The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI), a coronagraphic adaptive optics instrument designed for spectroscopy of extrasolar planets, had first light in 2013. After five years, GPI has observed more than 500 stars, producing an extensive library of science images and associated telemetry that can be analyzed to determine performance predictors. We will present a summary of on-sky performance and lessons learned. The two most significant factors determining bright star contrast performance are atmospheric coherence time and the presence of dome seeing. With a possible move to Gemini North, we are planning potential upgrades including a pyramid-sensor based AO system with predictive control; we will summarize upgrade options and the science they would enable.
A semi analytic framework for simulating the effects of atmospheric seeing in Adaptive Optics systems on an 8-m telescope is developed with the intention of understanding the origin of the wind-butterfly, a characteristic twolobed halo in the PSF of AO imaging. Simulations show that errors in the compensated phase on the aperture due to servo-lag have preferential direction orthogonal to the direction of wind propagation which, when Fourier Transformed into the image plane, appear with their characteristic lemniscate shape along the wind direction. We develop a metric to quantify the effect of this aberration with the fractional standard deviation in an annulus centered around the PSF, and use telescope pointing to correlate this effect with data from an atmospheric models, the NOAA GFS. Our results show that the jet stream at altitudes of 100-200 hPa (equivalently 10-15 km above sea level) is highly correlated (13.2σ) with the strong butterfly, while the ground wind and other layers are more or less uncorrelated.
This work outlines the design and development of a prototype CubeSat space telescope to directly image exoplanets and/or exozodiacal dust. This prototype represents the optical payload of the miniaturized distributed occulter/telescope (mDOT), a starshade technology demonstration mission combining a 2 meter scale microsatellite occulter and a 6U CubeSat telescope. Science requirements for the mDOT experiment are presented and translated into engineering requirements for the attitude determination and control subsystem (ADCS). The ADCS will utilize a triad of reaction wheels for coarse pointing and a tip tilt mirror for fine image stabilization down to the sub-arcsecond level. A two-stage attitude control architecture is presented to achieve precise pointing necessary for stable acquisition of diffraction limited imagery. A multiplicative extended Kalman filter is utilized to estimate the inertial attitude of the vehicle and provide input into the aforementioned controller. A hardware-in-the-loop optical stimulator is used to stimulate the payload with scenes highly representative of the space environment from a radiometric and geometric stand point. Scenes rendered to the optical stimulator are synthesized in closed-loop based off a high-fidelity numerical simulation of the underlying disturbances, orbital and attitude dynamics. Performance of the two-stage attitude control loop is quantified and demonstrates the ability to achieve sub-arcsecond pointing using a telescope payload prototype.
We explore the application of phase diversity to calibrate the non common path aberrations (NCPA) in the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI). This is first investigated in simulation in order to characterize the ideal technique parameters with simulated GPI calibration source data. The best working simulation parameters are derived and we establish the algorithm's capability to recover an injected astigmatism. Furthermore, the real data appear to exhibit signs of de-centering between the in and out of focus images that are required by phase diversity; this effect can arise when the diverse images are acquired in closed loop and are close to the non-linear regime of the wavefront sensor. We show in simulation that this effect can inhibit our algorithm, which does not take into account the impact of de-centering between images. To mitigate this effect, we validate the technique of using a single diverse image with our algorithm; this is first demonstrated in simulation and then applied to the real GPI data. Following this approach, we find that we can successfully recover a known astigmatism injection using the real GPI data and subsequently apply an NCPA correction to GPI (in the format of offset reference slopes) to improve the relative Strehl ratio by 5%; we note this NCPA correction application is rudimentary and a more thorough application will be investigated in the near future. Finally, the estimated NCPA in the form of astigmatism and coma agree well with the magnitude of the same modes reported by Poyneer et al. 2016.
The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is the dedicated high-contrast imaging facility, located on Gemini South, designed for the direct detection and characterization of young Jupiter mass exoplanets. In 2019, Gemini is considering moving GPI from Gemini South to Gemini North. Analysis of GPI's as-built performance has highlighted several key areas of improvement to its detection capabilities while leveraging its current capabilities as a facility class instrument. We present the proposed upgrades which include a pyramid wavefront sensor, broadband low spectral resolution prisms and new apodized-pupil Lyot coronagraph designs all of which will enhance the current science capabilities while enabling new science programs.
