instrumentation

Focal-plane wavefront sensing with the vector-Apodizing Phase Plate

Context. One of the key limitations of the direct imaging of exoplanets at small angular separations are quasi-static speckles that originate from evolving non-common path aberrations (NCPA) in the optical train downstream of the instrument's main …

Highly multiplexed Bragg gratings for large field of view gas sensing in planetary atmospheres

Detecting and monitoring gas species is an important part of remote sensing because the state of the environment can be retrieved from the state of the gas species. This can be used to track temperature and pressure structures in the atmosphere for …

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

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 …

Compressed multiline spectroscopic trace gas sensing

Highly-multiplexed Bragg gratings for optically adding spectral lines

SPHERE/ZIMPOL high resolution polarimetric imager. I. System overview, PSF parameters, coronagraphy, and polarimetry

Context. The SPHERE planet finder is an extreme adaptive optics (AO) instrument for high resolution and high contrast observations at the Very Large Telescope (VLT). We describe the Zurich Imaging Polarimeter (ZIMPOL), the visual focal plane …

Laboratory verification of Fast & Furious phase diversity: Towards controlling the low wind effect in the SPHERE instrument

Context. The low wind effect (LWE) refers to a characteristic set of quasi-static wavefront aberrations seen consistently by the SPHERE instrument when dome-level wind speeds drop below 3 ms$^-1$. The LWE produces bright low-order speckles in the …

Polarization modeling and predictions for DKIST part 2: application of the Berreman calculus to spectral polarization fringes of beamsplitters and crystal retarders

We outline polarization fringe predictions derived from an application of the Berreman calculus for the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) retarder optics. The DKIST retarder baseline design used six crystals, single-layer antireflection …

Polarization modeling and predictions for DKIST part 2: application of the Berreman calculus to spectral polarization fringes of beamsplitters and crystal retarders

We outline polarization fringe predictions derived from a new application of the Berreman calculus for the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) retarder optics. The DKIST retarder baseline design used 6 crystals, single layer anti-reflection …

On-sky Performance Analysis of the Vector Apodizing Phase Plate Coronagraph on MagAO/Clio2

We report on the performance of a vector apodizing phase plate coronagraph that operates over a wavelength range of 2-5 μm and is installed in MagAO/Clio2 at the 6.5 m Magellan Clay telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. The coronagraph …

The coronagraphic Modal Wavefront Sensor: a hybrid focal-plane sensor for the high-contrast imaging of circumstellar environments

The raw coronagraphic performance of current high-contrast imaging instruments is limited by the presence of a quasi-static speckle (QSS) background, resulting from instrumental Non-Common Path Errors (NCPEs). Rapid development of efficient speckle …