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)
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.