The wide field adaptive optics system for solar observations had been developed and put in routine operation at the 1-meter New Vacuum Solar Telescope (NVST) in Fuxian Lake, Yunnan Observatory. This system adopts the configuration based on the high order ground layer correction loop and the low order high altitude correction loop. Three correction modes, namely the conventional adaptive optics (CAO), ground layer adaptive optics (GLAO), and multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) with three layers correction, can be chosen with the science requirement. The DM for ground layer correction is inherited from the 151-element AO system, and two new DMs are added and conjugated to 2~5km and 7~10km, respectively. The opto-mechanical design allows for changing the conjugate height of the two DMs independently. Two multi-direction Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors are employed for sensing the aberration from ground layer and high-altitudes turbulence. The control system is based on multi-core CPUs platform, which is flexible for testing various control approaches. We summarize the design and report the observational results of different correction modes.
Since the early 1980s, the Institute of Optics & Electronics (IOE) at Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has accumulated over 40 years of expertise in the research and development of piezoelectric deformable mirror (DM) technologies. This institution has successfully implemented several piezoelectric DMs in diverse application systems. The following paper will outline the historical background of piezoelectric DM technologies at IOE, highlight some recent achievements, and elaborate on the key features, performances, and testing results of these DMs. Specifically, it will cover:1). A high-order DM equipped with 913 actuators; 2).The 2nd generation piezoelectric deformable secondary mirror (PDSM) featuring 241 actuators; 3).A high-density DM boasting over 1000 actuators. Moreover, the paper will discuss the advancements made in the development of higher-order DMs and PDSMs at IOE, CAS.
KEYWORDS: Adaptive optics, Solar telescopes, Wavefront sensors, Digital signal processing, Telescopes, Observatories, Turbulence, Field programmable gate arrays, Wavefronts, Image resolution
Multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) has been proved to obtain the high resolution images with a large field of view in solar observation. A solar MCAO experiment system had been successfully developed and tested at the 1-meter New Vacuum Solar Telescope (NVST) of Fuxian Solar Observatory. It consists of two deformable mirrors (DMs), a multidirection Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (MD-WFS), and a real-time controller. In order to command the two DMs, five guide regions were selected from the MD-WFS to retrieve a three-dimensional measurement of the turbulent volume based on atmospheric tomography. This system saw the first light in October, 2017, and a series of MCAO-corrected high resolution sunspots images were acquired. In this presentation, the MCAO experiment system is introduced, and the observation results are presented. Furthermore, a new MCAO system based on our proposed MCAO configuration with a high order ground layer adaptive optics and low order high altitude correction will be developed for the NVST as a regularly operating instrument for scientific observations of the sun.
KEYWORDS: Adaptive optics, Solar telescopes, Observatories, Free space optics, Actuators, Digital signal processing, Telescopes, Imaging systems, Cameras, Mirrors
Adaptive Optics (AO) has become the requisite equipment of the ground-based large solar telescope to correct the wavefront aberration induced by the atmospheric turbulence. Two generation solar AO systems, one is the 37-element loworder AO system with 2100Hz frame rate and the other is 151-element high-order AO system with 3500Hz frame rate, were successfully developed in 2013 and 2015 respectively. In this presentation, the development of the two AO systems for 1-m New Vacuum Solar Telescope (NVST) at Fuxian Solar Observatory (FSO) will be introduced and the solar high resolution observational results are presented.
During 2014-2016, the Laser guide star (LGS) adaptive optics (AO) system observation campaign has been carried out on Lijiang 1.8 meter telescope. During the campaign, two generation LGS AO systems have been developed and installed. In 2014, a long-pulsed solid Sodium prototype laser with 20W@400Hz, a beam transfer optical (BTO) system, and a laser launch telescope (LLT) with 300mm diameter were mounted onto the telescope and moved with telescope azimuth journal. At the same time, a 37-elements compact LGS AO system had been mounted on the Bent-Cassegrain focus and got its first light on observing HIP43963 (mV= 8.18mv) and reached Sr=0.27 in J Band after LGS AO compensation. In 2016, the solid Sodium laser has been upgrade to stable 32W@800Hz while D2a plus D2b repumping is used to increase the photon return, and a totally new LGS AO system with 164-elements Deformable Mirror, Linux Real Time Controller, inner closed loop Tip/tilt mirror, Multiple-PMT tracking detector is established and installed on the telescope. And the throughput for the BTO/LLT is improved nearly 20%. The campaign process, the performance of the two LGS AO systems especially the latter one, the characteristics of the BTO/LLT system and the result are present in this paper.
An adaptive optics system (AOS), which consists of a 73-element piezoelectric deformable secondary mirror (DSM), a 9x9 Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor and a real time controller has been integrated on the 1.8m telescope at the Gaomeigu site of Yunnan Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Compared to the traditional AOS on Coude focus, the DSM AOS adopts much less reflections and consequently restrains the thermal noise and increases the energy transmitting to the system. Before the first on-sky test, this system has been demonstrated in the laboratory by compensating the simulated atmospheric turbulence generated by a rotating phase screen. A new multichannel-modulation calibration method which is used to measure the DSM based AOS interaction matrix is proposed. After integration on the 1.8m telescope, the closed-loop compensation of the atmospheric turbulence with the DSM based AOS is achieved, and the first light results from the on-sky experiment are reported.
The AO progresses for astronomy in the Key Laboratory of Adaptive Optics, Chinese Academy of Sciences are reported in this presentation. For night-time astronomical observations, the recent AO technological developments, such as Laser Guide Star, Pyramid Sensor and Deformable Secondary Mirror, are introduced. The solar AO researches are also presented for day-time astronomical observations. Furthermore, we will show the on-sky high resolution observational results in the 1.8m telescope at Gaomeigu site, Yunnan Observatory and the 1-m New Vacuum Solar Telescope (NVST) at Fuxian Lake Solar Observatory respectively.
