Phase II of the Keck Planet Imager and characterizer: system-level laboratory characterization and preliminary on-sky commissioning

Echeverri, Daniel; Jovanović, Nemanja; Delorme, Jacques-Robert; Schofield, Tobias; Finnerty, Luke; Wang, Jason; Xuan, Jerry W.; Mawet, Dimitri; Baker, Ashley; Bartos, Randall; Bond, C.; Bryan, M.; Calvin, Benjamin; Cetre, Sylvain; Doppmann, Greg; Fitzgerald, Michael P.; Fucik, Jason; Horstman, Katelyn; López, Ronald; Martin, Emily C.; Martin, Stefan; Mennesson, Bertrand; Morris, Evan; Nash, Reston; Pezzato, Jacklyn; Porter, Michael; Ragland, Sam; Roberts, Mitsuko; Ruane, Garreth; Ruffio, Jean-Baptiste; Sappey, Ben; Serabyn, Eugene; Skemer, Andrew; Venenciano, Taylor; Wallace, J. Kent; Wang, Ji; Wizinowich, Peter

doi:10.1117/12.2630518

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Deployed in February 2022, phase II of KPIC brought several upgrades including a vortex mask to enable VFN. 58 The VFN mode's wider, annular coupling region allows KPIC to search for new exoplanets at small separations and expands the proven capabilities of the DS mode to previously unknown systems.…”

Section: Vfn Mode For Kpicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For a detailed description of the phase II instrument design, optical layout, performance, and other non-VFN KPIC modes, we refer readers to the general phase II instrument paper in preparation by Jovanovic et al In the meantime, we defer to two other publications that describe most of the phase II design. 58,59 We also note that many of the individual elements of the instrument, particularly the tracking system and fiber bundle, remain largely unchanged from the original phase I design reported by Delorme et al 12 This section covers only the aspects related to the KPIC VFN mode.…”

Section: Optical Layoutmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Though the DS mode maximizes coupling efficiency, it requires precise knowledge of the companion position so it is only practical for characterization of known companions rather than for making new detections. Deployed in February 2022, phase II of KPIC brought several upgrades including a vortex mask to enable VFN 58 . The VFN mode’s wider, annular coupling region allows KPIC to search for new exoplanets at small separations and expands the proven capabilities of the DS mode to previously unknown systems.…”

Section: Vfn Mode For Kpicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Note that various elements in the optical layout have been omitted for simplicity since they are not relevant to the VFN mode. References 59 and 58 provide the layout of the optical path in the phase II DS mode.…”

Section: Vfn Mode For Kpicmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Vortex fiber nulling for exoplanet observations: implementation and first light

Echeverri,

Xuan,

Jovanovic

et al. 2023

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst.

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Vortex fiber nulling (VFN) is a single-aperture interferometric technique for detecting and characterizing exoplanets separated from their host star by less than a diffracted beam width. VFN uses a vortex mask and single-mode fiber to selectively reject starlight while coupling off-axis planet light with a simple optical design that can be readily implemented on existing direct imaging instruments that can feed light to an optical fiber. With its axially symmetric coupling region peaking within the inner working angle of conventional coronagraphs, VFN is more efficient at detecting new companions at small separations than conventional direct imaging, thereby increasing the yield of on-going exoplanet search campaigns. We deployed a VFN mode operating in K band (2.0 to 2.5 μm) on the Keck Planet Imager and Characterizer (KPIC) instrument at the Keck II Telescope. We present the instrument design of this first on-sky demonstration of VFN and the results from on-sky commissioning, including planet and star throughput measurements and predicted flux-ratio detection limits for close-in companions. The instrument performance is shown to be sufficient for detecting a companion 10 3 times fainter than a fifth magnitude host star in 1 h at a separation of 50 mas (1.1 λ∕D). This makes the instrument capable of efficiently detecting substellar companions around young stars. We also discuss several routes for improvement that will reduce the required integration time for a detection by a factor >3.

