The Gemini Planet Imager - Millar-Blanchaer Research Group

THE GEMINI PLANET IMAGER ~/instrumentation/gpi

The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is a high-contrast imager at the Gemini South telescope that combines an extreme adaptive optics system, a coronagraph and an integral field spectrograph/polarimeter in order to directly image exoplanets. I have worked extensively on GPI's polarimetry mode since about 2011, characterizing its performance (both in-lab and on-sky), developing data reduction procedures and using it for science.

Recently I demonstrated that GPI is sensitive to the polarization aberrations of the Gemini South telescope.

GPI's sensitivity to the polarization aberrations of the Gemini South telescope — In the top row we see a model of GPI's coronagraph and in the bottom row we see on-sky data. In the Q and U panels we see that the on-sky (at least qualitatively) match the model predictions.

Here's a quick list of GPI papers I've written either characterizing GPI's polarimetry mode or using it for science:

The polarization aberrations of the Gemini Telescope as seen by the Gemini Planet Imager
Imaging an 80 au Radius Dust Ring around the F5V Star HD 157587
GPI observational calibrations XIV: polarimetric contrasts and new data reduction techniques
Beta Pictoris' Inner Disk in Polarized Light and New Orbital Parameters for Beta Pictoris b
Polarization gratings for visible and near-infrared astronomy