Adaptive Optics Correction Research Articles

Starlight coupling through atmospheric turbulence into few-mode fibres and photonic lanterns in the presence of partial adaptive optics correction

ABSTRACT Starlight corrupted by atmospheric turbulence cannot couple efficiently into astronomical instruments based on integrated optics as they require light of high spatial coherence to couple into their single-mode waveguides. Low-order adaptive optics in combination with photonic lanterns offer a practical approach to achieve efficient coupling into multiplexed astrophotonic devices. We investigate, aided by simulations and an experimental testbed, the trade-off between the degrees of freedom of the adaptive optics system and those of the input waveguide of an integrated optic component leading to a cost-effective hybrid system that achieves a signal-to-noise ratio higher than a standalone device fed by a single-mode fibre.

High-contrast Hα imaging with Subaru/SCExAO + VAMPIRES

We present the current status of Hα high-contrast imaging observations with Subaru/Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics + VAMPIRES. Our adaptive optics correction at optical wavelengths in combination with (double) spectral differential imaging (SDI) and angular differential imaging (ADI) was capable of resolving a ring feature around omi Cet and detect the Hα counterpart of jet around RY Tau. We tested the post-processing by changing the order of ADI and SDI and both of the contrast limits achieved ∼10 − 3 to 5 × 10 − 4 at 0.3″, which is comparable to other Hα high-contrast imaging instruments in the Southern Hemisphere such as very large telescope (VLT)/spectro-polarimetric high-contrast exoplanet research, VLT/MUSE, and Magellan AO. Current wavefront sensing and adaptive optics correction at optical wavelengths empirically depend on airmass, and Subaru/VAMPIRES provide great opportunities for Hα high-contrast imaging for Northern Hemisphere targets.

Adaptive optics with an infrared pyramid wavefront sensor at Keck

The study of cold or obscured, red astrophysical sources can significantly benefit from adaptive optics (AO) systems employing infrared (IR) wavefront sensors. One particular area is the study of exoplanets around M-dwarf stars and planet formation within protoplanetary disks in star-forming regions. Such objects are faint at visible wavelengths but bright enough in the IR to be used as a natural guide star for the AO system. Doing the wavefront sensing at IR wavelengths enables high-resolution AO correction for such science cases, with the potential to reach the contrasts required for direct imaging of exoplanets. To this end, a new near-infrared pyramid wavefront sensor (PyWFS) has been added to the Keck II AO system, extending the performance of the facility AO system for the study of faint red objects. We present the Keck II PyWFS, which represents a number of firsts, including the first PyWFS installed on a segmented telescope and the first use of an IR PyWFS on a 10-m class telescope. We discuss the scientific and technological advantages offered by IR wavefront sensing and present the design and commissioning of the Keck PyWFS. In particular, we report on the performance of the Selex Avalanche Photodiode for HgCdTe InfraRed Array detector used for the PyWFS and highlight the novelty of this wavefront sensor in terms of the performance for faint red objects and the improvement in contrast. The system has been commissioned for science with the vortex coronagraph in the NIRC2 IR science instrument and is being commissioned alongside a new fiber injection unit for NIRSPEC. We present the first science verification of the system—to facilitate the study of exoplanets around M-type stars.

Adaptive optics effect on performance of BPSK-SIM oceanic optical wireless communication systems with aperture averaging in weak turbulence

Turbulence-induced wavefront deformations cause the irradiance of an optical signal to fluctuate resulting a in serious degradation in the bit-error-rate (BER) performance of optical wireless communication (OWC) system. Adaptive optics is an effective technique to compensate for the wavefront aberrations to reduce the fluctuations in the received intensity. In this paper, we investigate how the adaptive optics technique affects the BER performance of an oceanic OWC (OOWC) system employing binary phase shift keying-subcarrier intensity modulation (BPSK-SIM) and aperture averaging. To evaluate BER performance in weak oceanic turbulence, the required entities such as the received optical power captured by a circular aperture and the aperture averaged scintillation index measuring the fluctuations in the received irradiance are derived. The effect of adaptive optics correction of various wavefront aberrations (i.e., tilt, defocus, astigmatism and the coma) on the BER performance is illustrated and the performance of the adaptive optics-OOWC system is compared to that of a non-adaptive optics OOWC system by the metric defined.

