We present significant upgrades to the VAMPIRES instrument, a visible-light (600 nm to 800 nm) high-contrast imaging polarimeter integrated within SCExAO on the Subaru telescope. Key enhancements include new qCMOS detectors, coronagraphs, polarization optics, and a multiband imaging mode, improving sensitivity, resolution, and efficiency. These upgrades position VAMPIRES as a powerful tool for studying sub-stellar companions, accreting protoplanets, circumstellar disks, stellar jets, stellar mass-loss shells, and solar system objects. The instrument achieves angular resolutions from 17 mas to 21 mas and Strehl ratios up to 60\%, with 5σ contrast limits of 10-4 at 0.1'' to 10-6 beyond 0.5''. We demonstrate these capabilities through spectro-polarimetric coronagraphic imaging of the HD 169142 circumstellar disk, ADI+SDI imaging of the sub-stellar companion HD 1160B, narrowband Hα imaging of the R Aqr emission nebula, and spectro-polarimetric imaging of Neptune.
@article{arxiv.2410.12199,
title = {Visible-Light High-Contrast Imaging and Polarimetry with SCExAO/VAMPIRES},
author = {Miles Lucas and Barnaby Norris and Olivier Guyon and Michael Bottom and Vincent Deo and Sébastian Vievard and Julien Lozi and Kyohoon Ahn and Jaren Ashcraft and Thayne Currie and David Doelman and Tomoyuki Kudo and Lucie Leboulleux and Lucinda Lilley and Maxwell Millar-Blanchaer and Boris Safonov and Peter Tuthill and Taichi Uyama and Aidan Walk and Manxuan Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2410.12199},
year = {2024}
}