The Adaptative Optics Test Camera (AOTC) is designed to be an engineering instrument to be used during the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) assembly, integration, verification, and commissioning to verify the Adaptive Optics (AO) system-level diffraction-limited image quality performance. The AOTC will functionally replicate the external interfaces of the GMT AO instruments, including the Natural Guide Star Wavefront Sensor (NGWS) and Laser Tomography Wavefront Sensor (LTWS) as external AO sensors, as well as a prototype On-Instrument Wavefront Sensors (OIWFS) to measure non-common-path wavefront errors not sensed by the external sensors. We present the initial optical design of this instrument, which passed a conceptual design review in 2023, as well as a preliminary performance assessment of the OIWFS. The AOTC consists of four cameras. The first is a large field of view camera to aid in the instrument target acquisition. A Shack-Hartmann sensor measures focus and low order wavefront errors in the non-common path between the external sensors and science focal plane. A high-speed imager measures the target motion and telescope segment piston error. Finally, a scoring camera, representing the science camera, evaluates the AO image quality. We describe the optical parameters and the strategies used to achieve each sensor function and attend their performance requirements, along with the initial choices for commercial detectors for each function. We also present the preliminary performance budget for assessing system performance and determining tolerances for mechanical manufacturing and alignment.
Adaptive Optics (AO) is an innovative technique that substantially improves the optical performance of groundbased telescopes. The SOAR Adaptive Module (SAM) is a laser-assisted AO instrument, designed to compensate ground-layer atmospheric turbulence in near-IR and visible wavelengths over a large Field of View. Here we detail our proposal to upgrade SAM, dubbed SAMplus, that is focused on enhancing its performance in visible wavelengths and increasing the instrument reliability. As an illustration, for a seeing of 0.62 arcsec at 500 nm and a typical turbulence profile, current SAM improves the PSF FWHM to 0.40 arcsec, and with the upgrade we expect to deliver images with a FWHM of ≈ 0.34 arcsec - up to 0.23 arcsec FWHM PSF under good seeing conditions. Such capabilities will be fully integrated with the latest SAM instruments, putting SOAR in an unique position as observatory facility.
We present an experimental demonstration of a class of beams, namely Frozen Waves, that can carry predetermined longitudinal intensity profiles in the presence of modeled loss. These waveforms consist of a superposition of equal frequency Bessel beams with different transverse and longitudinal wavenumbers, and are generated using a programmable spatial light modulator addressed by computer-generated hologram. Attenuation-resistant Frozen Waves can address challenges associated with light-matter interaction in absorbing media encountered in imaging, remote sensing, and particle micro-manipulation, to name a few.
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