Related papers: The ALFA Laser and Analysis Tools
We have developed and tested a novel method, based on LIDAR, of measuring the height and profile of the mesospheric sodium layer using a continuous wave laser. It is more efficient than classical LIDAR as the laser is on for 50% of the…
We describe results from the first astronomical adaptive optics system to use multiple laser guide stars, located at the 6.5-m MMT telescope in Arizona. Its initial operational mode, ground-layer adaptive optics (GLAO), provides uniform…
Laser brightness is crucial in many optical processes, and is optimised by high power, high beam quality (low $M^2$) beams. Here we show how to improve the laser beam quality factor (reducing the $M^2$) of arbitrary structured light fields…
{We report on an intensity-only and deep-learning based method for laser beam characterization that allows to predict the underlying optical field within milliseconds. A simple near-field / far-field camera setup enables online control of…
We have constructed an analytical model to simulate the behavior of an adaptive optics system coupled with a sodium laser guide star. The code is applied to a 3.6-m and 8m class telescopes. The results are given in terms of Strehl ratio and…
The SINFONI instrument for ESO's VLT combines integral field spectroscopy and adaptive optics (AO). We discuss detailed simulations of the adaptive optics module. These simulations are aimed at assessing the AO module performance,…
The capability of the adaptive optics to correct for the segmentation error is analyzed in terms of the residual wavefront RMS and the power spectral density of the phase. The analytical model and the end-to-end simulation give…
Full sky coverage Adaptive Optics on Extremely Large Telescopes requires the adoption of several Laser Guide Stars as references.With such large apertures, the apparent elongation of the beacons is absolutely significant.With few…
We describe several projects addressing the growth of galaxies and massive black holes, for which adaptive optics is mandatory to reach high spatial resolution but is also a challenge due to the lack of guide stars and long integrations. In…
Adaptive Optics has become a key technology for the largest ground-based telescopes currently under or close to begin of construction. Adaptive optics is an indispensable component and has basically only one task, that is to operate the…
We investigate methods to calibrate the non-common path aberrations at an adaptive optics system having a wavefront-correcting device working at an extremely high resolution (larger than 150x150). We use focal-plane images collected…
Adaptive optics (AO) instruments for the future extremely large telescopes (ELTs) are characterized by advanced optical systems with diffraction-limited optical quality. Low geometric distortion is also crucial for high accuracy astrometric…
A method for producing a laser guide star wavefront sensor for adaptive optics with reduced focal anisoplanatism is presented. A theoretical analysis and numerical simulations have been carried out and the results are presented. The…
Beam injection and extraction from a plasma module is still one of the crucial aspects to solve in order to produce high quality electron beams with a plasma accelerator. Proper matching conditions require to focus the incoming high…
The performance of a wide-field adaptive optics system depends on input design parameters. Here we investigate the performance of a multi-conjugate adaptive optics system design for the European Extremely Large Telescope, using an…
Astronomical adaptive optics systems with open-loop deformable mirror control have recently come on-line. In these systems, the deformable mirror surface is not included in the wavefront sensor paths, and so changes made to the deformable…
Newly developed high peak power lasers have opened the possibilities of driving coherent light sources operating with laser plasma accelerated beams and wave undulators. We speculate on the combination of these two concepts and show that…
Laue lenses are an emerging technology that will enhance gamma-ray telescope sensitivity by one to two orders of magnitude in selected energy bands of the \sim 100 keV to \sim 1.5 MeV range. This optic would be particularly well adapted to…
This manual is intended to help ALMA and other interferometer users improve images by recognising limitations and how to overcome them and deciding when and how to use self-calibration. The images provided by the ALMA Science Archive are…
Research activities on laser plasma accelerators are paved by many significant breakthroughs. This review article provides an opportunity to show the incredible evolution of this field of research which has, in record time, allowed…