonsimultaneous spectral differential imaging technique (NSDI) for a space mission. In our lab experiment, a series of five filter images centered around the O2(A) absorption feature at 0.762 μm were acquired at nominal contrast values of 10-6, 10-7, 10-8, and 10-9. Outside the dark hole, single differences of images improve contrast by a factor of ∼6. Inside the dark hole, we found significant speckle chromatism as a function of wavelength offset from the nulling wavelength, leading to a contrast degradation by a factor of 7.2 across the entire ∼80 nm bandwidth. This effect likely stems from the chromatic behavior of the current occulter. New, less chromatic occulters are currently in development; we expect that these new occulters will resolve the speckle chromatism issue.

Behavior of imperfect band-limited coronagraphic masks in a high-contrast imaging system

We investigate the behavior of imperfect band-limited occulting masks in a high-contrast imaging system through modeling and simulations. Grayscale masks having 1D Sinc(2) (linear-Sinc(2)) amplitude transmission coefficient (Sinc(4) intensity transmittance) profiles as well as optical density and wavelength-dependent parasitic phases are considered occulters. We compare the behaviors of several, slightly different occulter transmittance profiles by evaluating the contrast performance of the high-contrast imaging testbed (HCIT) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). These occulters include a measured occulter, a standard Sinc(2) occulter, and several of its variations. We show that when an occulting mask has a parasitic phase, a modified Sinc(2) transmittance profile works much better than the standard Sinc(2) mask. We examine the impact of some fabrication errors of the occulter on the HCIT's contrast performance. We find through modeling and simulations that starlight suppression by a factor of more than 10(10) is achievable at least monochromatically on the HCIT with the occulting mask and the optics currently being used on the testbed. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that we investigate the behavior of a real (or fabricated) focal plane occulting mask in a high-contrast imaging system. We also briefly describe the approach used at JPL in fabricating a grayscale occulting mask and characterizing its transmittance and phase profiles.

Occulting Focal Plane Masks for Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph: Design, Fabrication, Simulations and Test Results

Occulting focal plane masks for the Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph (TPF-C) could be designed with continuous gray scale profile of the occulting pattern such as on a suitable material or with micron-scale binary transparent and opaque structures of metallic pattern on glass. We have designed, fabricated and tested both kinds of masks. The fundamental characteristics of such masks and initial test results from the High Contrast Imaging Test bed (HCIT) at JPL are presented.