Improving the Performance of Air Force Adaptive Optics Systems Using High-Resolution Spatial Light Modulators with Deformable Mirrors: Final Report
Abstract
This document presents a comprehensive technical summary of the most significant work accomplished on Air Force Office of Scientific Research Contract Number F49620-99-l-0342. Since closed loop wave front control (WFC) systems currently being developed by the Air Force have residual wave front errors that reduce image quality, New Mexico State University has developed methods to reduce those residual errors and improve the quality (Strehl ratio) of Air Force WFC systems. Our approach is to develop concepts that utilize high-resolution spatial light modulators to improve the achievable system Strehl ratio. Two such concepts are (a) high resolution secondary WFC loops, and (b) reconfigurable Shack-Hartmann wave front sensors (RSHS) based on liquid crystal devices (LCD). A high-resolution adaptive optics test bed has been developed at NMSU using LCD's extracted from LCD projectors, and it has been used successfully to test both the secondary loop and RSHS concepts. Results indicate that both concepts improve system performance. wave front sensing, wave front control, adaptive optics
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 30, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA413488
Entities
People
- Michael K. Giles
- Michael Roggem
- Mikhail Vorontsov
Organizations
- New Mexico State University