Related papers: The ALFA Laser and Analysis Tools
Laser guide star (LGS) wave-front sensing (LGSWFS) is a key element of tomographic adaptive optics system. However, when considering Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) scales, the LGS spot elongation becomes so large that it challenges the…
We consider several transitions between narrow lines that have an enhanced sensitivity to a possible variation of the fine structure constant, alpha. This enhancement may allow a search to be performed with an effective suppression of the…
The development of the Keck All sky Precision Adaptive optics (KAPA) project was initiated in September 2018 to upgrade the Keck I adaptive optics (AO) system to enable laser tomography adaptive optics (LTAO) with a four laser guide star…
We have created a new autonomous laser-guide-star adaptive-optics (AO) instrument on the 60-inch (1.5-m) telescope at Palomar Observatory called Robo-AO. The instrument enables diffraction-limited resolution observing in the visible and…
One important frontier for astronomical adaptive optics (AO) involves methods such as Multi-Object AO and Multi-Conjugate AO that have the potential to give a significantly larger field of view than conventional AO techniques. A second key…
It is now well established that laser plasma acceleration (LPA) is an innovative and good candidate in the beam acceleration field. Relativistic beams are indeed produced up to several GeV but their quality remains to be demonstrated in the…
Laser-produced plasmas (LPPs) engulf exotic and complex conditions ranging in temperature, density, pressure, magnetic and electric fields, charge states, charged particle kinetics, and gas-phase reactions, based on the irradiation…
The Giant Magellan Telescope will use laser tomography adaptive optics to correct for atmospheric turbulence using artificial guide stars created in the sodium layer of the atmosphere (altitude ~95km). The sodium layer has appreciable…
In this paper, we discuss the benefits of ground-based, adaptive optics (AO) aided observations for star formation research. After outlining the general advantages, we present results obtained during the ALFA science demonstration programme…
Microscopy and optical imaging are drastically limited by the inhomogeneities encountered by the light while propagating from the object of interest to the detection system. In this context, adaptive optics and wavefront manipulation are…
When scientific experiments require transmission of powerful laser or radio beams through the atmosphere the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires that precautions be taken to avoid inadvertent illumination of aircraft. Here we…
Large area surveys will dominate the next decade of astronomy, and the main limitation to science will be the thorough followup and characterization of their extremely numerous discoveries. The deployment of robotic laser adaptive optics on…
The efficiency of the management of top-class ground-based astronomical facilities supported by Adaptive Optics (AO) relies on our ability to forecast the optical turbulence (OT) and a set of relevant atmospheric parameters. Indeed, in…
Adaptive optics (AO) is a powerful image correction technique with proven benefits for many life-science microscopy methods. However, the complexity of adding a reflective wavefront modulator and a wavefront sensor into already complicated…
The MCAO Assisted Visible Imager and Spectrograph (MAVIS) is a new visible instrument for ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT). Its Adaptive Optics Module (AOM) must provide extreme adaptive optics correction level at low galactic latitude and…
Linear optics is a promising route to building quantum technologies that operate at room temperature and can be manufactured scalably on integrated photonic platforms. However, scaling up linear optics requires high-performance operation…
The interaction of petawatt ($10^{15}\ \mathrm{W}$) lasers with solid matter forms the basis for advanced scientific applications such as table-top particle accelerators, ultrafast imaging systems and laser fusion. Key metrics for these…
We investigate the use of ultra-narrow band interference filters to enable daytime use of sodium laser guide star adaptive optics systems. Filter performance is explored using theoretical and vendor supplied filter transmission profiles, a…
This paper describes the qualitative effects of LGS spot elongation and Rayleigh scattering on ALFA wavefront sensor images. An analytical model of Rayleigh scattering and a numerical model of laser plume generation at the altitude of the…
Adaptive optics (AO) have been used to correct wavefronts to achieve diffraction limited point spread functions in a broad range of optical applications, prominently ground-based astronomical telescopes operating in near infra-red. While…