  More than half of the stars in the solar neighborhood reside in
binary/multiple stellar systems, and recent studies suggest that gas giant
planets may be more abundant around binaries than single stars. Yet, these
multiple systems are usually overlooked or discarded in most direct imaging
surveys, as they prove difficult to image at high-contrast using coronographs.
This is particularly the case for compact binaries (less than 1" angular
separation) with similar stellar magnitudes, where no existing coronagraph can
provide high-contrast regime. Here we present preliminary results of an
on-going Palomar pilot survey searching for low-mass companions around ~15
young challenging binary systems, with angular separation as close as 0".3 and
near-equal K-band magnitudes. We use the Stellar Double Coronagraph (SDC)
instrument on the 200-inch Telescope in a modified optical configuration,
making it possible to align any targeted binary system behind two vector vortex
coronagraphs in cascade. This approach is uniquely possible at Palomar, thanks
to the absence of sky rotation combined with the availability of an extreme AO
system, and the number of intermediate focal-planes provided by the SDC
instrument. Finally, we expose our current data reduction strategy, and we
attempt to quantify the exact contrast gain parameter space of our approach,
based on our latest observing runs.
