Publications

The collected publications, posters, and presentations of the MagAO-X collaboration

open_in_newADS Library

GMagAO-X: A First Light Coronagraphic Adaptive Optics System for the GMT

Maggie Kautz, Jared R. Males, Laird M. Close, Sebastiaan Y. Haffert, Olivier Guyon, Alexander Hedglen, Victor Gasho, Olivier Durney, Jamison Noenickx, Adam Fletcher, Fernando Coronado, John Ford, Tom Connors, Mark Sullivan, Tommy Salanski, Doug Kelly, Richard Demers, Antonin Bouchez, Breann Sitarski, Patricio Schurter

Abstract:

GMagAO-X is a visible to NIR extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) system that will be used at first light for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). GMagAO-X is designed to deliver diffraction-limited performance at visible and NIR wavelengths (6 to 10 mas) and contrasts on the order of $10^{-7}$. The primary science case of GMagAO-X will be the characterization of mature, and potentially habitable, exoplanets in reflected light. GMagAO-X employs a woofer-tweeter system and includes segment phasing control. The tweeter is a 21,000 actuator segmented deformable mirror (DM), composed of seven individual 3,000 actuator DMs. This new ExAO framework of seven DMs working in parallel to produce a 21,000 actuator DM significantly surpasses any current or near future actuator count for a monolithic DM architecture. Bootstrapping, phasing, and high order sensing are enabled by a multi-stage wavefront sensing system. GMT's unprecedented 25.4 m aperture composed of seven segments brings a new challenge of co-phasing massive mirrors to 1/100th of a wavelength. The primary mirror segments of the GMT are separated by large >30 cm gaps so there will be fluctuations in optical path length (piston) across the pupil due to vibration of the segments, atmospheric conditions, etc. We have developed the High Contrast Adaptive-optics Testbed (HCAT) to test new wavefront sensing and control approaches for GMT and GMagAO-X, such as the holographic dispersed fringe sensor (HDFS), and the new ExAO parallel DM concept for correcting aberrations across a segmented pupil. The CoDR for GMagAO-X was held in September 2021 and a preliminary design review is planned for early 2024. In this paper we will discuss the science cases and requirements for the overall architecture of GMagAO-X, as well as the current efforts to prototype the novel hardware components and new wavefront sensing and control concepts for GMagAO-X on HCAT.

2023arXiv231010888K

eprint arXiv:2310.10888

MagAO-X and HST High-contrast Imaging of the AS209 Disk at Hα

Gabriele Cugno, Yifan Zhou, Thanawuth Thanathibodee, Per Calissendorff, Michael R. Meyer, Suzan Edwards, Jaehan Bae, Myriam Benisty, Edwin Bergin, Matthew De Furio, Stefano Facchini, Jared R. Males, Laird M. Close, Richard D. Teague, Olivier Guyon, Sebastiaan Y. Haffert, Alexander D. Hedglen, Maggie Kautz, Andrés Izquierdo, Joseph D. Long, Jennifer Lumbres, Avalon L. McLeod, Logan A. Pearce, Lauren Schatz, Kyle Van Gorkom

Abstract:

The detection of emission lines associated with accretion processes is a direct method for studying how and where gas giant planets form, how young planets interact with their natal protoplanetary disk, and how volatile delivery to their atmosphere takes place. Hα (λ = 0.656 μm) is expected to be the strongest accretion line observable from the ground with adaptive optics systems, and is therefore the target of specific high-contrast imaging campaigns. We present MagAO-X and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data obtained to search for Hα emission from the previously detected protoplanet candidate orbiting AS209, identified through Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations. No signal was detected at the location of the candidate, and we provide limits on its accretion. Our data would have detected an Hα emission with F > 2.5 ± 0.3 × 10-16 erg s-1 cm-2, a factor 6.5 lower than the HST flux measured for PDS70 b. The flux limit indicates that if the protoplanet is currently accreting it is likely that local extinction from circumstellar and circumplanetary material strongly attenuates its emission at optical wavelengths. In addition, the data reveal the first image of the jet north of the star as expected from previous detections of forbidden lines. Finally, this work demonstrates that current ground-based observations with extreme adaptive optics systems can be more sensitive than space-based observations, paving the way to the hunt for small planets in reflected light with extremely large telescopes.

2023AJ....166..162C

The Astronomical Journal, Volume 166, Issue 4, id.162, 9 pp.

Reaching the fundamental sensitivity limit of wavefront sensing on arbitrary apertures with the Phase Induced Amplitude Apodized Zernike Wavefront Sensor (PIAA-ZWFS)

Sebastiaan Y. Haffert, Jared R. Males, Olivier Guyon

Abstract:

In the last two decades many people have been searching for the optimal wavefront sensor as it can boost the performance of high-contrast imagining by orders of magnitude on the ELTs. According classical information theory, the optimal sensitivity of a wavefront sensor is 1/2 radian rms per photon. We show that classical limit is also the quantum metrology limit for starlight, which means that 1/2 radian rms per photon is really the limit. This proceeding introduces the Phase Induced Amplitude Apodized Zernike Wavefront sensor. The PIAA-ZWFS modifies a standard ZWFS with a set of aspheric lenses to increase its sensitivity. The optimized system reaches the fundamental limit for all spatial frequencies >1.7 cycles/pupil and is very close to the limit for the spatial frequencies <1.7 cycles/pupil. The PIAA-ZWFS can be seamlessly integrated with the PIAA-CMC coronagraphy. This makes the PIAA-ZWFS an ideal candidate as wavefront sensor for high-contrast imaging.

2023arXiv231010889H

eprint arXiv:2310.10889

Integrated coronagraphy and wavefront sensing with the PIAACMC

Sebastiaan Y. Haffert, Jared R. Males, Olivier Guyon

Abstract:

Uncorrected wavefront errors create speckle noise in high-contrast observations at small inner-working angles. These speckles can be sensed and controlled by using coronagraph integrated wavefront sensors. Here, we will present how the Phase Induced Amplitude Apodized Complex Mask Corongraph (PIAACMC) can be integrated with both a Self-Coherent Camera (SCC) for focal plane wavefront sensing and an extremely sensitivity high-order pupil plane Zernike wavefront sensor (ZWFS). Non-common path aberrations can be completely erased by integrating both sensors into the PIAACMC, which is of extremely high importance in high-contrast imaging.

2023arXiv231010892H

eprint arXiv:2310.10892

HIP 67506 C: MagAO-X confirmation of a new low-mass stellar companion to HIP 67506 A

Logan A. Pearce, Jared R. Males, Sebastiaan Y. Haffert, Laird M. Close, Joseph D. Long, Avalon L. McLeod, Justin M. Knight, Alexander D. Hedglen, Alycia J. Weinberger, Olivier Guyon, Maggie Kautz, Kyle Van Gorkom, Jennifer Lumbres, Lauren Schatz, Alex Rodack, Victor Gasho, Jay Kueny, Warren Foster, Katie M. Morzinski, Philip M. Hinz

Abstract:

We report the confirmation of HIP 67506 C, a new stellar companion to HIP 67506 A. We previously reported a candidate signal at 2λ/D (240 mas) in L' in MagAO/Clio imaging using the binary differential imaging technique. Several additional indirect signals showed that the candidate signal merited follow-up: significant astrometric acceleration in Gaia DR3, Hipparcos-Gaia proper motion anomaly, and overluminosity compared to single main-sequence stars. We confirmed the companion, HIP 67506 C, at 0.1 arcsec with MagAO-X in 2022 April. We characterized HIP 67506 C MagAO-X photometry and astrometry, and estimated spectral-type K7-M2; we also re-evaluated HIP 67506 A in light of the close companion. Additionally, we show that a previously identified 9 arcsec companion, HIP 67506 B, is a much further distant unassociated background star. We also discuss the utility of indirect signposts in identifying small inner working angle candidate companions.

