Related papers: A new calibration strategy for adaptive telescopes…
The digital revolution is transforming astronomy from a data-starved to a data-submerged science. Instruments such as the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), and the Square Kilometer Array…
The highest three-dimensional (3D) resolution possible in in-vivo retinal imaging is achieved by combining optical coherence tomography (OCT) and adaptive optics (AO). However, this combination brings important limitations, such as small…
The next generation of Extremely Large Telescope (24 to 39m diameter) will suffer from the so-called "pupil fragmentation" problem. Due to their pupil shape complexity (segmentation, large spiders ...), some differential pistons may appear…
Reaching the high angular resolution and contrast level desired for exoplanetary science requires us to equip large telescopes with extreme adaptive optics (XAO) systems to compensate for the effect of the atmospheric turbulence at a very…
One of the major limitations of adaptive optics (AO) corrected image post-processing is the lack of knowledge on the system point spread function (PSF). The PSF is not always available as a direct imaging on isolated point like objects such…
The sensitivity of the the pyramid wavefront sensor (PyWFS) has made it a popular choice for astronomical adaptive optics (AAO) systems, and it is at its most sensitive when it is used without modulation of the input beam. In non-modulated…
Modern Giant Segmented Mirror Telescopes (GSMTs) like the Extremely Large Telescope, which is currently under construction, depend heavily on Adaptive Optics (AO) systems to correct for atmospheric distortions. However, a residual blur…
Multi-object adaptive optics (MOAO) has been demonstrated by the CANARY instrument on the William Herschel Telescope. However, for proposed MOAO systems on the next generation Extremely Large Telescopes, such as EAGLE, many challenges…
AOLI (Adaptive Optics Lucky Imager) is a state-of-art instrument that combines adaptive optics (AO) and lucky imaging (LI) with the objective of obtaining diffraction limited images in visible wavelength at mid- and big-size ground-based…
We summarize the theory of coronagraphic optics, and identify a dimensionless fine-tuning parameter, F, which we use to describe the Lyot stop size in the natural units of the coronagraphic optical train and the observing wavelength. We…
Imaging through complex scattering media is severely limited by aberrations and scattering which obscure images and reduce resolution. Confocal and temporal gatings partly filter out multiple scattering but are severely degraded by…
Atmospheric turbulence causes fluctuations in the local refractive index of air that accumulatively disturb a wave's phase and amplitude distribution as it propagates. This impairs the effective range of laser weapons as well as the…
The new class of large telescopes, as the future ELT, are designed to work with Laser Guide Star (LGS) tuned to a resonance of atmosphere sodium atoms. This wavefront sensing technique presents complex issues for an application to big…
Adaptive optics systems are essential on all large telescopes where image quality is important. These are complex systems with many design parameters requiring optimisation before good performance can be achieved. The simulation of adaptive…
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…
First multi-conjugate adaptive-optical (MCAO) systems are currently being installed on solar telescopes. The aim of these systems is to increase the corrected field-of-view with respect to conventional adaptive optics. However, this first…
We propose a new type of Wave Front Sensor (WFS) derived from the Pyramid WFS (PWFS). This new WFS, called the Flattened Pyramid-WFS (FPWFS), has a reduced Pyramid angle in order to optically overlap the four pupil images into an unique…
Sensitivity and resolution of space telescopes are directly related to the size of the primary mirror. Enabling such future extremely large space telescopes or even arrays of those will require to drastically reduce the areal weight of the…
Accurate and robust wavefront reconstruction methods for pyramid wavefront sensors are in high demand as these sensors are planned to be part of many instruments currently under development for ground based telescopes. The pyramid sensor…
We review astronomical results in the visible (lambda <1 micron) with adaptive optics and note the status the MagAO system and the recent upgrade to visible camera's Simultaneous/Spectra Differential Imager (SDI to SDI+) mode. Since…