Validation of diffraction models with experimental results from the Princeton starshade testbed

Anthony Harness; Stuart Shaklan; N. Jeremy Kasdin; Phillip Willems; K. Balasubramanian; Philip Dumont; Victor White; Karl Yee; Rich Muller; Simon Vuong; Michael Galvin

doi:10.1117/12.2561048

13 December 2020 Validation of diffraction models with experimental results from the Princeton starshade testbed

Anthony Harness, Stuart Shaklan, N. Jeremy Kasdin, Phillip Willems, K. Balasubramanian, Philip Dumont, Victor White, Karl Yee, Rich Muller, Simon Vuong, Michael Galvin

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 11443, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2020: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave; 114431R (2020) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2561048
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2020, Online Only

Abstract

Starshades are a leading technology to detect and characterize Earth-like exoplanets. In this paper we report on optical experiments of sub-scale starshades that advance critical starlight suppression technologies in preparation for the next generation of space telescopes. These experiments were conducted at the Princeton starshade testbed, an 80 m long enclosure testing 1/1000th scale starshades at a flight-like Fresnel number. In this paper we summarize recent updates made to the starshade testbed and optical model. We present results from recent experiments testing two starshade masks with intentional perturbations built into their shape. One of the perturbed masks has three petals that are shifted radially outward by 7-11 microns and the other mask has two petals shifted radially outward plus two petal edge segments displaced from their nominal position. We show the model agrees with experiment to better than 25% accuracy. These results are placed into context with previous experiments on perturbed shapes and progress made towards satisfying a critical milestone in advancing starshade technology to TRL 5.

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Anthony Harness, Stuart Shaklan, N. Jeremy Kasdin, Phillip Willems, K. Balasubramanian, Philip Dumont, Victor White, Karl Yee, Rich Muller, Simon Vuong, and Michael Galvin "Validation of diffraction models with experimental results from the Princeton starshade testbed", Proc. SPIE 11443, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2020: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave, 114431R (13 December 2020); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2561048

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