Focal Plane Wavefront Sensing using Residual Adaptive Optics Speckles

Abstract

Optical imperfections, misalignments, aberrations, and even dust can significantly limit sensitivity in high-contrast imaging systems such as coronagraphs. An upstream deformable mirror (DM) in the pupil can be used to correct or compensate for these flaws, either to enhance Strehl ratio or suppress residual coronagraphic halo. Measurement of the phase and amplitude of the starlight halo at the science camera is essential for determining the DM shape that compensates for any non-common-path (NCP) wavefront errors. Using DM displacement ripples to create a series of probe and anti-halo speckles in the focal plane has been proposed for space-based coronagraphs and successfully demonstrated in the lab. We present the theory and first on-sky demonstration of a technique to measure the complex halo using the rapidly-changing residual atmospheric speckles at the 6.5m MMT telescope using the Clio mid-IR camera. The AO system's wavefront sensor (WFS) measurements are used to estimate the residual wavefront, allowing us to approximately compute the rapidly-evolving phase and amplitude of speckle halo. When combined with relatively-short, synchronized science camera images, the complex speckle estimates can be used to interferometrically analyze the images, leading to an estimate of the static diffraction halo with NCP effects included. In an operational system, this information could be collected continuously and used to iteratively correct quasi-static NCP errors or suppress imperfect coronagraphic halos.