After more than 4 years of operation it’s expected that the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) will move from Gemini South (GS) to the Gemini North (GN) telescope sometime in 2019. Though both telescopes are almost identical at a hardware and software level there are subtle differences. With the accrued knowledge from operations from both a software and hardware point of view we will be addressing the following subjects: Changes in software on the telescope control level to interface with the similar system at GN, changes in the user interface for both instrument operation, proposal management, and observation preparations by a PI. Adjustments and requirements to interface at a hardware level with cooling and power requirements, and changes in the hardware configuration of network interfaces. We also show the results from vibration measurements at both telescopes and these measurements indicate that the vibrations will not be an issues when moving from GS to GN. Using more than 600h of observations and performance measurements and weather conditions at GS, and correlating with several years of weather monitoring at Mauna Kea we show what improvements in performance we can expect. We expect a significant improvement in performance due to the less turbulent atmosphere at GN, with post-processed contrast improving by a factor of 1.3–2.6.
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 mea- sured 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 pre- vious 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 JHK 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.
It is possible to create custom laser guidestar (LGS) asterisms from a single beam by using a deformable mirror to pattern the phase of the outgoing laser guidestar beam. This avoids the need for multiple laser launch assemblies, and in principle would allow one to position the multiple LGS spots in any desired arrangement around the science target, as well as dynamically rotate the LGS pattern on-sky and control the distribution of intensity in each spot. Simulations and laboratory experiments indicate that a PTT111 and PTT489 IrisAO MEMS deformable mirror and a Hamamatsu X8267 spatial light modulator may have applications for creating small LGS asterisms for biological imaging with adaptive optics. For astronomy applications, the phase values required to
produce the “3+1” laser guidestar asterism of Keck’s Next Generation AO system is also
investigated.
Deformable mirrors with very high order correction generally have smaller dynamic range of motion than what is required to correct seeing over large aperture telescopes. As a result, systems will need to have an architecture that employs two deformable mirrors in series, one for the low-order but large excursion parts of the wavefront and one for the finer and smaller excursion components. The closed-loop control challenge is to a) keep the overall system stable, b) avoid the two mirrors using control energy to cancel each others correction, c) resolve actuator saturations stably, d) assure that on average the mirrors are each correcting their assigned region of spatial frequency space. We present the control architecture and techniques for assuring that it is linear and stable according to the above criteria. We derived the analytic forms for stability and performance and show results from simulations and on-sky testing using the new ShaneAO system on the Lick 3-meter 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.
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.
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.
KEYWORDS: Wavefronts, Wavefront sensors, Adaptive optics, Two photon excitation microscopy, Microscopes, Two photon imaging, Fluorescent proteins, Green fluorescent protein, Objectives, Control systems
A fast direct wavefront sensing method for dynamic in-vivo adaptive optical two photon microscopy has demonstrated.
By using the direct wavefront sensing and open loop control, the system provides high-speed wavefront measurement
and correction. To measure the wavefront in the middle of a Drosophila embryo at early stages, autofluorescence from
endogenous fluorophores in the yolk were used as reference guide-stars. This method does not rely on
fluorescently labeled proteins as guide-stars, which can simplify the sample preparation for wavefront measurement. The
method was tested through live imaging of a Drosophila embryo. The aberration in the middle of the embryo was
measured directly for the first time. After correction, both contrast and signal intensity of the structure in the middle of
the embryo was improved.
We evaluate the performance of a woofer-tweeter controller architecture for the new 3-meter Shane Telescope (Lick Observatory) laser guidestar adaptive optics (AO) system. Low order, high stroke phase correction is performed using the normal modal basis set of the Alpao woofer deformable mirror (DM). Since the woofer and tweeter DMs share the same wavefront sensor, the projected woofer phase correction is offloaded from the high-order, low stroke phase aberrations corrected by the tweeter DM. This ensures the deformable mirrors complementarily correct the input phase disturbance and minimizes likelihood of the tweeter actuators saturating. Preliminary analysis of on-sky closed-loop deformable mirror telemetry data from currently operating AO systems at Mt. Hamilton, as well as statistically accurate Kolmogorov phase screens, indicate that correction of up to 34 woofer modes results in all tweeter actuators remaining within their stroke limit.
