  Warm or massive gas giant planets, brown dwarfs, and debris disks around
nearby stars are now routinely observed by dedicated high-contrast imaging
instruments on large, ground-based observatories. These facilities include
extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) and state-of-the-art coronagraphy to achieve
unprecedented sensitivities for exoplanet detection and spectral
characterization. However, differential aberrations between the ExAO sensing
path and the science path represent a critical limitation for the detection of
giant planets with a contrast lower than a few $10^{-6}$ at very small
separations (<0.3\as) from their host star. In our previous work, we proposed a
wavefront sensor based on Zernike phase contrast methods to circumvent this
issue and measure these quasi-static aberrations at a nanometric level. We
present the design, manufacturing and testing of ZELDA, a prototype that was
installed on VLT/SPHERE during its reintegration in Chile. Using the internal
light source of the instrument, we performed measurements in the presence of
Zernike or Fourier modes introduced with the deformable mirror. Our
experimental and simulation results are consistent, confirming the ability of
our sensor to measure small aberrations (<50 nm rms) with nanometric accuracy.
We then corrected the long-lived non-common path aberrations in SPHERE based on
ZELDA measurements. We estimated a contrast gain of 10 in the coronagraphic
image at 0.2\as, reaching the raw contrast limit set by the coronagraph in the
instrument. The simplicity of the design and its phase reconstruction algorithm
makes ZELDA an excellent candidate for the on-line measurements of quasi-static
aberrations during the observations. The implementation of a ZELDA-based
sensing path on the current and future facilities (ELTs, future space missions)
could ease the observation of the cold gaseous or massive rocky planets around
nearby stars.
