Laser guidestar uplink correction using a MEMS deformable mirror: on-sky test results and implications for future AO systems

Andrew P. Norton; Donald T. Gavel; Michael Helmbrecht; Carl Kempf; Elinor Gates; Kostas Chloros; Donnie Redel; Renate Kupke; Daren Dillon

doi:10.1117/12.2055564

21 July 2014 Laser guidestar uplink correction using a MEMS deformable mirror: on-sky test results and implications for future AO systems

Andrew P. Norton, Donald T. Gavel, Michael Helmbrecht, Carl Kempf, Elinor Gates, Kostas Chloros, Donnie Redel, Renate Kupke, Daren Dillon

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9148, Adaptive Optics Systems IV; 91481C (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2055564
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2014, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

Abstract

By inserting a MEMS deformable mirror-based adaptive optics system into the beam transfer optics of the Shane 3-meter telescope at Mt. Hamilton, we actively controlled the wavefront of the outgoing sodium laser guidestar beam. It was possible to show that a purposefully aberrated beam resulted in poorer performance of the Adaptive Optics system located behind the primary, though bad seeing conditions prevented us from improving the system’s performance over its nominal state. A silver-coated Iris AO deformable mirror was subjected to approximately 9.5 hours of exposure to a sodium laser guidestar of 3.5 Watts average output power and showed no signs of permanent damage or degradation in performance. Future applications of the uplink-AO system for correcting atmospheric turbulence and in generating custom laser guidestar asterisms are also discussed.

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Andrew P. Norton, Donald T. Gavel, Michael Helmbrecht, Carl Kempf, Elinor Gates, Kostas Chloros, Donnie Redel, Renate Kupke, and Daren Dillon "Laser guidestar uplink correction using a MEMS deformable mirror: on-sky test results and implications for future AO systems", Proc. SPIE 9148, Adaptive Optics Systems IV, 91481C (21 July 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2055564

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