Demonstrating sub-nm closed loop MEMS flattening.

Ground based high-contrast imaging (e.g. extrasolar giant planet detection) has demanding wavefront control requirements two orders of magnitude more precise than standard adaptive optics systems. We demonstrate that these requirements can be achieved with a 1024-Micro-Electrical-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) deformable mirror having an actuator spacing of 340 microm and a stroke of approximately 1 microm, over an active aperture 27 actuators across. We have flattened the mirror to a residual wavefront error of 0.54 nm rms within the range of controllable spatial frequencies. Individual contributors to final wavefront quality, such as voltage response and uniformity, have been identified and characterized.

[1]  Pasqualina M. Sarro,et al.  Technology and applications of micromachined adaptive mirrors , 1999 .

[2]  Bruce A. Macintosh,et al.  Speckle Decorrelation and Dynamic Range in Speckle Noise-limited Imaging , 2002 .

[3]  N. Jeremy Kasdin,et al.  Extreme adaptive optics testbed: results and future work , 2004, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[4]  Susanne Arney,et al.  Anodic oxidation and reliability of MEMS polysilicon electrodes at high relative humidity and high voltages , 2000, SPIE MOEMS-MEMS.

[5]  Sergio Restaino,et al.  Demonstration of new technology MEMS and liquid crystal adaptive optics on bright astronomical objects and satellites. , 2002, Optics express.

[6]  Bruce Macintosh,et al.  Extreme adaptive optics testbed: performance and characterization of a 1024-MEMS deformable mirror , 2006, SPIE MOEMS-MEMS.

[7]  Daren Dillon,et al.  Experimental demonstration of phase correction with a 32 x 32 microelectromechanical systems mirror and a spatially filtered wavefront sensor. , 2006, Optics letters.

[8]  Lisa Poyneer,et al.  MEMS-based extreme adaptive optics for planet detection , 2006, SPIE MOEMS-MEMS.

[9]  Dwight Moody,et al.  Performance of a precision high-density deformable mirror for extremely high contrast imaging astronomy from space , 2003, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[10]  Scot S. Olivier,et al.  Extreme adaptive optics testbed: high contrast measurements with a MEMS deformable mirror , 2005, SPIE Optics + Photonics.

[11]  M. Shao,et al.  HIGH-DYNAMIC-RANGE IMAGING USING A DEFORMABLE MIRROR FOR SPACE CORONOGRAPHY , 1995, astro-ph/9502042.

[12]  Geunyoung Yoon,et al.  Use of a microelectromechanical mirror for adaptive optics in the human eye. , 2002, Optics letters.

[13]  Charles H. Lineweaver,et al.  What Fraction of Sun-like Stars have Planets? , 2003 .

[14]  P E Young,et al.  High-speed horizontal-path atmospheric turbulence correction with a large-actuator-number microelectromechanical system spatial light modulator in an interferometric phase-conjugation engine. , 2004, Optics letters.

[15]  Daren Dillon,et al.  Effect of wavefront error on 10(-7) contrast measurements. , 2006, Optics letters.

[16]  T. Guillot,et al.  A Nongray Theory of Extrasolar Giant Planets and Brown Dwarfs , 1997, astro-ph/9705201.

[17]  B. Macintosh,et al.  Spatially filtered wave-front sensor for high-order adaptive optics. , 2004, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science, and vision.

[18]  Thomas G. Bifano,et al.  Micromachined deformable mirrors for dynamic wavefront control , 2004, SPIE Optics + Photonics.

[19]  Anton Barty,et al.  100-picometer interferometry for EUVL , 2002, SPIE Advanced Lithography.