title: Calibration and testing with real turbulence of a pyramid sensor employing static modulation.
abstract: The pyramid sensor (PS) is an interesting alternative to the Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (SH WFS) for astronomical Adaptive Optics (AO) because of its potential advantages in sensitivity and applicability to novel wavefront sensing schemes. The PS uses a pyramidal prism to perform a knife-edge test in two dimensions simultaneously and relies on modulating the position of the prism to increase the linear dynamic range. It has been suggested that this could also be accomplished by a static diffusing element. We test this idea and show that the diffuser produces a modulation effect. We compare the results of our PS to a SH WFS measuring spatial and temporal properties of real turbulence produced in the lab with a hot-air turbulence generator.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada. jledue@berkeley.edu
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: LeDue
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jolissaint
authors.forename: Jean-Pierre
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Véran
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bradley
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001272:Atmosphere / Q000032:analysis*; D002138:Calibration; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000592:standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012212:Rheology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000592:standards; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000592:standards; D014159:Transducers