2023MNRAS.521.4775P

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 521, Issue 3, pp.4775-4784

Improved Companion Mass Limits for Sirius A with Thermal Infrared Coronagraphy Using a Vector-apodizing Phase Plate and Time-domain Starlight-subtraction Techniques

Joseph D. Long, Jared R. Males, Sebastiaan Y. Haffert, Logan Pearce, Mark S. Marley, Katie M. Morzinski, Laird M. Close, Gilles P. P. L. Otten, Frans Snik, Matthew A. Kenworthy, Christoph U. Keller, Philip Hinz, John D. Monnier, Alycia Weinberger, Volker Tolls

Abstract:

We use observations with the infrared-optimized Magellan Adaptive Optics (MagAO) system and Clio camera in 3.9 μm light to place stringent mass constraints on possible undetected companions to Sirius A. We suppress the light from Sirius A by imaging it through a grating vector-apodizing phase plate coronagraph with a 180° dark region (gvAPP-180). To remove residual starlight in postprocessing, we apply a time-domain principal-components-analysis-based algorithm we call PCA-Temporal, which uses eigen time series rather than eigenimages to subtract starlight. By casting the problem in terms of eigen time series, we reduce the computational cost of postprocessing the data, enabling the use of the fully sampled data set for improved contrast at small separations. We also discuss the impact of retaining fine temporal sampling of the data on final contrast limits. We achieve postprocessed contrast limits of 1.5 × 10-6-9.8 × 10-6 outside of 0.″75, which correspond to planet masses of 2.6-8.0 M J. These are combined with values from the recent literature of high-contrast imaging observations of Sirius to synthesize an overall completeness fraction as a function of mass and separation. After synthesizing these recent studies and our results, the final completeness analysis rules out 99% of ≥9 M J planets from 2.5 to 7 au.

2023AJ....165..216L

The Astronomical Journal, Volume 165, Issue 5, id.216, 14 pp.

Implicit electric field conjugation: Data-driven focal plane control

S. Y. Haffert, J. R. Males, K. Ahn, K. Van Gorkom, O. Guyon, L. M. Close, J. D. Long, A. D. Hedglen, L. Schatz, M. Kautz, J. Lumbres, A. Rodack, J. M. Knight, K. Miller

Abstract:

Context. Direct imaging of Earth-like planets is one of the main science cases for the next generation of extremely large telescopes. This is very challenging due to the star-planet contrast that has to be overcome. Most current high-contrast imaging instruments are limited in sensitivity at small angular separations due to non-common path aberrations (NCPA). The NCPA leak through the corona-graph and create bright speckles that limit the on-sky contrast and therefore also the post-processed contrast.
Aims: We aim to remove the NCPA by active focal plane wavefront control using a data-driven approach.
Methods: We developed a new approach to dark hole creation and maintenance that does not require an instrument model. This new approach is called implicit Electric Field Conjugation (iEFC) and it can be empirically calibrated. This makes it robust for complex instruments where optical models might be difficult to realize. Numerical simulations have been used to explore the performance of iEFC for different coronagraphs. The method was validated on the internal source of the Magellan Adaptive Optics extreme (MagAO-X) instrument to demonstrate iEFC's performance on a real instrument.
Results: Numerical experiments demonstrate that iEFC can achieve deep contrast below 10−9 with several coronagraphs. The method is easily extended to broadband measurements and the simulations show that a bandwidth up to 40% can be handled without problems. Lab experiments with MagAO-X showed a contrast gain of a factor 10 in a broadband light and a factor 20-200 in narrowband light. A contrast of 5 × 10−8 was achieved with the Phase Apodized Pupil Lyot Coronagraph at 7.5 λ/D.
Conclusions: The new iEFC method has been demonstrated to work in numerical and lab experiments. It is a method that can be empirically calibrated and it can achieve deep contrast. This makes it a valuable approach for complex ground-based high-contrast imaging systems.

2023A&A...673A..28H

Astronomy & Astrophysics, Volume 673, id.A28, 13 pp.

First lab results of segment/petal phasing with a pyramid wavefront sensor and a novel holographic dispersed fringe sensor (HDFS) from the Giant Magellan Telescope high contrast adaptive optics phasing testbed

Alexander D. Hedglen, Laird M. Close, Sebastiaan Y. Haffert, Jared R. Males, Maggie Kautz, Antonin H. Bouchez, Richard Demers, Fernando Quirós-Pacheco, Breann N. Sitarski, Olivier Guyon, Kyle Van Gorkom, Joseph D. Long, Jennifer Lumbres, Lauren Schatz, Kelsey Miller, Alex Rodack, Justin M. Knight

Abstract:

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) design consists of seven circular 8.4-m diameter mirror segments that are separated by large > 30 cm gaps, making them susceptible to fluctuations in optical path differences (piston) due to flexure, segment vibrations, wind buffeting, temperature effects, and atmospheric seeing. If we wish to utilize the full 25.4-m diffractionlimited aperture of the GMT for high-contrast natural guide star adaptive optics (NGSAO) science (e.g., direct imaging of habitable zone earth-like planets around late type stars), the seven mirror segments must be co-phased to well within a fraction of a wavelength. The current design of the GMT involves seven adaptive secondary mirrors, a dispersed fringe sensor, and a pyramid wavefront sensor (PyWFS) to measure and correct the total path length between segment pairs, but these methods need to be tested "end-to-end" in a lab environment if we hope to officially retire the GMT high risk item of phasing performance. We present the design and working prototype of a "GMT High-Contrast Adaptive Optics phasing Testbed" (p-HCAT) which leverages the existing MagAO-X ExAO instrument to demonstrate segment phase sensing and simultaneous AO-control for high-contrast GMT NGSAO science. We present the first test results of closed-loop piston control with one GMT segment using MagAO-X's PyWFS and a novel Holographic Dispersed Fringe Sensor (HDFS) with and without simulated atmospheric turbulence. We show that the PyWFS alone was able to successfully control piston without turbulence within 12-33 nm RMS for 0 λ/D - 5 λ/D modulation, but was unsuccessful at controlling segmented piston with generated ∼ 0.6 arcsec and ∼ 1.2 arcsec seeing turbulence due to non-linear modal cross-talk and poor pixel sampling of the segment gaps on the PyWFS detector. We report the success of an alternate solution to control segmented piston using the novel HDFS while controlling all other modes with the PyWFS purely as a slope sensor (piston mode removed). This "second channel" WFS method worked well to control piston to within 50 nm RMS and ± 10 μm dynamic range under simulated 0.6 arcsec and 1.2 arcsec atmospheric seeing conditions. These results suggest that a PyWFS alone is not an ideal piston sensor for the GMT and likely other Giant Segmented Mirror Telescopes (GSMTs) as well. Therefore, an additional "second channel" piston sensor, such as the novel HDFS, is strongly suggested.

2022SPIE12185E..16H

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 12185, id. 1218516 13 pp. (2022).

A novel hexpyramid pupil slicer for an ExAO parallel DM for the Giant Magellan Telescope

Maggie Kautz, Laird M. Close, Alex Hedglen, Sebastiaan Haffert, Jared R. Males, Fernando Coronado

Abstract:

The 25.4m Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) will be amongst the first in a new series of segmented extremely large telescopes (ELTs). The 25.4 m pupil is segmented into seven 8.4 m circular segments in a flower petal pattern. At the University of Arizona we have developed a novel pupil slicer that will be used for ELT extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) on the up and coming ExAO instrument, GMagAO-X. This comes in the form of a six-sided reflective pyramid with a hole through the center known as a "hexpyramid". By passing the GMT pupil onto this reflective optic, the six outer petals will be sent outward in six different directions while the central segment passes through the center. Each segment will travel to its own polarization independent flat fold mirror mounted on a piezoelectric piston/tip/tilt controller then onto its own commercial 3,000 actuator deformable mirror (DM) that will be employed for extreme wavefront control. This scheme of seven DMs working in parallel to produce a 21,000 actuator DM is a new ExAO architecture that we named a "parallel DM," in which the hexpyramid is a key optical component. This significantly surpasses any current or near future actuator count for any monolithic DM architecture. The optical system is designed for high-quality wavefront (λ/10 surface PV) with no polarization errors and no vignetting. The design and fabrication of the invar mechanical mounting structure for this complex optical system is described in this paper.

2022SPIE12185E..4GK

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 12185, id. 121854G 14 pp. (2022).

XPipeline: starlight subtraction at scale for MagAO-X

Joseph D. Long, Jared R. Males, Sebastiaan Y. Haffert, Laird M. Close, Katie M. Morzinski, Kyle Van Gorkom, Jennifer Lumbres, Warren Foster, Alexander Hedglen, Maggie Kautz, Alex Rodack, Lauren Schatz, Kelsey Miller, David Doelman, Steven P. Bos, Matthew A. Kenworthy, Frans Snik, Gilles P. P. L. Otten

Abstract:

MagAO-X is an extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) instrument for the Magellan Clay 6.5-meter telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. Its high spatial and temporal resolution can produce data rates of 1 TB/hr or more, including all AO system telemetry and science images. We describe the tools and architecture we use for commanding, telemetry, and science data transmission and storage. The high data volumes require a distributed approach to data processing, and we have developed a pipeline that can scale from a single laptop to dozens of HPC nodes. The same codebase can then be used for both quick-look functionality at the telescope and for post-processing. We present the software and infrastructure we have developed for ExAO data post-processing, and illustrate their use with recently acquired direct-imaging data.

