A real-time simulation facility for astronomical adaptive optics

MEMS Deformable Mirrors for Astronomical Adaptive Optics

We report on the development of high actuator count, micro-electromechanical (MEMS) deformable mirrors designed for high order wavefront correction in ground and space-based astronomical adaptive optics instruments. The design of these polysilicon, surface-micromachined MEMS deformable mirrors builds on technology that has been used extensively to correct for ocular aberrations in retinal imagi...

Simulation of a Neutron Detector for Real Time Imaging Applications

Monte Carlo Method is used to simulate a double layer gadolinium-amorphous silicon thermal neutron detector. The detector fabricated in pixel array configuration has various applications including neutron imaging. According to the simulation results, a detector consisting of a gadolinium (Gd) film with thickness of 2-4 ~m, sandwiched properly with two layers of sufficiently thick (-30 ?µm) hydr...

A Roadmap for the Development of Astronomical Adaptive Optics

A Proposal for Astronomical Adaptive Optics by Incoherent Digital Holography

A new type of adaptive optics system is proposed for astronomical imaging. It replaces the wavefront sensing and modulation hardware pieces of conventional adaptive optics with numerical processing capabilities of digital holography of incoherent sources. OCIS codes: (010.1080) Active or adaptive optics; (090.1000) Aberration compensation; (090.1995) Digital holography; (110.0115) Imaging throu...

Inverse problems in astronomical adaptive optics

Adaptive optics (AO) is a technology used in ground-based astronomy to correct for the wavefront aberrations and loss of image quality caused by atmospheric turbulence. Provided some difficult technical problems can be overcome, AO will enable future astronomers to achieve nearly diffractionlimited performance with the extremely large telescopes that are currently under development, thereby gre...