Adaptive Optics

AO Team
 Outline

• Solar AO – What is different?

• High order AO development – a prototype for
ATST AO
• ATST AO requirements
• Design Concepts
– wavefront sensor
– DM
– WFS optics
 Solar AO

•Small r0 (visible&day-time seeing)

•Near-ground turbulence
•High temporal frequencies
•Extended object
•Object evolves in time (sec –min)
• Photons are plentiful (broad-band)
 Wavefront Sensor Noise
Night time AO:
•S/N limited by # of photons collected and detector noise (<1-3e-)
•Limiting magnitude
•For faint objects: laser guide stars required

Solar AO:
•S/N limited by image contrast (Michau et al 1992) - granulation 1.5 –2 %
contrast for d ~10cm and high frequency content in object (Poyneer 2003)
•Larger FOV to track on large scale structure: Yes but, average over many
isoplanatic patches > only turbulence near telescope is corrected
•Flat Field Problems are deadly!! Partially filled apertures are problematic!
•Background: Photon noise dominates - Detector noise is not an issue.
CCDs with large wells are preferred.
 Progress in steps

• Low- Order AO: 24 subapertures @ 1.2-1.5 kHz

• High-Order AO: 76 subsparture @ 2.5 kHz

• Next: ATST- AO: order 1000 subapertures,

>2kHz
 The NSO low-order AO system
Dyson
IF
24 subapertures
Correlating SH-
Collimator/Camera
WFS lens

Video ,
AO
corrected

Wavefront
Sensor
DM 97

WFS camera
Disk Center
Intensity &
Magentogram:
6302 A
Exp: 18 sec
FeI 5576A line:
h~200km
Intensity Map &
Velocity Map
Dark: downflow
Bright: upflow
First direct
measurements of
flows in magnetic
flux tubes
Exposure: 30sec
Large variations in Strehl on short time scales
•Lack of consistent time sequences
•Interpretation of spectral, polarimetric data becomes
difficult  High order AO
 HO-AO – 76 subapertures
high Strehl for median r0
maintains reasonably high Strehl as seeing fluctuates
 High order AO WFS geometry

Pupil image & lenslet

d=7.5 cm subaperture –
pushing it for granulation

Subaperture
images 2-d x-correlations Camera arrangement
 Parallel processing using DSPs

Ch0
4 DSP Cluster
Ch1 40 DSP Block
4 DSP Cluster
Ch2
4 DSP Cluster
Diagram
Ch3

Camera Camera 4 DSP Cluster Link

Ch4 Link Port Deformable
NSO to 4 DSP Cluster to Mirror
PhotoBit Ch5 Link RS422
Port 4 DSP Cluster
200x200 Ch6
4 DSP Cluster Tip/Tilt
33MHz Mirror
Ch7
per 4 DSP Cluster
channel Ch8
4 DSP Cluster
2500 Ch9 Monitor
fps 4 DSP Cluster
See K. Richards
for details
Control

Host Computer Keyboard

Intelligent 2.5kfps CMOS AO
camera

Poster by
K.
Richards
DSP WFS&Reconstructor

Mostly off-the-
shelf parts
 Performance

• Detailed performance characterization in progress:

Strehl > 0.7
• Update rate: 2500 Hz
• Servo delay:
– 400 μsec readout + 250 μsec processing = 650 μsec
– Bandwidth: ~130 Hz (0dB cross-over error attenuation)
 WFS

DLSP

UBF
First light Dec. 2002
High order AO:
Digitized real-time video
Seeing: mediocre&highly
variable
High Order AO + UBF:
FeI 5434 wing intensity
FeI 5434 bisector velocity (dark = downflow)
 Summary

• The high order solar AO operational DST

• Closed-loop bandwidth: 130 Hz
• Diffraction limited imaging over long periods of
time
• High Strehl ratios
• First Scientific results – MHD confirm
fundamental model predictions
• Successful stepping stone towards ATST AO!
 Requirements:
see SRD

• The ATST shall provide diffraction-limited

observations (at the detector plane) with high Strehl
(S > 0.6 (goal S>0.7) during good seeing conditions
(r0(500nm) > 15cm); S> 0.3 during median seeing
(r0(500nm) = 10cm) ) at visible and infrared
wavelength.
• The wavefront sensor must be able to lock on
granulation and other solar structure, such as pores
and umbral and penumbral structure.
• Time sequences of consistent image quality are
required for achieving many of the science goals.
• Robust operations.
SRD: 99% of flux within 0.”3
Nordlund, Stein Keller
simulations
Scatter Plots: Stokes V
 ATST AO PERFORMANCE

