Experimental validation of active control of low-order aberrations with a Zernike sensor through a Lyot coronagraph

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates laboratory validation of active low-order aberration correction using a Zernike wavefront sensor integrated with a Lyot coronagraph, improving high-contrast imaging for future space telescopes.

Contribution

It introduces strategies for active aberration correction with a Zernike sensor in a segmented pupil setup, validated through laboratory experiments.

Findings

Successful closed-loop correction of internal turbulence.

Effective contrast recovery in the dark hole.

Validation of phase conjugation and interaction matrix methods.

Abstract

Future large segmented space telescopes and their coronagraphic instruments are expected to provide the resolution and sensitivity to observe Earth-like planets with a 10^10 contrast ratio at less than 100 mas from their host star. Advanced coronagraphs and wavefront control methods will enable the generation of high-contrast dark holes in the image of an observed star. However, drifts in the optical path of the system will lead to pointing errors and other critical low-order aberrations that will prevent maintenance of this contrast. To measure and correct for these errors, we explore the use of a Zernike wavefront sensor (ZWFS) in the starlight rejected and filtered by the focal plane mask of a Lyot-type coronagraph. In our previous work, the analytical phase reconstruction formalism of the ZWFS was adapted for a filtered beam. We now explore strategies to actively compensate for these drifts in a segmented pupil setup on the High-contrast imager for Complex Aperture Telescopes (HiCAT). This contribution presents laboratory results from closed-loop compensation of bench internal turbulence as well as known introduced aberrations using phase conjugation and interaction matrix approaches. We also study the contrast recovery in the image plane dark hole when using a closed loop based on the ZWFS.