EPSC Abstracts
Vol. 18, EPSC-DPS2025-1528, 2025, updated on 09 Jul 2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc-dps2025-1528
EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Small-ELF project: Performance of XAO, cophasing and dark hole coronography for high contrast exoplanet direct detection
Valentin Fonteneau1,2, Maud Langlois1,2, Camille Graf1,2, and the ELF Consortium*
Valentin Fonteneau et al.
  • 1Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon, Lyon, France (valentin.fonteneau@univ-lyon1.fr)
  • 2Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CRAL UMR5574, ENS de Lyon, CNRS, Villeurbanne, F-69622, France
  • *A full list of authors appears at the end of the abstract

The Small ELF (sELF) project is a fixed pupil interferometer dedicated to high contrast having a 3.5 m telescope angular resolution and allowing direct “dark hole” coronagraphy. Such configuration requires special extreme adaptive optics (XAO) systems to cope with the diluted apertures, and to meet the high contrast requirements. The integrated Mach-Zehnder wavefront sensor has been proposed to counteract these limitations. In this paper, we report on our numerical simulations and on the experimental validations of the sELF XAO system. This system delivers high strehl while operating in synergy with focal plane wavefront sensing to support cophasing and dark hole coronography.

ELF Consortium:

G. Moretto, J. R. Kuhn, N. Lodieu, M. Loupias, C. Schott, R. Rebolo, J. Rolland, Y. Zhouh et al.

How to cite: Fonteneau, V., Langlois, M., and Graf, C. and the ELF Consortium: Small-ELF project: Performance of XAO, cophasing and dark hole coronography for high contrast exoplanet direct detection, EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2025, Helsinki, Finland, 7–12 Sep 2025, EPSC-DPS2025-1528, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc-dps2025-1528, 2025.