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Section: Vfn Mode For Kpicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Optical Layoutmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Vfn Mode For Kpicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Vfn Mode For Kpicmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Vortex fiber nulling for exoplanet observations: implementation and first light

Echeverri,

Xuan,

Jovanovic

et al. 2023

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Deployed in February 2022, Phase II of KPIC brought several upgrades including a vortex mask to enable VFN. 34 The VFN mode's wider, annular coupling region allows KPIC to search for new exoplanets at small separations and expands the proven capabilities of the DS mode to previously unknown systems.…”

Section: A Vfn Mode For Kpicmentioning

confidence: 99%

First light of the vortex fiber nulling mode on the Keck planet imager and characterizer

Echeverri,

Xuan,

Jovanovic

et al. 2023

Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets XI

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Vortex fiber nulling (VFN) is a technique for suppressing starlight to observe exoplanets at small angular separations from their star, ≲ 1λ/D. This technique may enable the discovery and characterization of young giant planets at separations smaller than conventional coronagraphs can reach. A VFN mode was deployed to the Keck Planet Imager and Characterizer (KPIC) instrument at the Keck II telescope in February 2022 and is now operational on-sky. This marks the first on-sky demonstration of VFN. The mode has achieved on-sky starlight rejection of < 1 × 10 −2 in K-band and is primarily limited by residual wavefront error from the adaptive optics system. The current VFN performance enables KPIC to efficiently search for new companions at separations of 20 to 80 mas from their host star whereas the alternative observing mode requires precise, prior knowledge of the companion position. Here we present the latest results from the KPIC VFN mode. We also present the predicted performance improvement from an upcoming upgrade to switch the current charge 2 vortex mask with a new charge 1 which can target smaller separations and will double the planet throughput.

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2023 Astrophotonics Roadmap: pathways to realizing multi-functional integrated astrophotonic instruments

Jovanovic,

Gatkine,

Anugu

et al. 2023

J. Phys. Photonics

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Photonic technologies offer numerous functionalities that can be used to realize astrophotonic instruments. The most spectacular example to date is the ESO Gravity instrument at the Very Large Telescope in Chile that combines the light-gathering power of four 8-m telescopes through a complex photonic interferometer. Fully integrated astrophotonic devices offer critical advantages for instrument development, including extreme miniaturization when operating at the diffraction-limit, plus integration, superior thermal and mechanical stabilization owing to the small footprint, and high replicability offering significant cost savings. Numerous astrophotonic technologies have been developed to address shortcomings of conventional instruments to date, including the development of photonic lanterns to convert from multimode inputs to single mode outputs, complex aperiodic fiber Bragg gratings to filter OH emission from the atmosphere, beam combiners enabling long baseline interferometry with for example, ESO Gravity, and laser frequency combs for high precision spectral calibration of spectrometers. Despite these successes, the facility implementation of photonic solutions in astronomical instrumentation is currently limited because of 1) low throughputs from coupling to fibers, coupling fibers to chips, propagation and bend losses, device losses, etc., 2) difficulties with scaling to large channel count devices needed for large bandwidths and high resolutions, and 3) efficient integration of photonics with detectors. In this roadmap, we identify 23 key areas that need further development. We outline the challenges and advances needed across those areas covering design tools, simulation capabilities, fabrication processes, the need for entirely new components, integration and hybridization and the characterization of devices. To realize these advances the astrophotonics community will have to work cooperatively with industrial partners who have more advanced manufacturing capabilities. With the advances described herein, multi-functional integrated instruments will be realized leading to novel observing capabilities for both ground and space based platforms, enabling new scientific studies and discoveries.

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Phase II of the Keck Planet Imager and characterizer: system-level laboratory characterization and preliminary on-sky commissioning

Cited by 13 publications

References 19 publications

Vortex fiber nulling for exoplanet observations: implementation and first light

Vortex fiber nulling for exoplanet observations: implementation and first light

First light of the vortex fiber nulling mode on the Keck planet imager and characterizer

2023 Astrophotonics Roadmap: pathways to realizing multi-functional integrated astrophotonic instruments

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