CAL2: project update of the NRC Canada facility-class focal plane wavefront sensor for the Gemini Planet Imager 2 upgrade

Abstract

The imaging search for exoplanets is mainly limited by quasi-static speckle noise that have lifetimes between milliseconds and hours. Attempts to remove this noise using post-processing by building a point spread function (PSF) model from diversity in time, wavelength, and so-forth are limited to a small improvement due to the evolution of the noise along these same axes. The Calibration 2 (CAL2) system, being built by an international team, is a National Research Council of Canada (NRC) funded facility-class focal plane wavefront sensor for the Gemini Planet Imager 2 (GPI2) upgrade. The project consists of a complete rebuild of the GPI calibration (CAL) system. Based on the self-coherent camera concept and the FAST focal plane mask, a fraction of the near-infrared (NIR) science bandpass is extracted using a new dichroic wheel to perform focal plane wavefront sensing, with the goal to do science while also improving the contrast for the GPI2 IFS, up to a factor of 100x on bright stars. The project is at the final design review stage, and construction is expected to start summer/fall 2024, with assembly late fall 2024, and shipping to the Gemini North observatory middle of 2025.