Microscope-AOtools: a generalised adaptive optics implementation.

Aberrations arising from sources such as sample heterogeneity and refractive index mismatches are constant problems in biological imaging. These aberrations reduce image quality and the achievable depth of imaging, particularly in super-resolution microscopy techniques. Adaptive optics (AO) technology has been proven to be effective in correcting for these aberrations, thereby improving the image quality. However, it has not been widely adopted by the biological imaging community due, in part, to difficulty in set-up and operation of AO. The methods for doing so are not novel or unknown, but new users often waste time and effort reimplementing existing methods for their specific set-ups, hardware, sample types, etc. Microscope-AOtools offers a robust, easy-to-use implementation of the essential methods for set-up and use of AO elements and techniques. These methods are constructed in a generalised manner that can utilise a range of adaptive optics elements, wavefront sensing techniques and sensorless AO correction methods. Furthermore, the methods are designed to be easily extensible as new techniques arise, leading to a streamlined pipeline for new AO technology and techniques to be adopted by the wider microscopy community.

Probability enhancement of fiber coupling efficiency under turbulence with adaptive optics compensation

Abstract Statistical distribution of single mode fiber (SMF) coupling efficiency η c with atmospheric compensation is important to evaluate the bit error rate performance of the satellite to ground laser communication (SGLC). The statistical distribution of SMF coupling efficiency with adaptive optics (AO) compensation under different turbulence strength is investigated. When the AO is turned on, the signal beam wavefront root mean square (RMS) value decreases from 0.42 λ to 0.04 λ under the turbulence strength D / r 0 = 7. Simultaneously, the average of coupling efficiency increases from 2.2% to 35.4%. The statistical distribution of SMF coupling efficiency with and without AO correction is consistent with the gamma distribution. In addition, the AO correction can help greatly improve SMF coupling efficiency with high probability. For example, the cumulative probabilities of coupling efficiency P ( η c > 15 % ) is 56.4%, 35.8%, 14.8%, 3.0% and 0.1% without AO correction when the D / r 0 is 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11, respectively. The value is improved to 100%, 100%, 99.9997%, 99.72% and 97.95% with AO correction in the corresponding D / r 0 . The results provide a quantifiable parameter to evaluate the SGLC link performance with AO correction.

Sensorless adaptive-optics optical coherence tomographic angiography

Optical coherence tomographic angiography (OCTA) can image the retinal blood flow but visualization of the capillary caliber is limited by the low lateral resolution. Adaptive optics (AO) can be used to compensate ocular aberrations when using high numerical aperture (NA), and thus improve image resolution. However, previously reported AO-OCTA instruments were large and complex, and have a small sub-millimeter field of view (FOV) that hinders the extraction of biomarkers with clinical relevance. In this manuscript, we developed a sensorless AO-OCTA prototype with an intermediate numerical aperture to produce depth-resolved angiograms with high resolution and signal-to-noise ratio over a 2 × 2 mm FOV, with a focal spot diameter of 6 µm, which is about 3 times finer than typical commercial OCT systems. We believe these parameters may represent a better tradeoff between resolution and FOV compared to large-NA AO systems, since the spot size matches better that of capillaries. The prototype corrects defocus, astigmatism, and coma using a figure of merit based on the mean reflectance projection of a slab defined with real-time segmentation of retinal layers. AO correction with the ability to optimize focusing in arbitrary retinal depths - particularly the plexuses in the inner retina - could be achieved in 1.35 seconds. The AO-OCTA images showed greater flow signal, signal-to-noise ratio, and finer capillary caliber compared to commercial OCTA. Projection artifacts were also reduced in the intermediate and deep capillary plexuses. The instrument reported here improves OCTA image quality without excessive sacrifice in FOV and device complexity, and thus may have potential for clinical translation.

