Adaptive optics program at TMT

The TMT first light Adaptive Optics (AO) facility consists of the Narrow Field Infra-Red AO System (NFIRAOS), the associated Laser Guide Star Facility (LGSF) and the AO Executive Software (AOESW). NFIRAOS is a 60 x 60 laser guide star (LGS) multi-conjugate AO (MCAO) system, which provides uniform, diffraction-limited performance in the J, H, and K bands over 17-34 arc sec diameter fields with 50 per cent sky coverage at the galactic pole, as required to support the TMT science cases. NFIRAOS includes two deformable mirrors, six laser guide star wavefront sensors, one high order Pyramid WFS for natural guide star AO, up to three low-order, IR, natural guide star on-instrument wavefront sensors (OIWFS) within each client instrument, and up to four guide windows on the science detectors (ODGW). The first light LGSF system includes six sodium lasers required to generate the NFIRAOS laser guide stars. In this paper, we will provide an update on the progress in designing, prototyping, fabricating and modeling the TMT first light AO systems and their components over the last two years. We will also report on a conceptual design study for an Adaptive Secondary Mirror for TMT.