dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaAtmosphere-like turbulence generation with surface-etched phase-screens
| Authors | Stefan Hippler, Felix Hormuth, David J. Butler, Wolfgang Brandner, Thomas Henning |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0609132 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0609132 |
| DOI | 10.1364/OE.14.010139 |
Abstract
We built and characterized an optical system that emulates the optical characteristics of an 8m-class telescope like the Very Large Telescope. The system contains rotating glass phase-screens to generate realistic atmosphere-like optical turbulence, as needed for testing multi-conjugate adaptive optics systems. In this paper we present an investigation of the statistical properties of two phase-screens etched on glass-plate surfaces, obtained from Silios Technologies. Those etched screens are highly transmissive (above 85%) from 0.45 to 2.5 microns. From direct imaging, their Fried parameter r0 values (0.43+-0.04 mm and 0.81+-0.03 mm, respectively, at 0.633 microns) agree with the expectation to within 10%. This is also confirmed by a comparison of measured and expected Zernike coefficient variances. Overall, we find that those screens are quite reproducible, allowing sub-millimetre r0 values, which were difficult to achieve in the past. We conclude that the telescope emulator and phase-screens form a powerful atmospheric turbulence generator allowing systematic testing of different kinds of AO instrumentation.
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"abstract": "We built and characterized an optical system that emulates the optical\ncharacteristics of an 8m-class telescope like the Very Large Telescope. The\nsystem contains rotating glass phase-screens to generate realistic\natmosphere-like optical turbulence, as needed for testing multi-conjugate\nadaptive optics systems. In this paper we present an investigation of the\nstatistical properties of two phase-screens etched on glass-plate surfaces,\nobtained from Silios Technologies. Those etched screens are highly transmissive\n(above 85%) from 0.45 to 2.5 microns. From direct imaging, their Fried\nparameter r0 values (0.43+-0.04 mm and 0.81+-0.03 mm, respectively, at 0.633\nmicrons) agree with the expectation to within 10%. This is also confirmed by a\ncomparison of measured and expected Zernike coefficient variances. Overall, we\nfind that those screens are quite reproducible, allowing sub-millimetre r0\nvalues, which were difficult to achieve in the past. We conclude that the\ntelescope emulator and phase-screens form a powerful atmospheric turbulence\ngenerator allowing systematic testing of different kinds of AO instrumentation.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0609132",
"authors": [
"Stefan Hippler",
"Felix Hormuth",
"David J. Butler",
"Wolfgang Brandner",
"Thomas Henning"
],
"categories": [
"physics.optics",
"astro-ph",
"physics.ao-ph"
],
"doi": "10.1364/OE.14.010139",
"title": "Atmosphere-like turbulence generation with surface-etched phase-screens",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0609132"
},
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