Design of a performance verification unit for the MAORY system

The ESO ELT is expected to come into operation in 2025 and it will be the largest optical telescope in the world. Its performance relies heavily on Adaptive Optics (AO) systems including the integrated adaptive M4 mirror in the ELT and post focus MAORY system featuring an additional two adaptive mirrors. A performance verification unit (aka ’Test Unit’ (TU) is conceived to test the MAORY functionality prior its installation on the telescope. The TU requirements and the solution to emulate natural and laser guide stars, atmospheric turbulence and partial correction by the telescope M4 are described.

[1]  Pablo Artal,et al.  Interferometric method for phase calibration in liquid crystal spatial light modulators using a self-generated diffraction-grating. , 2016, Optics express.

[2]  T. Wilson,et al.  Dynamic wave-front generation for the characterization and testing of optical systems. , 1998, Optics letters.

[3]  G. Love,et al.  Wave-front correction and production of Zernike modes with a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator. , 1997, Applied Optics.

[4]  Omel Mendoza-Yero,et al.  Diffraction-Based Phase Calibration of Spatial Light Modulators With Binary Phase Fresnel Lenses , 2016, Journal of Display Technology.

[5]  Sylvain Oberti,et al.  Full characterization of the turbulence generator MAPS for MCAO , 2006, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[6]  Li Xuan,et al.  Real-time liquid-crystal atmosphere turbulence simulator with graphic processing unit. , 2009, Optics express.

[7]  Jörgen Bengtsson,et al.  Diffraction-based determination of the phase modulation for general spatial light modulators. , 2006, Applied optics.

[8]  Steve Serati,et al.  Improving spatial light modulator performance through phase compensation , 2004, SPIE Optics + Photonics.

[9]  Monika Ritsch-Marte,et al.  Speeding up liquid crystal SLMs using overdrive with phase change reduction. , 2013, Optics express.

[10]  Matthew E. Goda,et al.  Atmospheric turbulence simulation using liquid crystal spatial light modulators , 2012, SPIE Optics + Photonics.

[11]  Roberto Ragazzoni,et al.  MAORY for ELT: preliminary design overview , 2018, Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[12]  Sandrine Thomas,et al.  A simple turbulence simulator for adaptive optics , 2004, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[13]  R. Lane,et al.  Fast simulation of a kolmogorov phase screen. , 1999, Applied optics.

[14]  Daren Dillon,et al.  Production of phase screens for simulation of atmospheric turbulence. , 2012, Applied optics.

[15]  Munther A. Gdeisat,et al.  Fast two-dimensional phase-unwrapping algorithm based on sorting by reliability following a noncontinuous path. , 2002, Applied optics.

[16]  Monika Ritsch-Marte,et al.  Model-based compensation of pixel crosstalk in liquid crystal spatial light modulators. , 2019, Optics express.

[17]  Yael Roichman,et al.  Holographic optical trapping. , 2006, Applied optics.