2022SPIE12185E..3PL

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 12185, id. 121853P 7 pp. (2022).

Toward on-sky adaptive optics control using reinforcement learning. Model-based policy optimization for adaptive optics

J. Nousiainen, C. Rajani, M. Kasper, T. Helin, S. Y. Haffert, C. Vérinaud, J. R. Males, K. Van Gorkom, L. M. Close, J. D. Long, A. D. Hedglen, O. Guyon, L. Schatz, M. Kautz, J. Lumbres, A. Rodack, J. M. Knight, K. Miller

Abstract:

Context. The direct imaging of potentially habitable exoplanets is one prime science case for the next generation of high contrast imaging instruments on ground-based, extremely large telescopes. To reach this demanding science goal, the instruments are equipped with eXtreme Adaptive Optics (XAO) systems which will control thousands of actuators at a framerate of kilohertz to several kilohertz. Most of the habitable exoplanets are located at small angular separations from their host stars, where the current control laws of XAO systems leave strong residuals.
Aims: Current AO control strategies such as static matrix-based wavefront reconstruction and integrator control suffer from a temporal delay error and are sensitive to mis-registration, that is, to dynamic variations of the control system geometry. We aim to produce control methods that cope with these limitations, provide a significantly improved AO correction, and, therefore, reduce the residual flux in the coronagraphic point spread function (PSF).
Methods: We extend previous work in reinforcement learning for AO. The improved method, called the Policy Optimization for Adaptive Optics (PO4AO), learns a dynamics model and optimizes a control neural network, called a policy. We introduce the method and study it through numerical simulations of XAO with Pyramid wavefront sensor (PWFS) for the 8-m and 40-m telescope aperture cases. We further implemented PO4AO and carried out experiments in a laboratory environment using Magellan Adaptive Optics eXtreme system (MagAO-X) at the Steward laboratory.
Results: PO4AO provides the desired performance by improving the coronagraphic contrast in numerical simulations by factors of 3-5 within the control region of deformable mirror and PWFS, both in simulation and in the laboratory. The presented method is also quick to train, that is, on timescales of typically 5-10 s, and the inference time is sufficiently small (

2022A&A...664A..71N

Astronomy & Astrophysics, Volume 664, id.A71, 15 pp.

Advanced wavefront sensing and control demonstration with MagAO-X

Sebastiaan Y. Haffert, Jared R. Males, Kyle Van Gorkom, Laird M. Close, Joseph D. Long, Alexander D. Hedglen, Kyohoon Ahn, Olivier Guyon, Lauren Schatz, Maggie Kautz, Jennifer Lumbres, Alexander Rodack, Justin M. Knight, He Sun, Kevin Fogarty, Kelsey Miller

Abstract:

The search for exoplanets is pushing adaptive optics systems on ground-based telescopes to their limits. Currently, we are limited by two sources of noise: the temporal control error and non-common path aberrations. First, the temporal control error of the AO system leads to a strong residual halo. This halo can be reduced by applying predictive control. We will show and described the performance of predictive control with the 2K BMC DM in MagAO-X. After reducing the temporal control error, we can target non-common path wavefront aberrations. During the past year, we have developed a new model-free focal-plane wavefront control technique that can reach deep contrast (<1e-7 at 5 λ/D) on MagAO-X. We will describe the performance and discuss the on-sky implementation details and how this will push MagAO-X towards imaging planets in reflected light. The new data-driven predictive controller and the focal plane wavefront controller will be tested on-sky in April 2022.

2022SPIE12185E..81H

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 12185, id. 1218581 10 pp. (2022).

The optical and mechanical design for the 21,000 actuator ExAO system for the Giant Magellan Telescope: GMagAO-X

Laird M. Close, Jared R. Males, Olivier Durney, Fernando Coronado, Sebastiaan Y. Haffert, Victor Gasho, Alexander Hedglen, Maggie Y. Kautz, Tom E. Connors, Mark Sullivan, Olivier Guyon, Jamison Noenickx

Abstract:

GMagAO-X is the ExAO coronagraphic instrument for the 25.4m GMT. It is designed for a slot on the folded port of the GMT. To meet the strict ExAO fitting and servo error requirement (<90nm rms WFE), GMagAO-X must have 21,000 actuator DM capable of ≥2KHz correction speeds. To minimize wavefront/segment piston error GMagAO-X has an interferometric beam combiner on a vibration isolated table, as part of this "21,000 actuator parallel DM". Piston errors are sensed by a Holographic Dispersed Fringe Sensor (HDFS). In addition to a coronagraph, it has a post-coronagraphic Low Order WFS (LLOWFS) to sense non-common path (NCP) errors. The LLOWFS drives a non-common path DM (NCP DM) to correct those NCP errors. GMagAO-X obtains high-contrast science and wavefront sensing in the visible and/or the NIR. Here we present our successful externally reviewed (Sept. 2021) CoDR optical-mechanical design that satisfies GMagAO-X's top-level science requirements and is compliant with the GMT instrument requirements and only requires COTS parts.

2022SPIE12185E..24C

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 12185, id. 1218524 15 pp. (2022).

MagAO-X: current status and plans for Phase II

Jared R. Males, Laird M. Close, Sebastiaan Haffert, Joseph D. Long, Alexander D. Hedglen, Logan Pearce, Alycia J. Weinberger, Olivier Guyon, Justin M. Knight, Avalon McLeod, Maggie Kautz, Kyle Van Gorkom, Jennifer Lumbres, Lauren Schatz, Alex Rodack, Victor Gasho, Jay Kueny, Warren Foster

Abstract:

We present a status update for MagAO-X, a 2000 actuator, 3.6 kHz adaptive optics and coronagraph system for the Magellan Clay 6.5 m telescope. MagAO-X is optimized for high contrast imaging at visible wavelengths. Our primary science goals are detection and characterization of Solar System-like exoplanets, ranging from very young, still-accreting planets detected at H-alpha, to older temperate planets which will be characterized using reflected starlight. First light was in Dec, 2019, but subsequent commissioning runs were canceled due to COVID19. In the interim, MagAO-X has served as a lab testbed. Highlights include implementation of several focal plane and low-order wavefront sensing algorithms, development of a new predictive control algorithm, and the addition of an IFU module. MagAO-X also serves as the AO system for the Giant Magellan Telescope High Contrast Adaptive Optics Testbed. We will provide an overview of these projects, and report the results of our commissioning and science run in April, 2022. Finally, we will present the status of a comprehensive upgrade to MagAO-X to enable extreme-contrast characterization of exoplanets in reflected light. These upgrades include a new post-AO 1000-actuator deformable mirror inside the coronagraph, latest generation sCMOS detectors for wavefront sensing, optimized PIAACMC coronagraphs, and computing system upgrades. When these Phase II upgrades are complete we plan to conduct a survey of nearby exoplanets in reflected light.

2022SPIE12185E..09M

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 12185, id. 1218509 10 pp. (2022).

