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July 2025: First dark hole obtained with speed

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This initial test, realized by Charles Sallard (PhD student) aims solely to experimentally validate the iEFC (Haffert et al. A&A 2023) algorithm with the SPEED bench. No parameters have been optimized, and only a limited number of Fourier modes were used. The figure shows the DM commands at the given iteration, along with the field of view where the dark hole spans from an inner working angle (IWA) of 1 λ/D to an outer working angle (OWA) of 4 λ/D.

This activity was carried out with the support of Kian Milani from the University of Arizona.

  1. January 2025: Coronagraphic dOTF WFS
  2. June 2024: dOTF exploitation with SPEED
  3. March 2024: APCMC first laboratory performance
  4. December 2023: Metrological control of the microdot apodizer for the APCMC
  5. November 2023 : Bisymmetric pupil modification deconvolution strategy for dOTF WFS
  6. August 2023: SCC phasing sensor first smile
  7. July 2023: SCC-PS piston, tip, and tilt estimators signal sanity check
  8. June 2023: new masks for the Lyot stop stage
  9. May 2023: AITs SCC-PS
  10. February 2023: fine control of the PIAA mirror sags using a ZYGO interferometer
  11. January 2023: Design and integration of a PIAA mirror performance evaluation testbed
  12. July 2022: SPEED enters its exploitation phase
  13. June 2022: residual aberrations corrections using the differential optical transfert function procedure
  14. March 2022: FPM performance control on the separated coronagraphic bench
  15. February 2022: installation of multiple alignment mire to control the state of the bench
  16. December 2021: separate coronagraphic test bench operational
  17. August 2021: validation of the algorithm for fine re-alignment of the coronagraph in the visible channel
  18. July 2021: alignment of the PIAACMC mirrors
  19. June 2021: pupil imaging mode on science camera
  20. May 2021: SPEED is equipped with a new NiT HiPe SenS camera to replace the RASOIR camera
  21. February 2021: Kilo-C DMs (Boston M.) flat maps obtained at various voltages
  22. December 2020: improvement of the Kilo-C DMs (Boston M.) flattening
  23. November 2020: RASOIR the near-infrared camera is installed on the bench
  24. October 2020: DM1 (Kilo-C) from Boston Micromachines is installed on the bench
  25. September 2020: First light in the near-infrared
  26. July 2020: modification of the light source module of the bench
  27. June 2020: Cleaning of the dichroïc with an optical micro mask
  28. March 2020: Gearing up the near-infrared RASOIR camera (ESO)
  29. February 2020: assembly and pre-alignment of the PIAA mirrors stage
  30. January 2020: assembly and pre-alignment of the optical modules of the NiR path
  31. December 2019: First light in the visible path
  32. October 2019: Validation of the new SPEED source module
  33. July 2019: Development of the third user control interface of the bench
  34. June 2019: Development of the second user control interface of the bench
  35. April 2019: Metrological evaluation of the PIAACMC components
  36. February 2019: preparation of the NiR opto-mechanical parts
  37. January 2019: PIAACMC delivery by SILIOS Technologies
  38. August 2018: Development of the first user control interface of the bench
  39. July 2018: The call for tender for the PIAACMC manufacturing is closed
  40. July 2018: Star simulator installation and visible path AIT
  41. June 2018: Integral sphere installation
  42. April 2018: Delivery of the OAPs of the bench from the OCA optical shop
  43. January 2018: PIAACMC design finalization
  44. October 2017: Pierre Janin-Potiron PhD defense
  45. July 2017: First tests of the fine cophasing sensor SCC-PS on a side testbed
  46. June 2017: Mathilde Beaulieu PhD Defense
  47. June 2017: Out-of-pupil single-DM dark hole experiment on a side testbed
  48. May 2017: Installation of the bench cover
  49. March 2017: Development of a local solution for the hygrometry control for the deformable mirrors
  50. January 2017: Telescope simulator finalization
  51. March 2016: Delivery of the first OAP of the bench from the OCA optical shop
  52. April 2014: Delivery of the Boston Micromachines Kilo-C mirrors et initial testing
  53. April 2014: Delivery of the segmented deformable mirror IRIS AO PTT489 and initial testing