44 research outputs found
Swimming with ShARCS: Comparison of On-sky Sensitivity With Model Predictions for ShaneAO on the Lick Observatory 3-meter Telescope
The Lick Observatory's Shane 3-meter telescope has been upgraded with a new
infrared instrument (ShARCS - Shane Adaptive optics infraRed Camera and
Spectrograph) and dual-deformable mirror adaptive optics (AO) system (ShaneAO).
We present first-light measurements of imaging sensitivity in the Ks band. We
compare measured results to predicted signal-to-noise ratio and magnitude
limits from modeling the emissivity and throughput of ShaneAO and ShARCS. The
model was validated by comparing its results to the Keck telescope adaptive
optics system model and then by estimating the sky background and limiting
magnitudes for IRCAL, the previous infra-red detector on the Shane telescope,
and comparing to measured, published results. We predict that the ShaneAO
system will measure lower sky backgrounds and achieve 20\% higher throughput
across the bands despite having more optical surfaces than the current
system. It will enable imaging of fainter objects (by 1-2 magnitudes) and will
be faster to reach a fiducial signal-to-noise ratio by a factor of 10-13. We
highlight the improvements in performance over the previous AO system and its
camera, IRCAL.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation,
Montreal 201
Performance of MEMS-based visible-light adaptive optics at Lick Observatory: Closed- and open-loop control
At the University of California's Lick Observatory, we have implemented an
on-sky testbed for next-generation adaptive optics (AO) technologies. The
Visible-Light Laser Guidestar Experiments instrument (ViLLaGEs) includes
visible-light AO, a micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) deformable mirror,
and open-loop control of said MEMS on the 1-meter Nickel telescope at Mt.
Hamilton. In this paper we evaluate the performance of ViLLaGEs in open- and
closed-loop control, finding that both control methods give equivalent Strehl
ratios of up to ~ 7% in I-band and similar rejection of temporal power.
Therefore, we find that open-loop control of MEMS on-sky is as effective as
closed-loop control. Furthermore, after operating the system for three years,
we find MEMS technology to function well in the observatory environment. We
construct an error budget for the system, accounting for 130 nm of wavefront
error out of 190 nm error in the science-camera PSFs. We find that the dominant
known term is internal static error, and that the known contributions to the
error budget from open-loop control (MEMS model, position repeatability,
hysteresis, and WFS linearity) are negligible.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, to appear in Proc. SPIE 2010 Vol. 7736 Adaptive
Optics Systems II, high-resolution full-color version available at
http://spiedl.org
MEMS practice, from the lab to the telescope
Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology can provide for deformable
mirrors (DMs) with excellent performance within a favorable economy of scale.
Large MEMS-based astronomical adaptive optics (AO) systems such as the Gemini
Planet Imager are coming on-line soon. As MEMS DM end-users, we discuss our
decade of practice with the micromirrors, from inspecting and characterizing
devices to evaluating their performance in the lab. We also show MEMS wavefront
correction on-sky with the "Villages" AO system on a 1-m telescope, including
open-loop control and visible-light imaging. Our work demonstrates the maturity
of MEMS technology for astronomical adaptive optics.Comment: 14 pages, 15 figures, Invited Paper, SPIE Photonics West 201
Stroke saturation on a MEMS deformable mirror for woofer-tweeter adaptive optics
High-contrast imaging of extrasolar planet candidates around a main-sequence
star has recently been realized from the ground using current adaptive optics
(AO) systems. Advancing such observations will be a task for the Gemini Planet
Imager, an upcoming "extreme" AO instrument. High-order "tweeter" and low-order
"woofer" deformable mirrors (DMs) will supply a >90%-Strehl correction, a
specialized coronagraph will suppress the stellar flux, and any planets can
then be imaged in the "dark hole" region. Residual wavefront error scatters
light into the DM-controlled dark hole, making planets difficult to image above
the noise. It is crucial in this regard that the high-density tweeter, a
micro-electrical mechanical systems (MEMS) DM, have sufficient stroke to deform
to the shapes required by atmospheric turbulence. Laboratory experiments were
conducted to determine the rate and circumstance of saturation, i.e. stroke
insufficiency. A 1024-actuator 1.5-um-stroke MEMS device was empirically tested
with software Kolmogorov-turbulence screens of r_0=10-15cm. The MEMS when
solitary suffered saturation ~4% of the time. Simulating a woofer DM with ~5-10
actuators across a 5-m primary mitigated MEMS saturation occurrence to a
fraction of a percent. While no adjacent actuators were saturated at opposing
positions, mid-to-high-spatial-frequency stroke did saturate more frequently
than expected, implying that correlations through the influence functions are
important. Analytical models underpredict the stroke requirements, so empirical
studies are important.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figure
ShaneAO: wide science spectrum adaptive optics system for the Lick Observatory
A new high-order adaptive optics system is now being commissioned at the Lick
Observatory Shane 3-meter telescope in California. This system uses a high
return efficiency sodium beacon and a combination of low and high-order
deformable mirrors to achieve diffraction-limited imaging over a wide spectrum
of infrared science wavelengths covering 0.8 to 2.2 microns. We present the
design performance goals and the first on-sky test results. We discuss several
innovations that make this system a pathfinder for next generation AO systems.
