From June 10th to June 15th, the lab team attended the SPIE conference in Austin-Texas to present the latest results it obtained. Here are some pictures and summaries of the presentations!
Chris (left) and Keira (right) presented the software architecture for HiCAT. This infrastructure enables 24/7 automated calibration, safety checks, and operation.Greg introduced the OPERA wavefront sensor he developed and tested successfully on HiCAT, enabling to reduce the wavefront error from 16nm rms to 3nm rms over a 18mm diameter pupil.
Iva (the quality of the picture does not reflect the quality of her work!) presented an update of the JOST status: results have been obtained on the testbed alignment on both single field and wide field of view, using the LAPD algorithm.Kathryn described us the APLC design propositions for the different LUVOIR's primary mirror configurations and their combination with wavefront control to improve their efficiency in terms of throughput, inner working angle, etc. Her work is part of the SCDA study.
Rémi (very right) had an overview talk on HiCAT, to show the latest results obtained on the testbed: tests of different coronagraphs, with and without segmentation, also combined with the speckle nulling tool for wavefront control, phasing errors reconstruction with the COFFEE wavefront sensor.Kevin also presented his work on the SCDA study. He examined APLCs apodizations with circular symmetric pupil masks and pairs of DMs using a modified MCMC algorithm that allows to probe previously unexamined combinations of pupil apodizations, focal plane mask size, and Lyot stop size. He also explored using this strategy to optimize the APLC for planet yield.
Lucie presented the latest developments of the PASTIS model that enables fast error budgeting for segmented telescopes combined with a coronagraph. PASTIS had already proven its efficiency for one kind of Zernike polynomials present on the segment, it is now working in the multi-Zernike and dynamic cases.
Even if no picture was taken, Marshall introduced the different performance and stability studies and results conducted on the JWST, and Laurent presented the LUVOIR coronagraph instrument.
As a conclusion, the team was glad to present so many results on so many different topics and to learn so much on the other projects happening in parallel in other institutes, industries, or labs!
