Demonstration of Single-picometer Deformable Mirror Wavefront Control Using High-resolution Electronics

Deformable mirrors (DMs) are a critical technology to enable coronagraphic direct imaging of exoplanets with current and planned ground- and space-based telescopes as well as future mission concepts, such as the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), which aims to image exoplanet types ranging from gas giants to Earth analogs. These missions set several requirements on the DMs such as large actuator count (≳96x96) and resolution smaller than 2.5 pm. This paper presents the first demonstration of single-picometer wavefront control utilizing a new highresolution, vacuum-compatible DM electronics and a Zernike Wavefront Sensor for measurement. The controller can handle 2,040 actuators with 125 V maximum voltage with 20-bit resolution, resulting in voltage steps of 119 microvolts that allowed us to demonstrate 0.65 pm resolution of the DM surface.

可变形反射镜（Deformable Mirrors, DMs）是支撑当前及规划中地基、天基望远镜，以及未来任务概念（如旨在实现从气态巨行星到类地行星各类系外行星成像的宜居世界天文台（Habitable Worlds Observatory, HWO））开展系外行星日冕直接成像观测的核心技术。此类任务对可变形反射镜提出了多项硬性要求，包括需配备≥96×96规格的大尺寸致动器阵列，且分辨率需优于2.5皮米（pm）。本文首次演示了皮米级波前控制技术：该方案采用一款新型高分辨率、真空兼容的可变形反射镜电子控制系统，并搭配泽尼克波前传感器（Zernike Wavefront Sensor）完成波前测量。该控制器可支持2040个致动器运行，最大输出电压为125V，分辨率达20位，对应的电压步长为119微伏，借此成功实现了可变形反射镜面形0.65皮米的分辨率演示。