Adaptive optics for the Thirty Meter Telescope

Brent Ellerbroek; Matthew Britton; Richard Dekany; Don Gavel; Glen Herriot; Bruce Macintosh; Jeff Stoesz

doi:10.1117/12.619915

8 October 2005 Adaptive optics for the Thirty Meter Telescope

Brent Ellerbroek, Matthew Britton, Richard Dekany, Don Gavel, Glen Herriot, Bruce Macintosh, Jeff Stoesz

Proceedings Volume 5903, Astronomical Adaptive Optics Systems and Applications II; 590304 (2005) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.619915
Event: Optics and Photonics 2005, 2005, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Adaptive Optics (AO) will be essential for at least seven of the eight science instruments currently planned for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). These instruments include three near infra-red (NIR) imagers and spectrometers with fields of view from 2 to 30 arc seconds, a mid-IR echelle spectrometer, a planet formation imager/spectrometer, a wide field optical spectrograph, and a NIR multi-object spectrometer with multiple integral field units deployable over a 5 arc minute field of regard. In this paper we describe the overall AO reference design that supports these instruments, which consists of a facility AO system feeding the first three instruments and dedicated AO systems for the remaining four. Key design challenges for these systems include very high-order, large-stroke wavefront correction, tip-tilt sensing with faint natural guide stars to maximize sky coverage, laser guidestar wavefront sensing on a very large aperture, and achieving extremely high contrast ratios for the detection of extra-solar planets and other faint companions of bright stars. We describe design concepts for meeting these challenges and summarize our supporting plans for AO component development.

Citation Download Citation

Brent Ellerbroek, Matthew Britton, Richard Dekany, Don Gavel, Glen Herriot, Bruce Macintosh, and Jeff Stoesz "Adaptive optics for the Thirty Meter Telescope", Proc. SPIE 5903, Astronomical Adaptive Optics Systems and Applications II, 590304 (8 October 2005); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.619915

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