The Lick Observatory 3-meter telescope has a history of serving as a testbed for innovative adaptive optics techniques.
In 1996, it became one of the first astronomical observatories to employ laser guide star (LGS) adaptive optics as a
facility instrument available to the astronomy community. Work on a second-generation LGS adaptive optics system,
ShaneAO, is well underway, with plans to deploy on telescope in 2013. In this paper we discuss key design features and
implementation plans for the ShaneAO adaptive optics system. Once again, the Shane 3-m will host a number of new
techniques and technologies vital to the development of future adaptive optics systems on larger telescopes. Included is a
woofer-tweeter based wavefront correction system incorporating a voice-coil actuated, low spatial and temporal
bandwidth, high stroke deformable mirror in conjunction with a high order, high bandwidth MEMs deformable mirror.
The existing dye laser, in operation since 1996, will be replaced with a fiber laser recently developed at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratories. The system will also incorporate a high-sensitivity, high bandwidth wavefront sensor
camera. Enhanced IR performance will be achieved by replacing the existing PICNIC infrared array with an Hawaii
2RG. The updated ShaneAO system will provide opportunities to test predictive control algorithms for adaptive optics.
Capabilities for astronomical spectroscopy, polarimetry, and visible-light adaptive optical astronomy will be supported.
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.
Iris AO has been developing dielectric-coated segmented MEMS deformable mirrors (DM) for use in laser applications
that range from 355-1540 nm. In order to mitigate deformation from residual stress in the thick dielectric coatings, a
stress-compensation layer has been added to the underside if the DM segments. This paper describes fabrication results
of DMs with high reflectance dielectric coatings for 532 nm, 1064 nm, and 1540 nm. Additionally, a DM with a 532 nm
coating has been tested with a 2 W, 532 nm CW laser. Laser testing shows the DM can handle 300 W/cm2 with off-theshelf
packaging. Projections show that with good heat sinking, the same DM can handle laser power densities of
2800 W/cm2. The coatings showed no signs of damage after exposure to a w0=25 μm beam with a power density of
205 kW/cm2 for 105 minutes at the center of a segment and at segment edges exposed to 180 kW/cm2 for 45 minutes.
Continuous-facesheet and segmented Boston Micromachines Corporations' (BMC) Micro-Electrical Mechanical Systems (MEMS) Deformable Mirrors (DM) have been tested for their response to high-power visible-wavelength laser light. The deformable mirrors, coated with either protected silver or bare aluminum, were subjected to a maximum of 2 Watt laser-light at a wavelength of 532 nanometers. The laser light was incident on a ~ 3.5×3.5 cm area for time periods from minutes to 7 continuous hours. Spot heating from the laser-light is measured to induce a local bulge in the surface of each DM. For the aluminum-coated continuous facesheet DM, the induced spot heating changes the surface figure by 16 nm rms. The silver-coated
continuous-facesheet and segmented (spatial light modulator) DMs experience a 6 and 8 nm surface rms change in surface quality with the laser at 2 Watts. For spatial frequencies less than the actuator spacing (300 mm), the laser induced surface bulge is shown to be removable, as the DMs continued to be fully functional during and after their exposure. Over the full 10 mm aperture one could expect the same results with a 15 Watt laser guide star (LGS). These results are very promising for use of the MEMS DM to pre-correct the outgoing laser light in the Laboratory for Adaptive Optics' (LAO) laser uplink application.
We have tested an aluminum-coated Iris AO Micro-Electrical Mechanical System (MEMS) segmented Deformable Mirror (DM) for its behavior in the presence of high energy 532 nm laser light. The DM was subject to several tests in which the laser power and the duration of its incidence was varied. The DM experienced an irradiance of 94.5 W cm-2 at the maximum laser power of 2 W. A slight permanent reduction in the amount of bow in each segment was observed. This is most likely due to annealing. The mirror remained fully functional during and after the tests. Measurements of the mirror's temporal stability and position repeatability were performed before the laser test. We found a 1.28 nm rms variation in the bow of segments that is highly correlated over the 16 minute test. The mirror's ability to return to its initial position was within the 1.34 nm rms instrument noise. These results are encouraging for applications such as the laser uplink correction of the Visible Light Laser Guidestar Experiment (Villages) and future multi-Laser Guidestar systems (LGS).