For better understanding and forecasting of solar activity, high resolution observations for the Sun are needed. Therefore, the Chinese Large Solar Telescope (CLST) with a 1.8-m aperture is being built. The CLST is a classic Gregorian configuration telescope with an open structure, alt-azimuth mount, retractable dome, and a large mechanical de-rotator. The optical system with an all reflective design has a field of view of larger than 3 arc-min. The 1.8-m primary mirror is a honeycomb sandwich fused silica lightweight mirror with an ultra lower expansion material and active cooling. The adaptive optics system will be developed to provide the capability for diffraction-limited observations at visible wavelengths. The CLST design and development phase began in 2011 and 2012, respectively. We plan for the CLST’s start of commission to be in 2017. A multiwavelength tomographic imaging system, ranging from visible to near-infrared, is considered as the first light scientific instrument. The main system configuration and the corresponding postfocal instruments are described. Furthermore, the latest progress and current status of the CLST are also reported.
A 3mm narrow interval deformable mirror (DM) with tip-tilt stage has been developed for astronomical instruments.
Benefiting from its compact design, the adaptive optics system can be built with simple structure and smaller optical
elements. First, a 37-elements prototype mirror has been developed for our 1.8-meter telescope, which interval space is
3mm, maximum tilt is ±10’, and maximum deformation is ±2μm. Based on this mirror, a simple adaptive optics system has been set up and its performance was tested in the laboratory especially the closed-loop correction ability. This
adaptive optics subsystem is scheduled to be mounted at one folded Cassegrain focus of the 1.8-meter telescope this
year, and comparison test for star compensation observation using this compact system and conventional adaptive optics
system will also be carried out at the same time.
For better understanding and forecasting of the solar activity and the corresponding impacts human technologies and life on earth, the high resolution observations for Sun are needed. The Chinese Large Solar Telescope (CLST) with 1.8 m aperture is being built. The CLST is a classic Gregorian configuration telescope with open structure, alt-azimuth mount, retractable dome, and a large mechanical de-rotator. The optical system with all reflective design has the field of view of larger than 3 arc-minute. The 1.8 m primary mirror is a honeycomb sandwiches fused silica lightweight mirror with ULE material and active cooling. The adaptive optics system will be developed to provide the capability for diffraction limited observations at visible wavelengths. The CLST design and development phase began in 2011 and 2012 respectively. We plan for the CLST’s starting of commission in 2017. A multi-wavelength tomographic imaging system with seven wavelengths range from visible to near-infrared wavelength is considered as the first light scientific instruments. In this paper the main system configuration and the corresponding post focal instruments are described. Furthermore, the latest progress and current status of the CLST are also reported.
Institute of Optics & Electronics (IOE), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has more than 30 years’ experience on piezoelectric deformable mirror (DM) technologies research and developing since early 1980s. Several DMs of IOE have been used in many different application systems. A brief history of piezoelectric DMs development in IOE and several recently achievements, and the main characters, performance and test results of the DMs for astronomy will be presented in this paper. 1) High-order DM. DM prototype with 913-element for 4m telescope has been fabricated and tested in laboratory. 2) Adaptive Secondary Mirror (ASM). A 73-element ASM prototype with 12 microns stroke for 1.8m telescope has been fabricated. It will be installed onto the 1.8m telescope with a compact adaptive optics (AO) system. 3) Small spacing DM. A 6mm spacing 127-element DM based on the same construction with the High-order DM has been used in AO system of 1m New Vacuum Solar Telescope (NVST) in Yunnan Observatories. Higher density (3mm spacing) DM based on a novel construction has being developed. In 2012, the novel DM prototype with 100-element was fabricated and tested carefully in laboratory. Beside, a 6mm spacing 151-element DM based on the novel construction has being fabricated for the solar AO system.
The pyramid wavefront sensor is an innovative device with the special characteristics of variable gain and adjustable
sampling in real time to enable an optimum match of the system performance, which make it an attractive option for next
generation adaptive optics system compared with the Shack-Hartmann. At present most of the pyramid wavefront sensor
are used with modulation based on oscillating optical component in order to give a linear measurement of the local tilt,
but the PWFS without modulation would greatly simplify the optical and mechanical design of the adaptive optics
system and also give highest sensitivity as expected to be achieved. In this paper we describe the optical setup of our
adaptive optics system with nonmudulated pyramid wavefront sensor. In this system, the pyramid wavefront sensor with
8×8 sub-apertures in the pupil diameter has been designed, and the deformable mirror with 61 actuators based on the
liquid-crystal spatial light modulator is used to introduce aberrations into the system, as well as to correct them
afterwards. The closed-loop correction results of single order Zernike aberrations and the Kolmogorov turbulence phase
screen are given to show that the PWFS without modulation can work as expected for closed-loop system.
Coherent beam combining (CBC) of fiber array is a promising way to generate high power and high quality laser beams.
Target-in-the-loop (TIL) technique might be an effective way to ensure atmosphere propagation compensation without
wavefront sensors. In this paper, we present very recent research work about CBC of collimated fiber array using TIL
technique at the Key Lab on Adaptive Optics (KLAO), CAS. A novel Adaptive Fiber Optics Collimator (AFOC)
composed of phase-locking module and tip/tilt control module was developed. CBC experimental setup of three-element
fiber array was established. Feedback control is realized using stochastic parallel gradient descent (SPGD) algorithm.
The CBC based on TIL with piston and tip/tilt correction simultaneously is demonstrated. And the beam pointing to
locate or sweep position of combined spot on target was achieved through TIL technique too. The goal of our work is
achieve multi-element CBC for long-distance transmission in atmosphere.
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