Focal Plane Wavefront Sensing on SUBARU/SCExAO

TL;DR

This paper discusses the implementation and comparison of seven focal plane wavefront sensors on the SCExAO instrument at Subaru, aiming to improve correction of aberrations that limit high-contrast imaging, with implications for future large telescopes.

Contribution

It presents a comparative analysis of seven focal plane wavefront sensors implemented on SCExAO, highlighting their efficiency in correcting aberrations affecting high-contrast imaging.

Findings

Seven focal plane wavefront sensors compared on SCExAO.

Some sensors show higher efficiency in aberration correction.

Results inform future wavefront sensing for large telescopes.

Abstract

Focal plane wavefront sensing is an elegant solution for wavefront sensing since near-focal images of any source taken by a detector show distortions in the presence of aberrations. Non-Common Path Aberrations and the Low Wind Effect both have the ability to limit the achievable contrast of the finest coronagraphs coupled with the best extreme adaptive optics systems. To correct for these aberrations, the Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics instrument hosts many focal plane wavefront sensors using detectors as close to the science detector as possible. We present seven of them and compare their implementation and efficiency on SCExAO. This work will be critical for wavefront sensing on next generation of extremely large telescopes that might present similar limitations.