Extreme adaptive optics testbed: performance and characterization of a 1024-MEMS deformable mirror

Evans, Julia W.; Morzinski, Katie M.; Severson, Scott; Poyneer, Lisa; Macintosh, Bruce; Dillon, Daren; Reza, Layra; Gavel, Donald T.; Palmer, David; Olivier, Scot S.; Bierden, Paul

doi:10.1117/12.648977

Cited by 28 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Closed-loop wavefront data presented in prior works [60,61] were obtained with a windowed device. The data presented here were obtained without a window because the window was found to introduce ghost images, which reduced contrast by a small but not negligible amount of 1 × 10 −7 .…”

Section: Experimental Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Errors in each of these tasks leads to errors in performance and these are summarized in an error budget. Preliminary work with the MEMS device, including some of the engineering challenges leading up to this result, have been presented in prior works [71,63,61]. A complete inventory of these difficulties, together with our mitigation techniques, is included here.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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High-Contrast Imaging using Adaptive Optics for Extrasolar Planet Detection

Evans

2006

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Section: Experimental Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Contrast Imaging using Adaptive Optics for Extrasolar Planet Detection

Evans

2006

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“…These mirrors were tested at BMC and also extensively at the LAO. [5][6][7][8][9][10] The final, winning design was based on the actuator used in the BMC 140 MEMS. This actuator has a total stroke of more than 4 microns (for the center of a 3 × 3 actuator patch) along with excellent surface quality of less than 5 nm RMS surface print-through and actuator scalloping.…”

Section: Development Of Mems Dmmentioning

confidence: 99%

The use of a high-order MEMS deformable mirror in the Gemini Planet Imager

et al. 2011

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We briefly review the development history of the Gemini Planet Imager's 4K Boston Micromachines MEMS deformable mirror. We discuss essential calibration steps and algorithms to control the MEMS with nanometer precision, including voltage-phase calibration and influence function characterization. We discuss the integration of the MEMS into GPI's Adaptive Optics system at Lawrence Livermore and present experimental results of 1.5 kHz closed-loop control. We detail mitigation strategies in the coronagraph to reduce the impact of abnormal actuators on final image contrast.

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“…ExAO refers to a family of planned ground-based instruments intended for observation of exoplanets using ultra high resolution First conférence on Adaptive Optics for Extremely Large Telescopes DMs having thousands or tens of thousands of actuators. In addition to exoplanet detection, an ExAO system will be capable of characterizing dust disks around stars and could allow high Strehl ratio imaging at visible wavelengths [7][8][9].…”

Section: Motivation For High-resolution Wavefront Correctionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MEMS deformable mirrors for astronomical adaptive optics

et al. 2010

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Abstract. We report on the development of microelectromechanical (MEMS) deformable mirrors designed for ground and space-based astronomical instruments using adaptive optics. These light-weight, low power deformable mirrors will have an active aperture of up to 25.2mm consisting of thin silicon membrane mirror supported by an array of up to 4096 electrostatic actuators exhibiting no hysteresis and sub-nanometer repeatability. The continuous membrane deformable mirrors, coated with a highly reflective metal film, are capable of up to 4µm of stroke, have a surface finish of <10nm RMS with a fill factor of 99.8%. The segmented device has a range of motion of 1um of piston and 600 arc-seconds of tip/tilt simultaneously and a surface finish of 5nm RMS. Presented in this paper are device characteristics and performance results for these devices. Motivation for high-resolution wavefront correctionMost large ground based telescopes now employ AO as an essential and enabling tool for highresolution imaging. Though recent progress in AO for current and future large telescopes has been technologically exciting, its impact on astronomical science remains modest to date. AO technology is still inadequate to compensate for the larger wavefront errors and shorter atmospheric coherence lengths associated with visible wavelength observation. Its simplest implementation allows only a narrow field of compensation, and more ambitious instrument concepts are limited by the cost, size, and complexity of AO components, especially the DM. A critical assessment of AO technology was funded by the National Science Foundation several years ago, resulting in a 2008 report entitled A Roadmap for the Development of United States Astronomical Adaptive Optics. The roadmap identifies single major goal for wavefront correction: "Development of scalable, cost-effective DM technologies" and recommends a high-priority research investment to achieve this goal: "High stroke, high actuator count [deformable] mirrors to enable correction at high spatial frequencies over narrower fields of view."The coming generation of ELTs, will be the first to be designed with AO at the outset. Since the benefits of AO increase nonlinearly with telescope aperture, a phenomenon sometimes called D 4 scaling, AO will be essential for many ELT science goals [1,2]. Promising AO instruments that will require new DMs include multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO), multi-object adaptive optics (MOAO), and extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) [3]. MCAO employs two or more guide stars to enable tomographic wavefront error sensing, and then two or more deformable mirrors in series to correct those errors. The result is a wider corrected field of view [4]. This technique was recently used to produce the sharpest whole-planet (Jupiter) picture ever taken from the ground [5]. MOAO is an instrument concept that also uses multiple guide stars and multiple deformable mirrors [6]. However in MOAO, many DMs would be used in parallel to apply independent corrections for the turbulence-induce...

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Extreme adaptive optics testbed: performance and characterization of a 1024-MEMS deformable mirror

Cited by 28 publications

References 7 publications

High-Contrast Imaging using Adaptive Optics for Extrasolar Planet Detection

High-Contrast Imaging using Adaptive Optics for Extrasolar Planet Detection

The use of a high-order MEMS deformable mirror in the Gemini Planet Imager

MEMS deformable mirrors for astronomical adaptive optics

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