The Giant Magellan Telescope high contrast adaptive optics phasing testbed (p-HCAT): lab tests of segment/petal phasing with a pyramid wavefront sensor and a holographic dispersed fringe sensor (HDFS) in turbulence

Alexander D. Hedglen, Laird M. Close, Sebastiaan Y. Haffert, Jared R. Males, Maggie Kautz, Antonin H. Bouchez, Richard Demers, Fernando Quiros-Pacheco, Breann N. Sitarski, Olivier Guyon, Kyle Van Gorkom, Joseph D. Long, Jennifer Lumbres, Lauren Schatz, Kelsey Miller, Alex Rodack, Justin M. Knight

Abstract:

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) design consists of seven circular 8.4-m diameter mirror segments that are separated by large > 30 cm gaps, creating the possibility of fluctuations in optical path differences due to flexure, segment vibrations, wind buffeting, temperature effects, and atmospheric seeing. In order to utilize the full diffraction-limited aperture of the GMT for natural guide star adaptive optics (NGSAO) science, the seven mirror segments must be co-phased to well within a fraction of a wavelength. The current design of the GMT involves seven adaptive secondary mirrors, an off-axis dispersed fringe sensor (part of the AGWS), and a pyramid wavefront sensor (PyWFS; part of the NGWS) to measure and correct the total path length between segment pairs, but these methods have yet to be tested "end-to-end" in a lab environment. We present the design and working prototype of a "GMT High-Contrast Adaptive Optics phasing Testbed" (p-HCAT) which leverages the existing MagAO-X AO instrument to demonstrate segment phase sensing and simultaneous AO-control for GMT NGSAO science. We present the first test results of closed-loop piston control with one GMT segment using MagAO-X's PyWFS and a novel Holographic Dispersed Fringe Sensor (HDFS) with and without simulated atmospheric turbulence. We show that the PyWFS alone was unsuccessful at controlling segment piston with generated ~ 0.6 arcsec and ~ 1.2 arcsec seeing turbulence due to non-linear modal cross-talk and poor pixel sampling of the segment gaps on the PyWFS detector. We report the success of an alternate solution to control piston using the novel HDFS while controlling all other modes with the PyWFS purely as a slope sensor (piston mode removed). This "second channel" WFS method worked well to control piston to within 50 nm RMS and $\pm$ 10 $\mu$m dynamic range under simulated 0.6 arcsec atmospheric seeing conditions.

2022arXiv220603614H

eprint arXiv:2206.03614

The Holographic Dispersed Fringe Sensors (HDFS): phasing the Giant Magellan Telescope

Sebastiaan Y. Haffert, Laird M. Close, Alexander D. Hedglen, Jared R. Males, Maggie Kautz, Antonin H. Bouchez, Richard Demers, Fernando Quiros-Pacheco, Breann N. Sitarski, Kyle Van Gorkom, Joseph D. Long, Olivier Guyon, Lauren Schatz, Kelsey Miller, Jennifer Lumbres, Alex Rodack, Justin M. Knight

Abstract:

The next generation of Giant Segmented Mirror Telescopes (GSMT) will have large gaps between the segments either caused by the shadow of the mechanical structure of the secondary mirror (E-ELT and TMT) or intrinsically by design (GMT). These gaps are large enough to fragment the aperture into independent segments that are separated by more than the typical Fried parameter. This creates piston and petals modes that are not well sensed by conventional wavefront sensors such as the Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor or the pyramid wavefront sensor. We propose to use a new optical device, the Holographic Dispersed Fringe Sensor (HDFS), to sense and control these petal/piston modes. The HDFS uses a single pupil-plane hologram to interfere the segments onto different spatial locations in the focal plane. Numerical simulations show that the HDFS is very efficient and that it reaches a differential piston rms smaller than 10 nm for GMT/E-ELT/TMT for guide stars up to 13th J+H band magnitude. The HDFS has also been validated in the lab with MagAO-X and HCAT, the GMT phasing testbed. The lab experiments reached 5 nm rms piston error on the Magellan telescope aperture. The HDFS also reached 50 nm rms of piston error on a segmented GMT-like aperture while the pyramid wavefront sensor was compensating simulated atmosphere under median seeing conditions. The simulations and lab results demonstrate the HDFS as an excellent piston sensor for the GMT. We find that the combination of a pyramid slope sensor with a HDFS piston sensor is a powerful architecture for the GMT.

2022arXiv220603615H

eprint arXiv:2206.03615

Characterization of planets of all ages with MagAO-X and GMagAO-X at optical wavelengths

Sebastiaan Haffert, Jared Males, Laird Close, Olivier Guyon, Joseph Long, Alexander Hedglen, Alex Rodack, Justin Knight, Logan Pearce, Kelsey Miller, Kyle Van Gorkom, Jennifer Lumbres, Maggie Kautz, Lauren Schatz

Abstract:

Thousands of exoplanets have been discovered in the past few decades, revealing a remarkable fact: planets are a common outcome of star formation and are ubiquitous in our galaxy. Direct imaging of exoplanets allows us to unambiguously characterize their atmospheres. To-date, direct imaging has been used almost exclusively to characterize young, self-luminous, massive exoplanets orbiting far from their stars at (near-)infrared wavelengths. However, we need access to spectra of planets at optical wavelengths to understand planet formation. Optical wavelengths give us a window into accretion of planet atmospheres by measuring accretion lines (e.g. hydrogen-alpha) to the formation of life in the form of biosignatures. I will discuss the technical challenges that we have to overcome if we want to enable characterization of older planets on temperate orbits, including smaller planets, with the next generation of Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs). The ELTs could enable the atmospheric characterization of tens or hundreds of older temperate exoplanets, of which some are potentially hosting life. I will show how we are implementing novel adaptive optics and spectroscopy solutions for these technical problems and their first on-sky results on MagAO-X. The results from this work are then directly used to validate our design process of GMagAO-X, a direct imaging instrument that is under development for the Giant Magellan Telescope.

2022BAAS...54e5202H

AASTCS9, Exoplanets 4, id. 502.02. Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 54, No. 5 e-id 2022n5i502p02

Lab tests of segment/petal phasing with a pyramid wavefront sensor and a holographic dispersed fringe sensor in turbulence with the Giant Magellan Telescope high contrast adaptive optics phasing testbed

Alexander D. Hedglen, Laird M. Close, Sebastiaan Y. Haffert, Jared R. Males, Maggie Kautz, Antonin H. Bouchez, Richard Demers, Fernando Quirós-Pacheco, Breann N. Sitarski, Olivier Guyon, Kyle Van Gorkom, Joseph D. Long, Jennifer Lumbres, Lauren Schatz, Kelsey Miller, Alex Rodack, Justin M. Knight

Abstract:

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) design consists of seven circular 8.4-m diameter mirrors, together forming a single 25.4-m diameter primary mirror. This large aperture and collecting area can help extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) systems such as GMT's GMagAO-X achieve the small angular resolutions and contrasts required to image habitable zone earth-like planets around late type stars and possibly lead to the discovery of life outside of our solar system. However, the GMT primary mirror segments are separated by large >30 cm gaps, creating the possibility of fluctuations in optical path differences (piston) due to flexure, segment vibrations, wind buffeting, temperature effects, and atmospheric seeing. To utilize the full diffraction-limited aperture of the GMT for high-contrast, natural guide star-adaptive optics science, the seven mirror segments must be co-phased to well within a fraction of a wavelength. The current design of the GMT involves seven adaptive secondary mirrors, a slow (∼0.03 Hz) off-axis dispersed fringe sensor (part of the acquisition guiding and wavefront sensing system's active optics off-axis guider), and a pyramid wavefront sensor [PyWFS; part of the natural guide star wavefront sensor (NGWS) adaptive optics] to measure and correct the total path length between segment pairs, but these methods have yet to be tested "end-to-end" in a lab environment. We present the design and working prototype of a "GMT high contrast adaptive optics phasing testbed" that leverages the existing MagAO-X ExAO instrument to demonstrate segment phase sensing and simultaneous AO-control for high-contrast GMT natural guide star science [i.e., testing the NGWS wavefront sensor (WFS) architecture]. We present the first test results of closed-loop piston control with one GMT segment using MagAO-X's PyWFS with and without simulated atmospheric turbulence. We show that the PyWFS was able to successfully control segment piston without turbulence within 12- to 33-nm RMS for 0 λ / D to 5 λ / D modulation, but was unsuccessful at controlling segment piston with generated ∼0.6 arcsec (median seeing conditions at the GMT site) and ∼1.2 arcsec seeing turbulence due to nonlinear modal cross-talk and poor pixel sampling of the segment gaps on the PyWFS detector. These results suggest that a PyWFS alone is not an ideal piston sensor for the GMT (and likely the TMT and ELT). Hence, a dedicated "second channel" piston sensor is required. We report the success of an alternate solution to control piston using a holographic dispersed fringe sensor (HDFS) while controlling all other modes with the PyWFS purely as a slope sensor (piston mode removed). This "second channel" WFS method worked well to control segment piston to within 50 nm RMS and ±10 μm dynamic range under simulated 0.6 arcsec atmospheric seeing (median seeing conditions at the GMT site). These results led to the inclusion of the HDFS as the official second channel piston sensor for the GMT NGWS WFS. This HDFS + PyWFS architecture should also work well to control piston petal modes on the ELT and TMT telescopes.

2022JATIS...8b1515H

Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, Volume 8, id. 021515 (2022).

