Presentation + Paper
29 August 2022 Exoplanet detection with photonic lanterns for focal-plane wavefront sensing and control
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
Inner working angle is a key parameter for enabling scientific discovery in direct exoplanet imaging and characterization. Approaches to improving the inner working angle to reach the diffraction limit center on the sensing and control of wavefront errors, starlight suppression via coronagraphy, and differential techniques applied in post-processing. These approaches are ultimately limited by the shot noise of the residual starlight, placing a premium on the ability of the adaptive optics system to sense and control wavefront errors so that the coronagraph can effectively suppress starlight reaching the science focal plane. Photonic lanterns are attractive for use in the science focal plane because of their ability to spatially filter light using a finite basis of accepted modes and effectively couple the results to diffraction-limited spectrometers, providing a compact and cost-effective means to implement post-processing based on spectral diversity. We aim to characterize the ability of photonic lanterns to serve as focal-plane wavefront sensors, allowing the adaptive optics system to control aberrations affecting the science focal plane and reject additional stellar photon noise. By serving as focal-plane wavefront sensors, photonic lanterns can improve sensitivity to exoplanets through both direct and coronagraphic observations. We have studied the sensing capabilities of photonic lanterns in the linear and quadratic regimes with analytical and numerical treatments for different lantern geometries (including non-mode-selective, mode-selective, and hybrid geometries) as a function of port number. In this presentation we report on the sensitivity of such lanterns and comment on the relative suitability and sensitivity impacts of different lantern geometries for focal-plane wavefront sensing.
Conference Presentation
© (2022) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Jonathan Lin, Yinzi Xin, Barnaby Norris, Yoo Jung Kim, Steph Sallum, Christopher Betters, Sergio Leon-Saval, Julien Lozi, Sebastian Vievard, Oliver Guyon, Pradip Gatkine, Nemanja Jovanovic, Dimitri Mawet, and Michael P. Fitzgerald "Exoplanet detection with photonic lanterns for focal-plane wavefront sensing and control", Proc. SPIE 12185, Adaptive Optics Systems VIII, 121852G (29 August 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2630692
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KEYWORDS
Wavefront sensors

Wavefronts

Mathematical modeling

Single mode fibers

Telescopes

Photodetectors

Wavefront aberrations

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