The Future of Adaptive Optics Instrumentation

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The Future of Adaptive Optics Instrumentation

• David Andersen
• HIA

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Roadmap

• How does Adaptive Optics work?
• Why bother?
• What is being done now?
• What is on the horizon?

C. Max, CfAO
Neptune
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An Alphabet Soup

• AO
• MCAO
• MOAO
• GLAO
• ExAO
• ASM
• WFS
• NGS
• LGS
• DM

• Adaptive Optics
• Multi-Conjugate AO
• Multi-Object AO
• Ground Layer AO
• Extreme AO
• Adaptive Secondary Mirror
• WaveFront Sensor
• Natural Guide Star
• Laser Guide Star
• Deformable Mirror

C. Max
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How does AO work?

• Parts List
• Bright Star
• Deformable Mirror
• Wavefront Sensor
• Computer

C. Max
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AO in Action
B. Graves
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Advances in Stars

• AO works best if star light is BRIGHT and NEARBY

UDF
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Artificial Stars

• Solution Make your own star using Lasers

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Laser Guide Stars
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How does AO work?

• Parts List
• Bright Star
• Deformable Mirror
• Wavefront Sensor
• Computer

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Rapidly Developing Technology

• Thin Mirror
• Actuators

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Piezo DMs
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MEMS (Micro Mechanical Electrical Systems)

• Smaller
• Cheaper
• Better
• Unproven

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Adaptive Secondary Mirror

• More Efficient
• Costly
• Risky?

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How does AO work?

• Parts List
• Bright Star
• Deformable Mirror
• Wavefront Sensor
• Computer

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Wavefront Sensors
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How does AO work?

• Parts List
• Bright Star
• Deformable Mirror
• Wavefront Sensor
• Computer

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Why AO?

• Diffraction Limit 1/D (the telescope diameter)

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Why AO?

• D4 Science
• Exposure time 1/D2 without AO, 1/D4 with AO
• Example 1 On Gemini, can detect faint point
  sources 64 (82) times faster
• Example 2 Without AO, a 30m telescope can
  observe objects 14 times faster
• Example 3 With AO, a 30m telescope can observe
  objects 200 times faster

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Summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii
Subaru
2 Kecks
Gemini North
CFHT
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Altair for Gemini

• Commissioned in 2003
• Most efficient AO system
• Added LGS in 2005
• Built at HIA (Herriot Veran)

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Gemini Planet Imager (GPI)

• Extreme Adaptive Optics (ExAO) required to see
  planets
• Requires infinitesimal errors and many actuators
• Scheduled for completion in 2009
• Livermore UCSC NASA HIA

B. MacIntosh
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GLAO for Gemini

• Not D4 science, but 50 efficiency gains
• No more bad seeing
• Works at all wavelengths
• GLAO integrated into Gemini
• Add ASM to Gemini
• Coming 2010

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Thirty Meter Telescope

• Partnership of UC, Canada, USA (NSF)
• First Light 2015
• Dome design at HIA/AMEC
• Telescope design at HIA/AMEC/TMT

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NFIRAOS

• Facility AO for TMT
• Designed at HIA (Herriot, Erickson)
• Uses Multiple LGS and Multiple DMs
• MCAO (wide field AO)

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MCAO

• Each DM corrects for one layer of turbulence. If
  enough layers are corrected, then good AO
  correction seen everywhere on sky.

Rigaut
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MOAO
Guzman Gonzalez
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TMT IRMOS MOAO

• Employs MOAO - Multi-Object AO
• Good AO correction for 20 targets in large patch
  of sky
• University of Florida/HIA collaboration

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Conclusions

• Book not written on AO yet
• Crossroads of many disciplines including
  Astronomy, Electrical Engineering, Optics,
  Control Theory, High Speed Computing, High Power
  Lasers, Microtechnology
• Alphabet soup will get complicated
• AO just coming into its own
• Number of AO Astronomy papers increasing rapidly
• New instruments constantly being developed
• AO is an integral part of future ground-based
  astronomy
• D4 Science with Big Telescopes
• New AO technology enable breakthrough science
• HIA should continue being at the forefront of AO
  research development