The performance of adaptive optics systems is partially dependant on the algorithms used within the real-time control system to compute wavefront slope measurements. We demonstrate use of a matched filter algorithm for the processing of elongated las
er guide star (LGS) Shack-Hartmann images, using the CANARY adaptive optics instrument on the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope and the European Southern Observatory Wendelstein LGS Unit placed 40m away. This algorithm has been selected for use with the forthcoming Thirty Meter Telescope, but until now had not been demonstrated on-sky. From the results of a first observing run, we show that the use of matched filtering improves our adaptive optics system performance, with increases in on-sky H-band Strehl measured up to about a factor of 1.1 with respect to a conventional centre of gravity approach. We describe the algorithm used, and the methods that we implemented to enable on-sky demonstration.
Recent advances in adaptive optics (AO) have led to the implementation of wide field-of-view AO systems. A number of wide-field AO systems are also planned for the forthcoming Extremely Large Telescopes. Such systems have multiple wavefront sensors o
f different types, and usually multiple deformable mirrors (DMs). Here, we report on our experience integrating cameras and DMs with the real-time control systems of two wide-field AO systems. These are CANARY, which has been operating on-sky since 2010, and DRAGON, which is a laboratory adaptive optics real-time demonstrator instrument. We detail the issues and difficulties that arose, along with the solutions we developed. We also provide recommendations for consideration when developing future wide-field AO systems.
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 remain. Here we
investigate requirements that MOAO operation places on deformable mirrors (DMs) using a full end-to-end Monte-Carlo AO simulation code. By taking into consideration a prior global ground-layer (GL) correction, we show that actuator density for the MOAO DMs can be reduced with little performance loss. We note that this reduction is only possible with the addition of a GL DM, whose order is greater than or equal to that of the original MOAO mirrors. The addition of a GL DM of lesser order does not affect system performance (if tip/tilt star sharpening is ignored). We also quantify the maximum mechanical DM stroke requirements (3.5 $mu$m desired) and provide tolerances for the DM alignment accuracy, both lateral (to within an eighth of a sub-aperture) and rotational (to within 0.2$^circ$). By presenting results over a range of laser guide star asterism diameters, we ensure that these results are equally applicable for laser tomographic AO systems. We provide the opportunity for significant cost savings to be made in the implementation of MOAO systems, resulting from the lower requirement for DM actuator density.
Numerical Simulation is an essential part of the design and optimisation of astronomical adaptive optics systems. Simulations of adaptive optics are computationally expensive and the problem scales rapidly with telescope aperture size, as the require
d spatial order of the correcting system increases. Practical realistic simulations of AO systems for extremely large telescopes are beyond the capabilities of all but the largest of modern parallel supercomputers. Here we describe a more cost effective approach through the use of hardware acceleration using field programmable gate arrays. By transferring key parts of the simulation into programmable logic, large increases in computational bandwidth can be expected. We show that the calculation of wavefront sensor image centroids can be accelerated by a factor of four by transferring the algorithm into hardware. Implementing more demanding parts of the adaptive optics simulation in hardware will lead to much greater performance improvements, of up to 1000 times.
Group delay fringe tracking using spectrally-dispersed fringes is suitable for stabilising the optical path difference in ground-based astronomical optical interferometers in low light situations. We discuss the performance of group delay tracking al
gorithms when the effects of atmospheric dispersion, high-frequency atmospheric temporal phase variations, non-ideal path modulation, non-ideal spectral sampling, and the detection artifacts introduced by electron-multiplying CCDs (EMCCDs) are taken into account, and we present ways in which the tracking capability can be optimised in the presence of these effects.
Recently, low light level charge coupled devices (L3CCDs) capable of on-chip gain have been developed, leading to sub-electron effective readout noise, allowing for the detection of single photon events. Optical interferometry usually requires the de
tection of faint signals at high speed and so L3CCDs are an obvious choice for these applications. Here we analyse the effect that using an L3CCD has on visibility parameter estimation (amplitude and triple product phase), including situations where the L3CCD raw output is processed in an attempt to reduce the effect of stochastic multiplication noise introduced by the on-chip gain process. We establish that under most conditions, fringe parameters are estimated accurately, whilst at low light levels, a bias correction which we determine here, may need to be applied to the estimate of fringe visibility amplitude. These results show that L3CCDs are potentially excellent detectors for astronomical interferometry at optical wavelengths.
