Initial laboratory demonstration of multi-star wavefront control at the occulting mask coronagraph testbed

A majority of Sun-like stars have at least one stellar companion that can introduce additional noise into the field of view of any high-contrast imaging instrument limiting the achievable contrast. These include high-quality target stars such as the A and B components of Alpha Centauri, our nearest stellar neighbor. Enabling direct imaging of binary stars has the potential to increase the scientific yield for coronagraphic instruments planned on NASA's future space missions including the Roman Space Telescope and the next infrared/optical/ultraviolet (IR/O/UV) flagship recommended by Astro2020. Multi-Star Wavefront Control (MSWC) is a wavefront-control technique that simultaneously removes the (mutually incoherent) stellar leakage from both stellar components, enabling direct imaging of planets in many binary star systems. We present the latest testbed and numerical results obtained as part of the technology development effort for MSWC to demonstrate compatibility with existing high-contrast imaging platforms. In particular, we present experimental and modeling results from the Occulting Mask Coronagraph (OMC) testbed at JPL's High-Contrast Imaging Testbed (HCIT) demonstrating Super-Nyquist Wavefront Control (SNWC). During this testing window, the MSWC mask design has been inserted into the testbed and SNWC-based control generated a dark zone between 79-83./D near the 2nd diffraction order and reaching 5.1e-8 contrast. The OMC is configured with a shaped pupil mask with the same design as the contributed MSWC mask on the Roman Space Telescope's coronagraph instrument. The goal of MSWC experiments on OMC is to use validated models to demonstrate binary star imaging at contrast levels relevant to the Roman coronagraphic instrument.