Laboratory Simulations of Wide-Field AO

The MCAO/MOAO testbench in the Laboratory for Adaptive Optics (LAO) is an integrated wide-field AO system on a 10-meter telescope delivering 20-35% Strehl over 2 arcminutes at a science wavelength of 900 nm (see red line at left).  

Our team has demonstrated multi-object adaptive optics (MOAO) operation and laser tomography AO (LTAO) with this system.  The wavefront sensor accuracy in open-loop is 30 nm with an ~800 nm atmosphere.  

Open-loop operation/MOAO results:     Ammons et al. 2007, proc. SPIE   (link to ADS)  
Tomographic Reconstruction:               Gavel et al. 2007, OSA Tech. Digests      (link)
Early results on 30-m telescope:           Ammons et al. 2006, proc. SPIE   (link to ADS)

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ViLLaGEs

under construction....

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The AO Demonstrator

I designed and built the AO Demonstrator, a $25k self-enclosed adaptive optics system exclusively for education.  With a 37-actuator AgilOptics DM and an 8x8 wavefront sensor, the system corrects turbulence at 30 Hz.

I helped develop two similar systems at Maui Community College (built by Joe Curamen) and Hawaii Community College (built by James Ah Heong) with an Iris AO 37-element segmented MEMS.

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