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Richard M Clare

Publications and source records attributed to Richard M Clare.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Adaptive optics sky coverage modeling for extremely large telescopes.

A Monte Carlo sky coverage model for laser guide star adaptive optics systems was proposed by Clare and Ellerbroek [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 23, 418 (2006)]. We refine the model to include (i) natural guide star (NGS) statistics using published star count models, (ii) noise on the NGS measurements, (iii) the effect of telescope wind shake, (iv) a model for how the Strehl and hence NGS wavefront sensor measurement noise varies across the field, (v) the focus error due to imperfectly tracking the range to the sodium layer, (vi) the mechanical bandwidths of the tip-tilt (TT) stage and deformable mirror actuators, and (vii) temporal filtering of the NGS measurements to balance errors due to noise and servo lag. From this model, we are able to generate a TT error budget for the Thirty Meter Telescope facility narrow-field infrared adaptive optics system (NFIRAOS) and perform several design trade studies. With the current NFIRAOS design, the median TT error at the galactic pole with median seeing is calculated to be 65 nm or 1.8 mas rms.

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Sky coverage estimates for adaptive optics systems from computations in Zernike space.

A sky coverage model for laser guide star adaptive optics systems is proposed. The atmosphere is considered to consist of a finite number of phase screens, which are defined by Zernike basis polynomials, located at different altitudes. These phase screens are transformed to the aperture plane, where they are converted to laser and natural guide star wavefront sensing measurements. These transformations incorporate the cone effect due to guide stars at finite heights, anisoplanatism due to guide stars off axis with respect to the science object, and adaptive optics systems with multiple guide stars. The wavefront error is calculated tomographically with minimum variance estimators derived from the transformation matrices and the known statistical properties of the atmosphere. This sky coverage model provides fast Monte Carlo simulations over random natural guide star configurations, irrespective of telescope diameter. The Monte Carlo simulations outlined show that inclusion of a finite outer scale for the atmosphere significantly reduces the median wavefront error, that increasing the number of laser guide stars in the asterism reduces the median wavefront error, and that a larger natural guide star patrol field provides a smaller median wavefront error when there is a low star density in the field.

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Wave-front sensing from subdivision of the focal plane with a lenslet array.

A wave-front sensing scheme based on placing a lenslet array at the focal plane of the telescope with each lenslet reimaging the aperture is analyzed. This wave-front sensing arrangement is the dual of the Shack-Hartmann sensor, with the wave front partitioned in the focal plane rather than in the aperture plane. This arrangement can be viewed as the generalization of the pyramid sensor and allows direct comparisons of this sensor with the Shack-Hartmann sensor. We show that, as with the Shack-Hartmann sensor, when subdividing in the focal plane, the quality of the wave-front estimate is a trade-off between the quality of the slope measurements over each region in the aperture and the resolution to which the slope measurements are obtained. Open-loop simulation results demonstrate that the performance of the lenslet array at the focal plane is equivalent to that of the Shack-Hartmann sensor when no modulation is applied to the lenslet array. However, when the array is modulated in a manner akin to that of the pyramid sensor, subdivision at the focal plane provides advantages when compared with the Shack-Hartmann sensor.

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Phase retrieval from subdivision of the focal plane with a lenslet array.

A phase retrieval algorithm derived from subdivision of the complex field at the focal plane is proposed. This subdivision is achieved with a lenslet array at the focal plane in a manner similar to the pyramid wave-front sensor. The phase retrieval algorithm significantly improves the wave-front estimate that can be attained as a linear combination of the aperture images. This phase retrieval algorithm also avoids the twin-image stagnation problem inherent in phase retrieval and phase retrieval in conjunction with the Shack-Hartmann sensor.

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