Fitting error & Bandwidth error only

 Adaptive Optics for the ATST
NIR (1.6 micron)
High Strehls should be fairly easy to achieve!
The HO-AO system just developed would do
reasonably well
 AO Performance

• The site is the most important factor

• The site will ultimately determine the performance
• Cost, Complexity scale with (D/r0)2
• Subabperture size ~ r0:
• Contrast in subaperture images > WFS noise
• Isoplanatic angle > FOV for correlation tracking >
WFS noise and average over several isoplanatic
patches
• Bandwidth: fG ~ v/r0 ; σ2 ~ (fG/fs) 5/3
 10 cm subaperture

1232 Subapertures 1313 Actuators

 Hammerhead vs. Tiger Sharc

• 80 MHz Clock • 300 MHz Clock (500Mhz)

• 2 - 32bit float MAC per • 8 - 16bit int MAC per
clock clock
• 160 MAC per second • 2400 MAC per second
• 2 subapertures per DSP • >15 times as fast!
• 20 subapertures per
DSP
 64 DSPs – 300MHz
2400 16bit MACs per second

SMART
INTERFACE Link
Port Deformable
CAMERA Camera to Mirror
To RS422
800x800 DSPs

32 ports Sorts Tip/Tilt

Pixels Mirror
40 MHz Into
Subapertures
2000 fps
Monitor
D/A

Keyboard

Network
Remote Control
Host Computer Data Collection
Off-load fixed aberrations
 SH-WFS Camera

Need: ~ 8002 pixel camera

> 2000 fps
Custom Camera: CCD or CMOS or Hybrid
• CCD: 32+ parallel readouts @ 40 MHz
•Contacting vendors:
•E2V (doable but $$$)
•1kx1K running at 1kHz exist (in contact with
vendors/developers)
• Design Contract with one or more vendors soon
Alternative (maybe not): split optically (e.g., prisms).
Alignment? Stability?
 DM

• A number of ~1000 actuator systems are in

operation
• “Off-the-Shelf” item at Xinetics, Inc.
• Baseline design requires 5mm actuator spacing
• New control electronics, 20 channels on 3U
board, < $100/per channel. Availability: end of
2003
• Big Issue: Thermal Control! (Nathan Dalrymple)
– ~900W/m2 (200mm pupil, R=90%)
– Air-cooled or liquid cooled
 Optics

• Integrated AO
• Where do(es) the wavefront sensor(s) go?
– Close to instrument(s) preferred
– Right after DM
• Uncommon path issues, air path to Coude lab
• Other Drivers/Issues:
– Interaction with instrumentation, scanning, modulator,
analyzer
– Complexity due to multiple instrument setup
requirement
DM
 Reconstruction

• Modal Reconstruction
• Simple Zonal Approach won’t work because of
rotation between WFS and DM
• Or: Rotate WFS
• Methods very much the same as in night time AO
• Issues:
– Alignment of WFS and DM actuator grid
– Pupil wobble
– Develop optimized reconstruction algorithms
– Continuously update of reconstruction matrix
 PSF Estimation

• Needed for quantitative analysis. E.g.

Photometry
• Important in particular for extended objects
• Interpretation of low Strehl observations
• Should be/Will be standard product of AO
system
• Status: under development, collaboration with
Gemini AO folks (J.P. Veran) and CfAO and
ONERA
Estimation of long exposure PSF from wavefront sensor statistics.
Implement as standard feature!

PSF MTF
 Low-order AO
1.5sec exposure
Reconstructed image
MCAO
Long exposure
w/AO at DST
Fair Seeing
High altitude
seeing

Sum of 11 one
sec. exposures
Destretched
before averaged
Long exposure
w/AO at DST
Good seeing
Good high altitude
conditions

Sum of 11
No destretch
MCAO

•Large subaperture FOV

(60+ arcsec)

•3 ROIs in FOV (~10x10

arcsec)

 3 “guide stars”

•Enough real estate on

device
•Read-out at sufficiently
high frame rates