Related papers: The Bright Pyramid Wavefront Sensor
For ExAO instruments for the Giant Segmented Mirror Telescopes (GSMTs), alternative architectures of WFS are under consideration because there is a tradeoff between detector size, speed, and noise that reduces the performance of GSMT-ExAO…
Super-resolution (SR) refers to a combination of optical design and signal processing techniques jointly employed to obtain reconstructed wave-fronts at a higher-resolution from multiple low-resolution samples, overcoming the intrinsic…
Several telescopes include large Deformable Mirrors (DM) located directly inside the telescope. These adaptive telescopes trigger new constraints for the calibration of the Adaptive Optics (AO) systems as they usually offer no access to an…
State-of-the-art adaptive optics (AO) systems perform non-linear Fourier-type wavefront sensing for real-time corrections of dynamic wavefront aberrations. This general class of sensors uses a filtering mask in the focal plane that converts…
The pyramid wavefront sensor (PyWFS) has become increasingly popular to use in adaptive optics (AO) systems due to its high sensitivity. The main drawback of the PyWFS is that it is inherently nonlinear, which means that classic linear…
Adaptive optics (AO) systems have significantly improved astronomical imaging capabilities over the last decade, and are revolutionizing the kinds of science possible with 4-5m class ground-based telescopes. A thorough understanding of AO…
We propose to explore a cascade extreme Adaptive optics (ExAO) approach with a second stage based on a Zernike wavefront sensor (ZWFS) for exoplanet imaging and spectroscopy. Most exoplanet imagers currently use a single-stage ExAO to…
MAPS, MMT Adaptive optics exoPlanet characterization System, is the upgrade of legacy 6.5m MMT adaptive optics system. It is an NSF MSIP-funded project that includes (i) refurbishing of the MMT Adaptive Secondary Mirror (ASM), (ii) new high…
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…
The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is a new facility, extreme adaptive optics (AO), coronagraphic instrument, currently being integrated onto the 8-meter Gemini South telescope, with the ultimate goal of directly imaging extrasolar planets. To…
Ground-based high contrast imaging (HCI) and extreme adaptive optics (AO) technologies have advanced to the point of enabling direct detections of gas-giant exoplanets orbiting beyond the snow lines around nearby young star systems.…
In ground-based astronomy, Adaptive Optics (AO) is a pivotal technique, engineered to correct wavefront phase distortions and thereby enhance the quality of the observed images. Integral to an AO system is the wavefront sensor (WFS), which…
With the Extremely Large Telescope-generation telescopes come new challenges. The complexity of these telescopes' pupil creates new problems for Adaptive Optics. In particular, the large spiders necessary to support the massive optics of…
Adaptive optics systems correct atmospheric turbulence in real time. Most adaptive optics systems used routinely correct in the near infrared, at wavelengths greater than 1 micron. MagAO- X is a new extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) instrument…
Commonly used wavefront sensors, the Shack Hartmann wavefront sensor and the pyramid wavefront sensor, for example, have large dynamic range or high sensitivity, trading one regime for the other. A new type of wavefront sensor is being…
Future large space telescopes will be equipped with adaptive optics (AO) to overcome wavefront aberrations and achieve high contrast for imaging faint astronomical objects, such as earth-like exoplanets and debris disks. In contrast to AO…
High-contrast imaging systems using active control with adaptive optics (AO) are often limited by non-common path (NCP) aberrations that are seen only at the final science image. AO systems employing focal-plane wavefront sensors (FP-WFSs)…
In astronomy and microscopy, distortions in the wavefront affect the dynamic range of a high contrast imaging system. These aberrations are either imposed by a turbulent medium such as the atmosphere, by static or thermal aberrations in the…
Adaptive optics (AO) systems are crucial for high-resolution astronomical observations by compensating for atmospheric turbulence. While laser guide stars (LGS) address high-order wavefront aberrations, natural guide stars (NGS) remain…
Wavefront sensors encode phase information of an incoming wavefront into an intensity pattern that can be measured on a camera. Several kinds of wavefront sensors (WFS) are used in astronomical adaptive optics. Amongst them, Fourier-based…