Experimental demonstration of laser tomographic adaptive optics on a 30-meter telescope at 800 nm

S, Mark Ammons; Luke Johnson; Renate Kupke; Donald T. Gavel; Claire E. Max

doi:10.1117/12.857873

15 July 2010 Experimental demonstration of laser tomographic adaptive optics on a 30-meter telescope at 800 nm

S, Mark Ammons, Luke Johnson, Renate Kupke, Donald T. Gavel, Claire E. Max

Proceedings Volume 7736, Adaptive Optics Systems II; 773626 (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.857873
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2010, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

A critical goal in the next decade is to develop techniques that will extend Adaptive Optics correction to visible wavelengths on Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs). We demonstrate in the laboratory the highly accurate atmospheric tomography necessary to defeat the cone effect on ELTs, an essential milestone on the path to this capability. We simulate a high-order Laser Tomographic AO System for a 30-meter telescope with the LTAO/MOAO testbed at UCSC. Eight Sodium Laser Guide Stars (LGSs) are sensed by 99x99 Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors over 75". The AO system is diffraction-limited at a science wavelength of 800 nm (S ~ 6-9%) over a field of regard of 20" diameter. Openloop WFS systematic error is observed to be proportional to the total input atmospheric disturbance and is nearly the dominant error budget term (81 nm RMS), exceeded only by tomographic wavefront estimation error (92 nm RMS). The total residual wavefront error for this experiment is comparable to that expected for wide-field tomographic adaptive optics systems of similar wavefront sensor order and LGS constellation geometry planned for Extremely Large Telescopes.

Citation Download Citation

S, Mark Ammons, Luke Johnson, Renate Kupke, Donald T. Gavel, and Claire E. Max "Experimental demonstration of laser tomographic adaptive optics on a 30-meter telescope at 800 nm", Proc. SPIE 7736, Adaptive Optics Systems II, 773626 (15 July 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.857873

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