The Mysterious Lives of Speckles. I. Residual Atmospheric Speckle Lifetimes in Ground-based Coronagraphs

Jared R. Males, Michael P. Fitzgerald, Ruslan Belikov, Olivier Guyon

Abstract:

High-contrast imaging observations are fundamentally limited by the spatially and temporally correlated noise source called speckles. Suppression of speckle noise is the key goal of wavefront control and adaptive optics (AO), coronagraphy, and a host of post-processing techniques. Speckles average at a rate set by the statistical speckle lifetime, and speckle-limited integration time in long exposures is directly proportional to this lifetime. As progress continues in post-coronagraph wavefront control, residual atmospheric speckles will become the limiting noise source in high-contrast imaging, so a complete understanding of their statistical behavior is crucial to optimizing high-contrast imaging instruments. Here we present a novel power spectral density method for calculating the lifetime, and develop a semi-analytic method for predicting intensity PSDs behind a coronagraph. Considering a frozen-flow turbulence model, we analyze the residual atmosphere speckle lifetimes in a MagAO-X-like AO system as well as 25-39 m giant segmented mirror telescope scale systems. We find that standard AO control shortens atmospheric speckle lifetime from ~130 ms to ~50 ms, and predictive control will further shorten the lifetime to ~20 ms on 6.5 m MagAO-X. We find that speckle lifetimes vary with diameter, wind speed, seeing, and location within the AO control region. On bright stars lifetimes remain within a rough range of ~20 ms to ~100 ms. Due to control system dynamics there are no simple scaling laws which apply across a wide range of system characteristics. Finally, we use these results to argue that telemetry-based post-processing should enable ground-based telescopes to achieve the photon-noise limit in high-contrast imaging.

2021PASP..133j4504M

Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Volume 133, Issue 1028, id.104504, 18 pp.

Data-driven subspace predictive control of adaptive optics for high-contrast imaging

Sebastiaan Y. Haffert, Jared R. Males, Laird M. Close, Kyle Van Gorkom, Joseph D. Long, Alexander D. Hedglen, Olivier Guyon, Lauren Schatz, Maggie Kautz, Jennifer Lumbres, Alex Rodack, Justin M. Knight, He Sun, Kevin Fogarty

Abstract:

The search for exoplanets is pushing adaptive optics (AO) systems on ground-based telescopes to their limits. One of the major limitations at small angular separations, exactly where exoplanets are predicted to be, is the servo-lag of the AO systems. The servo-lag error can be reduced with predictive control where the control is based on the future state of the atmospheric disturbance. We propose to use a linear data-driven integral predictive controller based on subspace methods that are updated in real time. The new controller only uses the measured wavefront errors and the changes in the deformable mirror commands, which allows for closed-loop operation without requiring pseudo-open loop reconstruction. This enables operation with non-linear wavefront sensors such as the pyramid wavefront sensor. We show that the proposed controller performs near-optimal control in simulations for both stationary and non-stationary disturbances and that we are able to gain several orders of magnitude in raw contrast. The algorithm has been demonstrated in the lab with MagAO-X, where we gain more than two orders of magnitude in contrast.

2021JATIS...7b9001H

Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, Volume 7, id. 029001 (2021).

Unlocking Starlight Subtraction in Full-data-rate Exoplanet Imaging by Efficiently Updating Karhunen-Loève Eigenimages

Joseph D. Long, Jared R. Males

Abstract:

Starlight subtraction algorithms based on the method of Karhunen-Loève eigenimages have proved invaluable to exoplanet direct imaging. However, they scale poorly in runtime when paired with differential imaging techniques. In such observations, reference frames and frames from which starlight is to be subtracted are drawn from the same set of data, requiring a new subset of references (and eigenimages) for each frame processed to avoid self-subtraction of the signal of interest. The data rates of extreme adaptive optics instruments are such that the only way to make this computationally feasible has been to downsample the data. We develop a technique that updates a precomputed singular value decomposition of the full data set to remove frames (i.e., a "downdate") without a full recomputation, yielding the modified eigenimages. This not only enables analysis of much larger data volumes in the same amount of time, but also exhibits near-linear scaling in runtime as the number of observations increases. We apply this technique to archival data and investigate its scaling behavior for very large numbers of frames N. The resulting algorithm provides speed improvements of 2.6× (for 200 eigenimages at N = 300) to 140× (at N = 104) with the advantage only increasing as N grows. This algorithm has allowed us to substantially accelerate Karhunen-Loève image projection (KLIP) even for modest N, and will let us quickly explore how KLIP parameters affect exoplanet characterization in large-N data sets.

2021AJ....161..166L

The Astronomical Journal, Volume 161, Issue 4, id.166, 6 pp.

joseph-long/svd-downdate-klip: Initial release

Joseph D. Long

Abstract:

Code to accompany paper version submitted to The Astronomical Journal

2021zndo...4413345L

Zenodo

Prediction of the planet yield of the MaxProtoPlanetS high-contrast survey for H-alpha protoplanets with MagAO-X based on first light contrasts

Laird M. Close, Jared Males, Joseph D. Long, Kyle Van Gorkom, Alexander D. Hedglen, Maggie Kautz, Jennifer Lumbres, Sebastiaan Y. Haffert, Katherine Follette, Kevin Wagner, Kelsey Miller, Daniel Apai, Ya-Lin Wu, Olivier Guyon, Lauren Schatz, Alex Rodack, David Doelman, Frans Snik, Justin M. Knight, Katie Morzinski, Victor Gasho, Christoph Keller, Logan Pearce, Alycia Weinberger, Laura Pérez, René Doyon

Abstract:

Our past GAPplanetS survey over the last 5 years with the MagAO visible AO system discovered the first examples of accreting protoplanets (by direct observation of H-alpha emission). Examples include LkCa15 b (Sallum et al. 2015) and PDS70 b (Wagner et al. 2018). In this paper we review the science performance of the newly (Dec. 2019) commissioned MagAO-X extreme AO system. In particular, we use the vAPP coronagraphic contrasts measured during MagAO-X first light. We use the Massive Accreting Gap (MAG) protoplanet model of Close 2020 to predict the H-alpha contrasts of 19 of the best transitional disk systems (ages 1-5 Myr) for the direct detection of H-alpha from accretion of hydrogen onto these protoplanets. The MAG protoplanet model applied to the observed first light MagAO-X contrasts predict a maximum yield of 46+/-7 planets from 19 stars (42 of these planets would be new discoveries). This suggests that there is a large, yet, unexplored reservoir of protoplanets that can be discovered with an extreme AO coronagraphic survey of 19 of the best transitional disk systems. Based on our first light contrasts we predict a healthy yield of protoplanets from our MaxProtoPlanetS survey of 19 transitional disks with MagAO-X.

2020SPIE11448E..0UC

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 11448, id. 114480U 18 pp. (2020).

Multi-core fibre-fed integral-field unit (MCIFU): overview and first-light

Sebastiaan Y. Haffert, Robert J. Harris, Alessio Zanutta, Fraser A. Pike, Andrea Bianco, Edoardo Redaelli, Aurélien Benoît, David G. MacLachlan, Calum A. Ross, Itandehui Gris-Sánchez, Mareike D. Trappen, Yilin Xu, Matthias Blaicher, Pascal Maier, Giulio Riva, Baptiste Sinquin, Caroline Kulcsár, Nazim Ali Bharmal, Eric Gendron, Lazar Staykov, Tim J. Morris, Santiago Barboza, Norbert Muench, Lisa Bardour, Léonard Prengère, Henri-François Raynaud, Philipp Hottinger, Theodoros Anagnos, James Osborn, Christian Koos, Robert R. Thompson, Tim A. Birks, Ignas A. G. Snellen, Christoph U. Keller, Laird Close, Jared R. Males

Abstract:

The Multi-Core Integral-Field Unit (MCIFU) is a new diffraction-limited near-infrared integral-field unit for exoplanet atmosphere characterization with extreme adaptive optics (xAO) instruments. It has been developed as an experimental pathfinder for spectroscopic upgrades for SPHERE+/VLT and other xAO systems. The wavelength range covers 1.0 um to 1.6um at a resolving power around 5000 for 73 points on-sky. The MCIFU uses novel astrophotonic components to make this very compact and robust spectrograph. We performed the first successful on-sky test with CANARY at the 4.2 meter William Herschel Telescope in July 2019, where observed standard stars and several stellar binaries. An improved version of the MCIFU will be used with MagAO-X, the new extreme adaptive optics system at the 6.5 meter Magellan Clay telescope in Chile. We will show and discuss the first-light performance and operations of the MCIFU at CANARY and discuss the integration of the MCIFU with MagAO-X.

