The Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme AO project

TL;DR

The paper presents the development and testing of the SCExAO system, an advanced adaptive optics setup designed to improve high contrast imaging for the Subaru Telescope by effectively suppressing obstructions like spider vanes and central obscurations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel combination of a PIAA coronagraph and MEMS-based wavefront control to enhance high contrast imaging capabilities on telescopes with central obstructions.

Findings

Successful suppression of spider vanes and central obscuration.

High throughput and angular resolution maintained.

Demonstrated performance of key optical components.

Abstract

High contrast coronagraphic imaging is a challenging task for telescopes with central obscurations and thick spider vanes, such as the Subaru Telescope. Our group is currently assembling an extreme AO bench designed as an upgrade for the newly commissionned coronagraphic imager instrument HiCIAO, that addresses these difficulties. The so-called SCExAO system combines a high performance PIAA coronagraph to a MEMS-based wavefront control system that will be used in complement of the Subaru AO188 system. We present and demonstrate good performance of two key optical components that suppress the spider vanes, the central obscuration and apodize the beam for high contrast coronagraphy, while preserving the throughput and the angular resolution.