Direct imaging of sub-stellar companions to stars offers a unique glimpse into the 
properties of wide, low mass ratio systems, and an opportunity to image and characterize 
extrasolar giant planets. While a number of direct-imaging searches have met with limited 
success over the past decade, the state of adaptive optics technology on large telescopes
is only now sufficiently mature to allow the discovery of a significant population of 
stellar/sub-stellar binaries.  We present updated results on wide sub-stellar companions to 
stars from a survey of 101 young solar analogs with high-order AO systems on 5-10m 
telescopes.  Because of its large sample size and enhanced sensitivity, the survey offers a 
more accurate estimate of the frequency of stellar/sub-stellar binaries than has been 
possible to date.  Thus, we find that wide low mass stellar and sub-stellar companions are 
derived from the same initial mass function as their isolated counterparts.  We also discuss 
evidence for a surface gravity dependence of the effective temperature near the L/T 
transition, based on the discovery of an L7.5 companion to a 130-400 Myr-old star in our 
sample. The empirical characterization of the photospheres of similar young ultra-cool 
dwarfs will be important for future direct-imaging studies of extra-solar giant planets.