Wavefront control architecture and expected performance for the TMT planetary systems imager
Abstract
The Planetary Systems Imager (PSI) is a modular instrument optimized for direct imaging and characterization of exoplanet and disks with the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). PSI will operate across a wide wavelength range (≈0.6 - 5μm) to image exoplanets and circumstellar disks in both reflected light and thermal emission. Thanks to the TMT's large collecting area, PSI will have the sensitivity to directly image and spectrally characterize large gaseous planets with unprecedented sensitivity. PSI will also be capable of imaging rocky planets in the habitable zones of the nearest M-type stars in reflected light and search for biomarkers in their atmospheres. Imaging habitable planets in reflected light is PSI's most challenging goal, requiring high contrast imaging (HCI) capabilities well beyond what current instruments achieve. This science goal drives PSI's wavefront sensing and control requirements and defines the corresponding architecture discussed in this paper. We show that PSI must deliver 1e-5 image contrast ≈15 mas separation at λ ≈ 1μm-1.5μm, and that a conventional extreme-AO architecture relying on a single high speed wavefront sensor (WFS) is not sufficient to meet this requirement. We propose a wavefront control architecture relying on both visible light (λ < 1.1 μm) sensing to optimize sensitivity, and near-IR (λ > 1.1 μm) sensors to address wavefront chromaticity terms and provide high contrast imaging capability. We show that this combination will enable speckle halo suppression at the < 1e-5 raw contrast level in near-IR, allowing detection and spectroscopic characterization of potentially habitable exoplanets orbiting nearby M-type stars.
Additional Information
© 2018 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). The author acknowledges funding support from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Sciences (JSPS), the Japanese Astrobiology Center, National Institutes for Natural Sciences (ABC/NINS). The authors acknowledge support from the JSPS (Grant-in-Aid for Research 23340051 and 26220704). The authors wish to acknowledge the Center for Adaptive Optics Fall Retreat and the TMT Science Forum, where much of this work originated.Attached Files
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 87815
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20180712-155553779
- 23340051
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
- 26220704
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
- National Institutes of Natural Sciences of Japan
- Created
-
2018-07-13Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-15Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Thirty Meter Telescope, Astronomy Department
- Series Name
- Proceedings of SPIE
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 10703