Review of OCA activities on nulling testbench PERSEE

We present a review of our activities on PERSEE (Pegase Experiment for Research and Stabilization of Extreme Extinction) at Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur (OCA). PERSEE is a laboratory testbench aiming at achieving a stabilized nulling ratio better than 10(-4) in the astronomical bands K and M, in presence of flight-representative spacecraft perturbations. The bench has been jointly developed by a Consortium of six French institutes and companies, among which OCA was responsible for the star simulator and of the opto-mechanical studies, procurement and manufacturing of the optical train. In this communication are presented the alignment and image quality requirements and the opto-mechanical design of the illumination module and main optical train, including a periscope Achromatic Phase Shifter (APS), tip-tilt mirrors used to introduce and then compensate for dynamic disturbances, delay lines, beam compressors and fiber injection optics. Preliminary test results of the star simulator are also provided.