2020SPIE11448E..4MH

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 11448, id. 114484M 11 pp. (2020).

MagAO-X first light

Jared R. Males, Laird M. Close, Olivier Guyon, Alexander D. Hedglen, Kyle Van Gorkom, Joseph D. Long, Maggie Kautz, Jennifer Lumbres, Lauren Schatz, Alexander Rodack, Kelsey Miller, David Doelman, Frans Snik, Steven Bos, Justin M. Knight, Katie Morzinski, Victor Gasho, Christoph Keller, Sebastiaan Haffert, Logan Pearce

Abstract:

MagAO-X is a new "extreme" adaptive optics system for the Magellan Clay 6.5 m telescope which began commissioning in December, 2019. MagAO-X is based around a 2040 actuator deformable mirror, controlled by a pyramid wavefront sensor operating at up to 3.6 kHz. When fully optimized, MagAO-X will deliver high Strehls (< 70%), high resolution (19 mas), and high contrast (< 1 × 10-4) at Hα (656 nm). We present a brief review of the instrument design and operations, and then report on the results of the first-light run.

2020SPIE11448E..4LM

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 11448, id. 114484L 8 pp. (2020).

The Giant Magellan Telescope high contrast phasing testbed

Alexander D. Hedglen, Laird M. Close, Antonin H. Bouchez, Jared R. Males, Richard Demers, Maggie Kautz, Ritvik Basant, Makayla Parkinson, Victor Gasho, Fernando Quirós-Pacheco, Breann N. Sitarski

Abstract:

The Giant Magellan Telescope design consists of seven circular 8.4 m diameter mirrors, together forming a single 24.5 m diameter primary mirror. This large aperture and collecting area can help extreme adaptive optics systems such as GMagAOX achieve the small angular resolutions and contrasts required to image habitable zone earth-like planets around late type stars and possibly lead to the discovery of life outside of our solar system. However, the GMT mirror segments are separated by large >~ 30 cm gaps, creating the possibility of fluctuations in optical path differences (piston) due to flexure, wind loading, temperature effects, and atmospheric seeing. In order to utilize the full diffraction-limited aperture of the GMT for high-contrast imaging, the seven mirror segments must be co-phased to well within a fraction of a wavelength. The current design of the GMT involves seven adaptive secondary mirrors, a dispersed fringe sensor (part of the AGWS), and a pyramid wavefront sensor (NGWS) to measure and correct the total path length between segment pairs, but these methods have yet to be tested "end-to-end" in a lab environment. We present the design and prototype of a "GMT High-Contrast Phasing Testbed" which leverages the existing MagAO-X ExAO instrument to demonstrate fine phase sensing and simultaneous AO-control for high-contrast GMT natural guide star science. The testbed will simulate the GMT primary and secondary mirror phasing system. It will also simulate the future GMT ExAO instrument's (GMagAO-X) "parallel DM" tweeter concept of splitting up the GMT pupil onto several commercial DMs using a reflective hexagonal pyramid. A dispersed fringe sensor will also be implemented into the testbed for coarse piston phase-sensing along with MagAO-X's pyramid wavefront sensor to measure and correct the fine phasing level of the GMT primary mirror segments under realistic wind load and seeing conditions.

2020SPIE11448E..2XH

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 11448, id. 114482X 14 pp. (2020).

The Separation and Hα Contrasts of Massive Accreting Planets in the Gaps of Transitional Disks: Predicted Hα Protoplanet Yields for Adaptive Optics Surveys

Laird M. Close

Abstract:

We present a massive accreting gap planet model that ensures large gaps in transitional disks are kept dust free by the scattering action of three coplanar quasi-circular planets in a 1:2:4 mean motion resonance (MMR). This model uses the constraint of the observed gap size, and the dust-free nature of the gap, to determine within ∼10% the possible orbits for three massive planets in an MMR. Calculated orbits are consistent with the observed orbits and Hα emission (the brightest line to observe these planets) for LkCa 15 b, PDS 70 b, and PDS 70 c within observational errors. Moreover, the model suggests that the scarcity of detected Hα planets is likely a selection effect of the current limitations of non-coronagraphic, low (<10%) Strehl, Hα imaging with adaptive optics (AO) systems used in past Hα surveys. We predict that as higher Strehl AO systems (with high-performance custom coronagraphs; like the 6.5 m Magellan Telescope MagAO-X system) are utilized at Hα, the number of detected gap planets will substantially increase by more than tenfold. For example, we show that >25 ± 5 new Hα "gap planets" are potentially discoverable by a survey of the best 19 transitional disks with MagAO-X. Detections of these accreting protoplanets will significantly improve our understanding of planet formation, planet growth and accretion, solar system architectures, and planet-disk interactions.

2020AJ....160..221C

The Astronomical Journal, Volume 160, Issue 5, id.221, 16 pp.

Concept for the GMT High-Contrast Exoplanet Instrument GMagAO-X and the GMT High-Contrast Phasing Testbed with MagAO-X

Laird M. Close, Jared R. Males, Alex Hedglen, Antonin Bouchez, Olivier Guyon

Abstract:

Here we review the current conceptual optical mechanical design of GMagAO-X --the extreme AO (ExAO) system for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). The GMagAO-X tweeter deformable mirror (DM) design is novel in that it uses an optically distributed set of pupils that allows seven commercially available 3000 actuator BMC DMs to work "in parallel" to effectively create an ELT-scale ExAO tweeter DM --with all parts commercially available today. The GMagAO-X "parallel DM" tweeter will have 21,000 actuators to be used at ~2kHz update speeds enabling high-contrast science at ~5 mas separations in the visible and NIR of the spectrum (0.6-1.7 microns). To prove our concept for GMagAO-X several items must be lab tested: the optical/mechanical concept for the parallel DM; phasing of the GMT pupil; and solving the GMT's "isolated island effect" will all be demonstrated on an optical testbed at the University of Arizona. Here we outline the current design for this "GMT High-Contrast Testbed" that has been proposed jointly by GMTO and the University of Arizona which leverages the existing, operational, MagAO-X ExAO instrument to verify our approach to phase sensing and AO control for high-contrast GMT NGS science. We will also highlight how GMagAO-X can be mounted on the auxiliary port of the GMT and so remain gravity invariant. Since it is gravity invariant GMagAO-X can utilize a floating optical table to minimize flexure and NCP vibrations.

2020arXiv200406808C

eprint arXiv:2004.06808

Spatial linear dark field control and holographic modal wavefront sensing with a vAPP coronagraph on MagAO-X

Kelsey Miller, Jared R. Males, Olivier Guyon, Laird M. Close, David Doelman, Frans Snik, Emiel Por, Michael J. Wilby, Christoph Keller, Chris Bohlman, Kyle Van Gorkom, Alexander Rodack, Justin Knight, Jennifer Lumbres, Steven Bos, Nemanja Jovanovic

Abstract:

The Magellan Extreme Adaptive Optics (MagAO-X) Instrument is an extreme AO system coming online at the end of 2019 that will be operating within the visible and near-IR. With state-of-the-art wavefront sensing and coronagraphy, MagAO-X will be optimized for high-contrast direct exoplanet imaging at challenging visible wavelengths, particularly Hα. To enable high-contrast imaging, the instrument hosts a vector apodizing phase plate (vAPP) coronagraph. The vAPP creates a static region of high contrast next to the star that is referred to as a dark hole; on MagAO-X, the expected dark hole raw contrast is ∼4 × 10 - 6. The ability to maintain this contrast during observations, however, is limited by the presence of non-common path aberrations (NCPA) and the resulting quasi-static speckles that remain unsensed and uncorrected by the primary AO system. These quasi-static speckles within the dark hole degrade the high contrast achieved by the vAPP and dominate the light from an exoplanet. The aim of our efforts here is to demonstrate two focal plane wavefront sensing (FPWFS) techniques for sensing NCPA and suppressing quasi-static speckles in the final focal plane. To sense NCPA to which the primary AO system is blind, the science image is used as a secondary wavefront sensor. With the vAPP, a static high-contrast dark hole is created on one side of the PSF, leaving the opposite side of the PSF unocculted. In this unobscured region, referred to as the bright field, the relationship between modulations in intensity and low-amplitude pupil plane phase aberrations can be approximated as linear. The bright field can therefore be used as a linear wavefront sensor to detect small NCPA and suppress quasi-static speckles. This technique, known as spatial linear dark field control (LDFC), can monitor the bright field for aberrations that will degrade the high-contrast dark hole. A second form of FPWFS, known as holographic modal wavefront sensing (hMWFS), is also employed with the vAPP. This technique uses hologram-generated PSFs in the science image to monitor the presence of low-order aberrations. With LDFC and the hMWFS, high contrast across the dark hole can be maintained over long observations, thereby allowing planet light to remain visible above the stellar noise over the course of observations on MagAO-X. Here, we present simulations and laboratory demonstrations of both spatial LDFC and the hMWFS with a vAPP coronagraph at the University of Arizona Extreme Wavefront Control Laboratory. We show both in simulation and in the lab that the hMWFS can be used to sense low-order aberrations and reduce the wavefront error (WFE) by a factor of 3 - 4 × . We also show in simulation that, in the presence of a temporally evolving pupil plane phase aberration with 27-nm root-mean-square (RMS) WFE, LDFC can reduce the WFE to 18-nm RMS, resulting in factor of 6 to 10 gain in contrast that is kept stable over time. This performance is also verified in the lab, showing that LDFC is capable of returning the dark hole to the average contrast expected under ideal lab conditions. These results demonstrate the power of the hMWFS and spatial LDFC to improve MagAO-X's high-contrast imaging capabilities for direct exoplanet imaging.

