Laboratory of Exoplanet Imaging and Adaptive Optics (LEIAO)

Our main research interest is to push forward the sensitivity of current and future generations of high-contrast direct imaging instruments, designed for the very large- (VLTs, 8-10 m) and extremely-large (ELTs, 30-40 m) class of ground-based telescopes. Indeed, the required contrast (beyond 10 billion to 1!) to image an Earth-analog planet in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star will require a broad effort from the scientific and engineering community, involving a large variety of people from a variety of backgrounds: astronomers, instrumentalists, optics specialists, interferometrists, computer and AI scientists, but also researchers in fundamental and material sciences.

Given the timeframe of currently-planned ELT 1st-generation instruments, with first light anticipated in about 5-10 year from now, any breakthrough research effort paving the way to 2nd-generation ELT instrumentation needs to be undertaken right now.