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arXiv · 2508.11114

Developments on LLNL's high contrast testbed and Lick/ShaneAO

Benjamin L. Gerard·Dominic F. Sanchez·Aditya R. Sengupta·Bautista R. Fernandez·Cesar Laguna·Christopher Ratliff·Daren Dillon·Sylvain Cetre·David Tucker·Mike Kim·Lisa Poyneer·Brian Bauman·Elinor Gates·Maureen Savage·Rebecca Jensen-Clem·S. Mark Ammons·Phil Hinz·Bruce Macintosh
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Abstract

LLNL has recently setup a High Contrast Testbed (HCT) for AO and exoplanet imaging technology development. We present the various HCT technologies currently under development, including (1) a Wynne corrector, (2) multi-wavefront sensor (WFS) single conjugate AO (SCAO) control. We present HCT testing results of a first Wynne corrector prototype with a self-coherent camera. We present updates on development efforts to design and apply multi-WFS SCAO control to our HCT setup. We also present ongoing HCT deformable mirror and WFS upgrades. Lastly, we present developments for REDWOODS, a project to deploy many of these technologies on-sky on a sub-bench of the Shane AO system at Lick Observatory.

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Benjamin L. Gerard, Dominic F. Sanchez, Aditya R. Sengupta, Bautista R. Fernandez, Cesar Laguna, Christopher Ratliff, Daren Dillon, Sylvain Cetre, David Tucker, Mike Kim, Lisa Poyneer, Brian Bauman, Elinor Gates, Maureen Savage, Rebecca Jensen-Clem, S. Mark Ammons, Phil Hinz, Bruce Macintosh. 2025-08-14. Developments on LLNL's high contrast testbed and Lick/ShaneAO. https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.11114

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