2019JATIS...5d9004M

Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, Volume 5, id. 049004 (2019).

The hunt for Sirius Ab: comparison of algorithmic sky and PSF estimation performance in deep coronagraphic thermal-IR high contrast imaging

Joseph D. Long, Jared R. Males, Katie M. Morzinski, Laird M. Close, Frans Snik, Matthew A. Kenworthy, Gilles P. P. L. Otten, John Monnier, Volker Tolls, Alycia Weinberger

Abstract:

Despite promising astrometric signals, to date there has been no success in direct imaging of a hypothesized third member of the Sirius system. Using the Clio instrument and MagAO adaptive optics system on the Magellan Clay 6.5 m telescope, we have obtained extensive imagery of Sirius through a vector apodizing phase plate (vAPP) coronagraph in a narrowband filter at 3.9 microns. The vAPP coronagraph and MagAO allow us to be sensitive to planets much less massive than the limits set by previous non-detections. However, analysis of these data presents challenges due to the target's brightness and unique characteristics of the instrument. We present a comparison of dimensionality reduction techniques to construct background illumination maps for the whole detector using the areas of the detector that are not dominated by starlight. Additionally, we describe a procedure for sub-pixel alignment of vAPP data using a physical-optics-based model of the coronagraphic PSF.

2018SPIE10703E..2TL

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 10703, id. 107032T 7 pp. (2018).

MagAO-X: project status and first laboratory results

Jared R. Males, Laird M. Close, Kelsey Miller, Lauren Schatz, David Doelman, Jennifer Lumbres, Frans Snik, Alex Rodack, Justin Knight, Kyle Van Gorkom, Joseph D. Long, Alex Hedglen, Maggie Kautz, Nemanja Jovanovic, Katie Morzinski, Olivier Guyon, Ewan Douglas, Katherine B. Follette, Julien Lozi, Chris Bohlman, Olivier Durney, Victor Gasho, Phil Hinz, Michael Ireland, Madison Jean, Christoph Keller, Matt Kenworthy, Ben Mazin, Jamison Noenickx, Dan Alfred, Kevin Perez, Anna Sanchez, Corwynn Sauve, Alycia Weinberger, Al Conrad

Abstract:

MagAO-X is an entirely new extreme adaptive optics system for the Magellan Clay 6.5 m telescope, funded by the NSF MRI program starting in Sep 2016. The key science goal of MagAO-X is high-contrast imaging of accreting protoplanets at Hα. With 2040 actuators operating at up to 3630 Hz, MagAO-X will deliver high Strehls (> 70%), high resolution (19 mas), and high contrast (< 1 × 10-4 ) at Hα (656 nm). We present an overview of the MagAO-X system, review the system design, and discuss the current project status.

2018SPIE10703E..09M

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 10703, id. 1070309 14 pp. (2018).

A locking clamp that enables high thermal and vibrational stability for kinematic optical mounts

Maggie Kautz, Laird M. Close, Jared R. Males

Abstract:

One of the main pursuits of the MagAO-X project is imaging planets around nearby stars with the direct detection method utilizing an extreme AO system and a coronagraph and a large telescope. The MagAO-X astronomical coronagraph will be implemented on the 6.5 meter Clay Magellan Telescope in Chile. The 22 mirrors in the system require a high level of mirror stability. Our goal is less than 1 microradian drift in tilt per mirror per one degree Celsius change in temperature. There are no commercial 2inch kinematic optical mounts that are truly "zero-drift" from 0-20C. Our solution to this problem was to develop a locking clamp to keep our optics stable and fulfill our specifications. After performing temperature variation and thermal shock testing, we conclude that this novel locking clamp significantly increases the thermal stability of stainless steel mounts by 10x but still allows accurate microradian positioning of a mirror. A provisional patent (#62/632,544) has been obtained for this mount.

2018SPIE10703E..2QK

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 10703, id. 107032Q 7 pp. (2018).

Design of the MagAO-X pyramid wavefront sensor

Lauren H. Schatz, Jared R. Males, Laird M. Close, Olivier Durney, Olivier Guyon, Michael Hart, Jennifer Lumbres, Kelsey Miller, Justin Knight, Alexander T. Rodack, Joseph D. Long, Kyle Van Gorkom, Madison Jean, Maggie Kautz

Abstract:

Adaptive optics systems correct atmospheric turbulence in real time. Most adaptive optics systems used routinely correct in the near infrared, at wavelengths greater than 1 μm. MagAO- X is a new extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) instrument that will offer corrections at visible-to- near-IR wavelengths. MagAO-X will achieve Strehl ratios of >=70% at Hα when running the 2040 actuator deformable mirror at 3.6 kHz. A visible pyramid wavefront sensor (PWFS) optimized for sensing at 600-1000 nm wavelengths will provide the high-order wavefront sensing on MagAO-X. We present the optical design and predicted performance of the MagAO-X pyramid wavefront sensor.

2018SPIE10703E..21S

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 10703, id. 1070321 9 pp. (2018).

Modeling coronagraphic extreme wavefront control systems for high contrast imaging in ground and space telescope missions

Jennifer Lumbres, Jared Males, Ewan Douglas, Laird Close, Olivier Guyon, Kerri Cahoy, Ashley Carlton, Jim Clark, David Doelman, Lee Feinberg, Justin Knight, Weston Marlow, Kelsey Miller, Katie Morzinski, Emiel Por, Alexander Rodack, Lauren Schatz, Frans Snik, Kyle Van Gorkom, Michael Wilby

Abstract:

The challenges of high contrast imaging (HCI) for detecting exoplanets for both ground and space applications can be met with extreme adaptive optics (ExAO), a high-order adaptive optics system that performs wavefront sensing (WFS) and correction at high speed. We describe 2 ExAO optical system designs, one each for ground- based telescopes and space-based missions, and examine them using the angular spectrum Fresnel propagation module within the Physical Optics Propagation in Python (POPPY) package. We present an end-to-end (E2E) simulation of the MagAO-X instrument, an ExAO system capable of delivering 6x10-5 visible-light raw contrast for static, noncommon path aberrations without atmosphere. We present an E2E simulation of a laser guidestar (LGS) companion spacecraft testbed demonstration, which uses a remote beacon to increase the signal available for WFS and control of the primary aperture segments of a future large space telescope, providing of order 10 factor improvement for relaxing observatory stability requirements.

2018SPIE10703E..4ZL

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 10703, id. 107034Z 10 pp. (2018).

Focal plane wavefront sensing and control strategies for high-contrast imaging on the MagAO-X instrument

Kelsey Miller, Jared R. Males, Olivier Guyon, Laird M. Close, David Doelman, Frans Snik, Emiel Por, Michael J. Wilby, Chris Bohlman, Jennifer Lumbres, Kyle Van Gorkom, Maggie Kautz, Alexander Rodack, Justin Knight, Nemanja Jovanovic, Katie Morzinski, Lauren Schatz

Abstract:

The Magellan extreme adaptive optics (MagAO-X) instrument is a new extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) system designed for operation in the visible to near-IR which will deliver high contrast-imaging capabilities. The main AO system will be driven by a pyramid wavefront sensor (PyWFS); however, to mitigate the impact of quasi-static and non-common path (NCP) aberrations, focal plane wavefront sensing (FPWFS) in the form of low-order wavefront sensing (LOWFS) and spatial linear dark field control (LDFC) will be employed behind a vector apodizing phase plate (vAPP) coronagraph using rejected starlight at an intermediate focal plane. These techniques will allow for continuous high-contrast imaging performance at the raw contrast level delivered by the vAPP coronagraph ( 6 x 10-5). We present simulation results for LOWFS and spatial LDFC with a vAPP coronagraph, as well as laboratory results for both algorithms implemented with a vAPP coronagraph at the University of Arizona Extreme Wavefront Control Lab.