We present preliminary findings on the characteristic behavior and initial performance of Boston Micromachine
Corporations' (BMC) 4096-actuator micro-electrical mechanical systems (MEMS) deformable mirror (DM). This
device is examined for its application in the Gemini Planet Imager high-contrast adaptive optics (AO) system. It is
also being considered for use in next generation AO systems on the extremely large telescopes. Testing of this device
has been in progress at the Laboratory for Adaptive Optics (LAO) on the Extreme Adaptive Optics (ExAO) testbed
in experiments designed to qualify performance for imaging extrasolar planets. In this paper we present first test
results including actuator stroke (3.0 microns at 200 V), individual actuator RMS surface (10.3 nm surface), actuator
yield for two DM arrays (94.4% and 98.8%), actuator crosstalk (no more than 32%), stroke at the highest spatial
frequency (1.2 nm surface), and sub-nanometer closed loop flattening capabilities over a 30-actuator diameter.
The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is currently in production for the Gemini Telescope in Chile. This instrument
will directly image young jovian exoplanets, aided by a micro-electrical mechanical systems (MEMS) deformable
mirror (DM). Boston Micromachines MEMS mirrors operate thousands of actuators to provide a well-sampled
correction at high spatial frequencies. However, because MEMS stroke alone is insufficient to fully correct the
atmosphere in the near-IR on an 8-meter telescope, a dual-mirror system is planned for GPI: The MEMS is used
as a 'tweeter' to correct the higher spatial frequencies while a separate 'woofer' DM will be used to correct
the lower frequencies. During operation at GPI, any saturated actuators would scatter starlight into the dark
hole instead of allowing it to be removed coronagraphically; thus, stroke saturation on the MEMS is tolerated
only at the 5-sigma level. In the Laboratory for Adaptive Optics, we test the ability of the MEMS to counter
atmospheric turbulence. The MEMS shape is set to random iterations of woofer-corrected Kolmogorov phase
screens with varying woofer sizes. We find that, for r0 = 10 cm, saturation decreases from several percent
to a few tenths of a percent (∼3-sigma) when using a 100cm-pitch woofer. The MEMS we tested has 0.2 &mgr;m
inter-actuator stroke for a 200V-range. Nonetheless, saturation (when it occurs) appears to be due to low-order
peak-to-valley stroke even in the woofer-corrected case. Gemini characteristically has r0 = 15 cm, so future
work includes extrapolating to find where the 5-sigma saturation level occurs.
New concepts for astronomical adaptive optics are enabled by use of micro-electrical mechanical systems (MEMS)
deformable mirrors (DMs). Unlike traditional DMs now used in astronomical AO systems, MEMS devices are
smaller, less expensive, and exhibit extraordinarily repeatable actuation. Consequently, MEMS technology
allows for novel configurations, such as multi-object AO, that require open-loop control of multiple DMs. At the
UCO/Lick Observatory Laboratory for Adaptive Optics we are pursuing this concept in part by creating a phaseto-
voltage model for the MEMS DM. We model the surface deflection approximately by the thin-plate equation.
Using this modeling technique, we have achieved open-loop control accuracy in the laboratory to ~13-30 nm
surface rms in response to ~1-3 μm peak-to-valley commands, respectively. Next, high-resolution measurements
of the displacement between actuator posts are compared to the homogeneous solution of the thin-plate equation,
to verify the model's validity. These measurements show that the thin-plate equation seems a plausible approach
to modeling deformations of the top surface down to lateral scales of a tenth actuator spacing. Finally, in order
to determine the physical lower limit to which our model can be expected to be accurate, we conducted a set
of hysteresis experiments with a MEMS. We detect only a sub-nanometer amount of hysteresis of 0.6±0.3 nm
surface over a 160-volt loop. This complements our previous stability and position repeatability measurements,
showing that MEMS DMs actuate to sub-nanometer precision and are hence controllable in open-loop.
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