These include a unique woofer-tweeter control that provides full dynamic range
correction from tip/tilt to 16 cycles, variable pupil sampling wavefront
sensor, new enhanced silver coatings developed at UC Observatories that improve
science and LGS throughput, and tight mechanical rigidity that enables a
multi-hour diffraction- limited exposure in LGS mode for faint object
spectroscopy science.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures. Presented at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes +
Instrumentation conference, paper 9148-7
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Amplitude variations on the Extreme Adaptive Optics testbed
High-contrast adaptive optics systems, such as those needed to image extrasolar planets, are known to require excellent wavefront control and diffraction suppression. At the Laboratory for Adaptive Optics on the Extreme Adaptive Optics testbed, we have already demonstrated wavefront control of better than 1 nm rms within controllable spatial frequencies. Corresponding contrast measurements, however, are limited by amplitude variations, including those introduced by the micro-electrical-mechanical-systems (MEMS) deformable mirror. Results from experimental measurements and wave optic simulations of amplitude variations on the ExAO testbed are presented. We find systematic intensity variations of about 2% rms, and intensity variations with the MEMS to be 6%. Some errors are introduced by phase and amplitude mixing because the MEMS is not conjugate to the pupil, but independent measurements of MEMS reflectivity suggest that some error is introduced by small non-uniformities in the reflectivity
Commissioning ShARCS: the Shane Adaptive optics infraRed Camera-Spectrograph for the Lick Observatory 3-m telescope
We describe the design and first-light early science performance of the Shane
Adaptive optics infraRed Camera-Spectrograph (ShARCS) on Lick Observatory's 3-m
Shane telescope. Designed to work with the new ShaneAO adaptive optics system,
ShARCS is capable of high-efficiency, diffraction-limited imaging and
low-dispersion grism spectroscopy in J, H, and K-bands. ShARCS uses a
HAWAII-2RG infrared detector, giving high quantum efficiency (>80%) and Nyquist
sampling the diffraction limit in all three wavelength bands. The ShARCS
instrument is also equipped for linear polarimetry and is sensitive down to 650
nm to support future visible-light adaptive optics capability. We report on the
early science data taken during commissioning.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures. Presented at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes +
Instrumentation conference, paper 9148-11
Opto-Mechanical Design of ShaneAO: the Adaptive Optics System for the 3-meter Shane Telescope
A Cassegrain mounted adaptive optics instrument presents unique challenges
for opto-mechanical design. The flexure and temperature tolerances for
stability are tighter than those of seeing limited instruments. This criteria
requires particular attention to material properties and mounting techniques.
This paper addresses the mechanical designs developed to meet the optical
functional requirements. One of the key considerations was to have
gravitational deformations, which vary with telescope orientation, stay within
the optical error budget, or ensure that we can compensate with a steering
mirror by maintaining predictable elastic behavior. Here we look at several
cases where deformation is predicted with finite element analysis and Hertzian
deformation analysis and also tested. Techniques used to address thermal
deformation compensation without the use of low CTE materials will also be
discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures, 4 tables. Presented at SPIE Astronomical
Telescopes + Instrumentation conference, paper 9148-11
Using the Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm to reconstruct non-modulated pyramid wavefront sensor measurements
Adaptive optics (AO) is a technique to improve the resolution of ground-based
telescopes by correcting, in real-time, optical aberrations due to atmospheric
turbulence and the telescope itself. With the rise of Giant Segmented Mirror
Telescopes (GSMT), AO is needed more than ever to reach the full potential of
these future observatories. One of the main performance drivers of an AO system
is the wavefront sensing operation, consisting of measuring the shape of the
above mentioned optical aberrations. Aims. The non-modulated pyramid wavefront
sensor (nPWFS) is a wavefront sensor with high sensitivity, allowing the limits
of AO systems to be pushed. The high sensitivity comes at the expense of its
dynamic range, which makes it a highly non-linear sensor. We propose here a
novel way to invert nPWFS signals by using the principle of reciprocity of
light propagation and the Gerchberg-Saxton (GS) algorithm. We test the
performance of this reconstructor in two steps: the technique is first
implemented in simulations, where some of its basic properties are studied.
Then, the GS reconstructor is tested on the Santa Cruz Extreme Adaptive optics
Laboratory (SEAL) testbed located at the University of California Santa Cruz.
This new way to invert the nPWFS measurements allows us to drastically increase
the dynamic range of the reconstruction for the nPWFS, pushing the dynamics
close to a modulated PWFS. The reconstructor is an iterative algorithm
requiring heavy computational burden, which could be an issue for real-time
purposes in its current implementation. However, this new reconstructor could
still be helpful in the case of many wavefront control operations. This
reconstruction technique has also been successfully tested on the Santa Cruz
Extreme AO Laboratory (SEAL) bench where it is now used as the standard way to
invert nPWFS signal