2018SPIE10703E..1TM

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 10703, id. 107031T 17 pp. (2018).

Optical field/pupil rotator with a novel compact K-mirror for MagAO-X

Alexander D. Hedglen, Laird M. Close, Jared R. Males, Olivier Durney

Abstract:

The Magellan Extreme Adaptive Optics (MagAO-X) is a visible-wavelength adaptive optics (AO) instrument optimized for visible light coronagraphy and exoplanet imaging with the 6.5-m Magellan Clay telescope in Chile. Extremely large telescopes such as the future Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) will be able to image earth-like exoplanets, given an extreme AO system - such as MagAO-X - exists. MagAO-X is now under development in the lab and undergoing final integration and testing. Technical first light is planned for early 2019, with final commissioning in late 2020. A crucial component to MagAO-X is the "K-mirror," a 3-mirror system designed to rotate the optical field with minimal image wobble or distortion about the optical axis. The K-mirror rotates on a miniature motorized stage to stabilize the pupil in the coronagraph as the telescope tracks the sky. The optical design of MagAO-X required a very compact K-mirror, resulting in a challenging opto-mechanical mount design. We present a novel solution to the compact design of a 50mm max envelope K-mirror for MagAO-X that consists of three < 1-in diameter flat mirrors, all precision glued in place. The K-mirror mount was designed in Autodesk® Fusion 360™ and a prototype was built in the Steward Observatory machine shop. Using inexpensive COTS mirrors, the K-mirror prototype was tested, aligned, and glued with optical feedback in the lab. Once the prototype had proven successful, a final K-mirror mount was fabricated and assembled with invar and precision (0.1nm rms surface roughness, super polished, λ/40 PV flat) mirrors to develop a compact Kmirror for MagAO-X. The performance of the final hardware is presented here.

2018SPIE10703E..55H

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 10703, id. 1070355 9 pp. (2018).

Optical and mechanical design of the extreme AO coronagraphic instrument MagAO-X

Laird M. Close, Jared R. Males, Olivier Durney, Corwynn Sauve, Maggie Kautz, Alex Hedglen, Lauren Schatz, Jennifer Lumbres, Kelsey Miller, Kyle Van Gorkom, Madison Jean, Victor Gasho

Abstract:

Here we review the current optical mechanical design of MagAO-X. The project is post-PDR and has finished the design phase. The design presented here is the baseline to which all the optics and mechanics have been fabricated. The optical/mechanical performance of this novel extreme AO design will be presented here for the first time. Some highlights of the design are: 1) a floating, but height stabilized, optical table; 2) a Woofer tweeter (2040 actuator BMC MEMS DM) design where the Woofer can be the current f/16 MagAO ASM or, more likely, fed by the facility f/11 static secondary to an ALPAO DM97 woofer; 3) 22 very compact optical mounts that have a novel locking clamp for additional thermal and vibrational stability; 4) A series of four pairs of super-polished off-axis parabolic (OAP) mirrors with a relatively wide FOV by matched OAP clocking; 5) an advanced very broadband (0.5-1.7μm) ADC design; 6) A Pyramid (PWFS), and post-coronagraphic LOWFS NCP wavefront sensor; 7) a vAPP coronagraph for starlight suppression. Currently all the OAPs have just been delivered, and all the rest of the optics are in the lab. Most of the major mechanical parts are in the lab or instrument, and alignment of the optics has occurred for some of the optics (like the PWFS) and most of the mounts. First light should be in early 2019.

2018SPIE10703E..4YC

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 10703, id. 107034Y 10 pp. (2018).

Real-time estimation and correction of quasi-static aberrations in ground-based high contrast imaging systems with high frame-rates

Alexander T. Rodack, Jared R. Males, Olivier Guyon, Benjamin A. Mazin, Michael P. Fitzgerald, Dimitri Mawet

Abstract:

The success of ground-based, high contrast imaging for the detection of exoplanets in part depends on the ability to differentiate between quasi-static speckles caused by aberrations not corrected by adaptive optics (AO) systems, known as non-common path aberrations (NCPAs), and the planet intensity signal. Frazin (ApJ, 2013) introduced a post-processing algorithm demonstrating that simultaneous millisecond exposures in the science camera and wavefront sensor (WFS) can be used with a statistical inference procedure to determine both the series expanded NCPA coefficients and the planetary signal. We demonstrate, via simulation, that using this algorithm in a closed-loop AO system, real-time estimation and correction of the quasi-static NCPA is possible without separate deformable mirror (DM) probes. Thus the use of this technique allows for the removal of the quasi-static speckles that can be mistaken for planetary signals without the need for new optical hardware, improving the efficiency of ground-based exoplanet detection. In our simulations, we explore the behavior of the Frazin Algorithm (FA) and the dependence of its convergence to an accurate estimate on factors such as Strehl ratio, NCPA strength, and number of algorithm search basis functions. We then apply this knowledge to simulate running the algorithm in real-time in a nearly ideal setting. We then discuss adaptations that can be made to the algorithm to improve its real-time performance, and show their efficacy in simulation. A final simulation tests the technique's resilience against imperfect knowledge of the AO residual phase, motivating an analysis of the feasibility of using this technique in a real closed-loop Extreme AO system such as SCExAO or MagAO-X, in terms of computational complexity and the accuracy of the estimated quasi-static NCPA correction.

2018SPIE10703E..2NR

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 10703, id. 107032N 10 pp. (2018).

Characterization of deformable mirrors for the MagAO-X project

Kyle Van Gorkom, Kelsey L. Miller, Jared R. Males, Olivier Guyon, Alexander T. Rodack, Jennifer Lumbres, Justin M. Knight

Abstract:

The MagAO-X instrument is an upgrade of the Magellan AO system that will introduce extreme adaptive optics capabilities for high-contrast imaging at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. A central component of this system is a 2040-actuator microelectromechanical (MEMS) deformable mirror (DM) from Boston Micromachines Corp. (BMC) that will operate at 3.63 kHz for high-order wavefront control. Two additional DMs from ALPAO will perform low-order and non-common-path science-arm wavefront correction. The accuracy of the wavefront correction is limited by our ability to command these DMs to a desired shape, which requires a careful characterization of each DM surface. We have developed a characterization pipeline that uses a Zygo Verifire Interferometer to measure the surface response and a Karhunen-Loeve transform to remove noise from our measurements. We present our progress in the characterization process and the results of our pipeline applied to an ALPAO DM97 and a BMC Kilo-DM, demonstrating the ability to drive the DMs to a flat of <=2nm and <=4nm RMS in our beam footprint on the University of Arizona Wavefront Control (UAWFC) testbed.

2018SPIE10703E..5AV

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 10703, id. 107035A 7 pp. (2018).

Phase-induced amplitude apodization complex-mask coronagraph tolerancing and analysis

Justin M. Knight, Olivier Guyon, Julien Lozi, Nemanja Jovanovic, Jared R. Males

Abstract:

Phase-Induced Amplitude Apodization Complex Mask Coronagraphs (PIAACMC) offer high-contrast performance at a small inner-working angle (< 1 λ/D) with high planet throughput (> 70%). The complex mask is a multi-zone, phase-shifting mask comprised of tiled hexagons which vary in depth. Complex masks can be difficult to fabricate as there are many micron-scale hexagonal zones (> 500 on average) with continuous depths ranging over a few microns. Ensuring the broadband PIAACMC design performance carries through to fabricated devices requires that these complex masks are manufactured to within well-defined tolerances. We report on a simulated tolerance analysis of a "toy" PIAACMC design which characterizes the effect of common microfabrication errors on on-axis contrast performance using a simple Monte Carlo method. Moreover, the tolerance analysis provides crucial information for choosing a fabrication process which yields working devices while potentially reducing process complexity. The common fabrication errors investigated are zone depth discretization, zone depth errors, and edge artifacts between zones.

2018SPIE10706E..5OK

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 10706, id. 107065O 8 pp. (2018).