Performance simulations of photonic-enabled exoplanet spectroscopic sensor (PEEPSS) for HWO

Technology development for the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), particularly coronagraph wavefront measurement and control, remains key for achieving the high contrast imaging and spectroscopy needed to search for and characterize exoplanets. We present simulations of the Photonic-Enabled ExoPlanet Spectroscopic Sensor (PEEPSS), a combined wavefront sensor and science channel which uses a set of photonic lanterns to couple light from the dark hole in the coronagraph focal plane into single-mode fibers and the spectrograph. PEEPSS uses rejected host starlight to aid in wavefront sensing; performing the sensing in the coronagraph focal plane helps eliminate non-common-path errors between the wavefront sensing and science channels. Initial simulations show the lanterns have high coupling efficiency (>=90%) to both the dark hole and off-axis PSFs fed through a simulated coronagraph. Each lantern also acts as a spatial modal filter, aiding in the rejection of unwanted starlight.