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arXiv · 2406.00547

Cassiop\'ee, towards technological development for XAO on ELT: the e-APD infrared detector

Abstract

The Cassiop\'ee project aims to develop the key technologies that will be used to deploy very high-performance Adaptive Optics for future ELTs. The ultimate challenge is to detect earth-like planets and characterize the composition of their atmosphere. For this, imaging contrasts of the order of 109 are required, implying a leap forward in adaptive optics performance, with high density deformable mirrors (120x120 actuators), low-noise cameras and the control of the loop at few kHz. The project brings together 2 industrial partners: First Light Imaging and ALPAO, and 2 academic partners: ONERA and LAM, who will work together to develop a new camera for wavefront sensing, a new deformable mirror and their implementation in an adaptive optics loop. This paper will present the development of the fast large infrared e-APD camera which will be used in the wavefront sensor of the system. The camera will integrate the latest 512x512 Leonardo e-APD array and will benefit from the heritage of the first-light imaging's C-RED One camera. The most important challenges for the application are the autonomous operation, vibration control, background limitation, compactness, acquisition speed and latency.

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Jean-Luc Gach, Piero Bruno, Julien Charton, Philippe Feautrier, Thierry Fusco, Benoit Neichel, Jean-François Sauvage. 2024-06-01. Cassiop\'ee, towards technological development for XAO on ELT: the e-APD infrared detector. https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.00547

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