Low-cost adaptive optics systems

Carl Paterson; Ian H. Munro; Christopher Dainty

doi:10.1117/12.390290

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7 July 2000 Low-cost adaptive optics systems

Carl Paterson, Ian H. Munro, Christopher Dainty

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Proceedings Volume 4007, Adaptive Optical Systems Technology; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.390290
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2000, Munich, Germany

Abstract

Flexible low-cost adaptive optics systems are presented. These are based around low-cost actuator components, specifically electrostatic membrane and bimorph mirrors. A modular breadboard experimental framework has been constructed to investigate different system components (wavefront sensors, actuators and control-loop algorithms). The framework includes a fully controllable dynamic wavefront generator for investigating both the spatial and temporal performance characteristics of the systems experimentally. The repeatability of the wavefront generator allows the effects of different system parameters on the performance to be investigated. The performance of a typical closed-loop system is presented. This system has a 37-electrode membrane mirror, a Shack-Hartmann sensor using a Dalsa CCD camera and a control system which runs on a single processor achieving frame rates of up to 800 Hz. All the components of this system are commercially available (with a total component cost of about 25 K). Using the dynamic wavefront generator it has been possible to measure the performance of this system experimentally for a wide range of well defined atmospheric turbulent conditions.

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Carl Paterson, Ian H. Munro, and Christopher Dainty "Low-cost adaptive optics systems", Proc. SPIE 4007, Adaptive Optical Systems Technology, (7 July 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.390290

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