Laboratory integration of the DKIST wavefront correction system

Abstract

The Wavefront Correction (WFC) system for the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) is in its final stages of laboratory integration. All optical, mechanical, and software components have been unit tested and installed and aligned in our laboratory testbed in Boulder, CO. We will verify all aspects of WFC system performance in the laboratory before disassembling and shipping it to Maui for final integration with the DKIST in early 2019. The DKIST Adaptive Optics (AO) system contains a 1600-actuator deformable mirror, a correlating Shack- Hartmann wavefront sensor, a fast tip-tilt mirror, and an FPGA-based control system. Running at a nominal rate of 1975 Hz, the AO system will deliver diffraction-limited images to five of the DKIST science instruments simultaneously. The DKIST AO system is designed to achieve the diffraction limit (on-axis Strehl > 0.3) at wavelengths up to 500 nm in median daytime seeing (r0 = 7 cm). In addition to AO for diffraction-limited observing, the DKIST WFC system has a low-order wavefront sensor for sensing quasi-static wavefront errors, a context viewer for telescope pointing and image quality assessment, and an active optics engine. The active optics engine uses inputs from the low-order wavefront sensor and the AO system to actively correct for telescope misalignment. All routine alignment and calibration procedures are automated via motorized stages that can be controlled from Python scripts. We present the current state of the WFC system as we prepare for final integration with the DKIST, including verification test design, system performance metrics, and laboratory test data.