Adaptive control in an adaptive optics experiment.
This paper presents results from an adaptive optics experiment in which an adaptive control loop augments a classical adaptive optics feedback loop. Closed-loop wavefront errors measured by a self-referencing interferometer are fed back to the control loops, which drive a membrane deformable mirror to correct the wavefront. The paper introduces new frequency-weighted deformable mirror modes used as the control channels and new wavefront sensor modes for analyzing the performance of the control loops. The corrected laser beam also is imaged by a diagnostic target camera. The experimental results show reduced closed-loop wavefront errors and correspondingly sharper diagnostic target images produced by the adaptive control loop as compared with the classical AO loop.
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095-1597, USA. salmanm@ucla.edu
Salman
S
Monirabbasi
Steve
S
Gibson