On-sky demonstration of second-stage wavefront control with a photonic lantern

Aditya R. Sengupta; Jordan Diaz; Matthew DeMartino; Rebecca Jensen-Clem; Sylvain Cetre; Elinor Gates; Kevin Bundy; Daren Dillon; Philip Hinz; Maïssa Salama; Nour Skaf; Olivier Guyon; Tara Crowe; Caleb Dobias; Stephen S. Eikenberry; Rodrigo Amezcua-Correa; Stephanos Yerolatsitis

arXiv · 2511.20560

On-sky demonstration of second-stage wavefront control with a photonic lantern

Aditya R. Sengupta·Jordan Diaz·Matthew DeMartino·Rebecca Jensen-Clem·Sylvain Cetre·Elinor Gates·Kevin Bundy·Daren Dillon·Philip Hinz·Maïssa Salama·Nour Skaf·Olivier Guyon·Tara Crowe·Caleb Dobias·Stephen S. Eikenberry·Rodrigo Amezcua-Correa·Stephanos Yerolatsitis

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Abstract

Ground-based direct imaging of exoplanets at high contrast requires precise correction of atmospheric turbulence using adaptive optics (AO). The planet-to-star contrast ratio at small angular separations from the host star is often limited by non-common-path aberrations (NCPAs) seen only in the science plane. The photonic lantern (PL) can be used to sense aberrations at the final science imaging plane. This enables a two-stage wavefront control architecture, in which the first-stage wavefront sensor senses atmospheric turbulence and the PL senses NCPAs and other aberrations not seen by the first stage. We demonstrate closed-loop control of residual wavefront errors using a non-dispersed PL after first-stage AO correction on the Shane 3m telescope at Lick Observatory. Our results show that non-dispersed PLs can be used for second-stage wavefront sensing, enabling performance improvements via minimally invasive retrofits to existing AO systems.

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Aditya R. Sengupta, Jordan Diaz, Matthew DeMartino, Rebecca Jensen-Clem, Sylvain Cetre, Elinor Gates, Kevin Bundy, Daren Dillon, Philip Hinz, Maïssa Salama, Nour Skaf, Olivier Guyon, Tara Crowe, Caleb Dobias, Stephen S. Eikenberry, Rodrigo Amezcua-Correa, Stephanos Yerolatsitis. 2025-11-25. On-sky demonstration of second-stage wavefront control with a photonic lantern. https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.20560

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