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Current and future high contrast imaging instruments aim to detect exoplanets at closer orbital separations, lower masses, and/or older ages than their predecessors, with the eventual goal of directly detecting terrestrial-mass…

Direct imaging of exoplanets requires the detection of very faint objects orbiting close to very bright stars. In this context, the SPICES mission was proposed to the European Space Agency for planet characterization at visible wavelength.…

The success of ground-based instruments for high contrast exoplanet imaging depends on the degree to which adaptive optics (AO) systems can mitigate atmospheric turbulence. While modern AO systems typically suffer from millisecond time lags…

The current generation of ground-based coronagraphic instruments uses deformable mirrors to correct for phase errors and to improve contrast levels at small angular separations. Improving these techniques, several space and ground based…

The challenges of high contrast imaging (HCI) for detecting exoplanets for both ground and space applications can be met with extreme adaptive optics (ExAO), a high-order adaptive optics system that performs wavefront sensing (WFS) and…

A high contrast coronagraph is expected to provide one of the promising ways to directly observe extra-solar planets. We present the newest results of our laboratory experiment investigating "rigid" coronagraph with a binary shaped…

Direct imaging and spectral characterization of exoplanets using extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) is a key science goal of future extremely large telescopes and space observatories. However, quasi-static wavefront errors will limit the…

Direct detection of exoplanets requires high dynamic range imaging. Coronagraphs could be the solution, but their performance in space is limited by wavefront errors (manufacturing errors on optics, temperature variations, etc.), which…

We investigate the stability of a segmented deformable mirror (DM) on high-contrast testbeds and its impact on the images produced with coronagraphs. Segmented apertures are promising to obtain large primary mirrors for future missions with…

Image sensors are the backbone of many imaging technologies of great importance to modern sciences, being particularly relevant in biomedicine. An ideal image sensor should be usable through all the electromagnetic spectrum (large…

Segmented telescopes are a possibility to enable large-aperture space telescopes for the direct imaging and spectroscopy of habitable worlds. However, the complexity of their aperture geometry, due to the central obstruction, support…

To support the development of the data processing pipeline and the scientific performance assessment for the Cool Planet Imaging Coronagraph (CPI-C) on the Chinese Space Station Survey Telescope (CSST), we have developed the end-to-end…

We present the final results of the Apodized Pupil Lyot Coronagraph (APLC) on the High-contrast imager for Complex Aperture Telescopes (HiCAT) testbed, under NASA's Strategic Astrophysics Technology program. The HiCAT testbed was developed…

The Keck Planet Imager and Characterizer (KPIC) is a purpose-built instrument for high-dispersion coronagraphy in the K and L bands on Keck. This instrument will provide the first high resolution (R$>$30,000) spectra of known directly…

One of the primary science goals of the Large UV/Optical/Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR) mission concept is to detect and characterize Earth-like exoplanets orbiting nearby stars with direct imaging. The success of its coronagraph instrument…

For future space infrared astronomical coronagraphy, we perform experimental studies on the application of aluminum mirrors to a coronagraph. Cooled reflective optics is required for broad-band mid-infrared observations in space, while…

Directly imaging Earth-like exoplanets (``exoEarths'') with a coronagraph instrument on a space telescope requires a stable wavefront with optical path differences limited to tens of picometers RMS during exposure times of a few hours.…

MICADO, the European Extremely Large Telescope first light imager will feature a dedicated high contrast imaging mode specifically designed for observing and characterizing exoplanets and circumstellar disks. Its improved sensitivity and…

The petaling effect, induced by pupil fragmentation from the telescope spider, drastically affects the performance of high contrast instruments by inducing core splitting on the PSF. Differential piston/tip/tilt aberrations within each…

The detection of molecular species in the atmospheres of earth-like exoplanets orbiting nearby stars requires an optical system that suppresses starlight and maximizes the sensitivity to the weak planet signals at small angular separations.…