Modeling and performance analysis of implicit electric field conjugation with two deformable mirrors applied to the Roman Coronagraph

High-order wavefront sensing and control (HOWFSC) is key to creating a dark hole region within the coronagraphic image plane where high contrasts are achieved. The Roman Coronagraph is expected to perform its HOWFSC with a ground-in-the-loop scheme due to the computational complexity of the electric field conjugation (EFC) algorithm. This scheme provides the flexibility to alter the HOWFSC algorithm for given science objectives. The baseline HOWFSC scheme involves running EFC while observing a bright star such as ζ Puppis to create the initial dark hole followed by a slew to the science target. The new implicit EFC (iEFC) algorithm removes the optical diffraction model from the controller, making the final contrast independent of model accuracy. While previously demonstrated with a single deformable mirror, iEFC is extended to two deformable mirror systems to create annular dark holes. First, an overview of both EFC and iEFC is presented. The algorithm is then applied to the wide-field-of-view shaped pupil coronagraph (SPC-WFOV) mode designed for the Roman Space Telescope using end-to-end physical optics models. Initial noiseless monochromatic simulations demonstrate the efficacy of iEFC as well as the optimal choice of modes for the SPC-WFOV instrument. Further simulations with a 3.6% wavefront control bandpass and a broader 10% bandpass then demonstrate that iEFC can be used in broadband scenarios to achieve contrasts below 10⁻⁸ with Roman. Finally, an electron multiplying charge-coupled device (EMCCD) model is implemented to estimate calibration times and predict the controller’s performance. Here, 10⁻⁸ contrasts are achieved with a calibration time of ∼6.8 h assuming the reference star is ζ Puppis. The results here indicate that iEFC can be a valid HOWFSC method that can mitigate the risk of model errors associated with space-borne coronagraphs, but to maximize iEFC performance, lengthy calibration times will be required to mitigate the noise accumulated during calibration.