Phase retrieval and adaptive optics correction for systems with diffractive surfaces.

Adaptive optics (AO) is a powerful technique for correcting extrinsic aberrations, such as those caused by atmospheric turbulence or biological sample thickness variations, by using measured phase information and a wavefront-correcting element. To extend AO techniques to systems with diffractive surfaces, considerations need to be made for additional components of the measured phase that are attributable to diffraction from the object and are not a part of the extrinsic aberration. For example, light reflected from a diffractive surface of an optical storage disk contains an additional phase due to the diffracted orders from the grating-like structure of the data tracks. In this work, a modified Gerchberg algorithm is presented as a viable method of phase retrieval to detect the total aberration, and correction for extrinsic aberrations is shown for light reflected from a grating. An experimental microscope system demonstrates successful AO correction, thus verifying simulation results.

Correction of non-common path aberrations in pyramid wavefront sensors to recover the optimal magnitude gain using a deformable lens.

Adaptive optics (AO) correction based on pyramid wavefront sensors (P-WFSs) has been successfully implemented in several instruments for astronomical observation due to the P-WFS advantages in terms of sensitivity with respect to other WFSs, such as the Shack-Hartmann. The correction of non-common path aberrations (NCPAs) between the sensing and the scientific arm, commonly performed introducing offsets to the Zernike coefficients of the measured wavefront in the AO closed loop, reduces the sensitivity of P-WFSs causing a loss in sky coverage and scientific throughput. We propose a technique to exploit the full capabilities of P-WFSs compensating the NCPAs up to the fourth order on the WFS channel by means of a multi-actuator adaptive lens (MAL). We show the preliminary results obtained in a dedicated laboratory test bench.

Application of adaptive optics on bit error rate of M-ary pulse-position-modulated oceanic optical wireless communication systems

An adaptive optics correction arising from the sum of tilt, focus, astigmatism and coma components is applied to the bit error rate (BER) of M-ary pulse-position-modulated (PPM) oceanic optical wireless communication systems. The percentage reduction in BER is evaluated versus the oceanic turbulence parameters of the ratio of temperature to salinity contributions to the refractive index spectrum, the rate of dissipation of mean-squared temperature and that of kinetic energy per unit mass of fluid under different data bit rates, avalanche photodiode (APD) average current gains and the M values of the M-ary PPM. Our findings indicate that the percentage reduction in BER becomes larger when the ratio of temperature to salinity contributions to the refractive index spectrum or the rate of dissipation of mean-squared temperature or the data bit rate or the M value of the M-ary PPM is smaller, and when the rate of dissipation of kinetic energy per unit mass of fluid or the APD average current gain is larger.

Adaptive optics corrections of scintillations of Hermite–Gaussian modes in an oceanic medium

Adaptive optics correction of the scintillation index is found when Hermite-Gaussian laser beams are used in oceanic turbulence. Adaptive optics filter functions are used to find how the tilt, focus, astigmatism, coma, and total correction will behave under high order mode excitation. Reduction of the oceanic scintillation under various oceanic turbulence and system parameters is examined under different high order modes. Also, the effects of the source size, wavelength, and link length on the total adaptive optics correction of Hermite-Gaussian modes in an oceanic medium are investigated for different modes.

Improving system performance by using adaptive optics and aperture averaging for laser communications in oceanic turbulence.

We theoretically investigate the effectiveness of adaptive optics correction for Gaussian beams affected by oceanic turbulence. Action of an idealized adaptive optics system is modeled as a perfect removal of a certain number of Zernike modes from the aberrated wavefront. We focused on direct detection systems and we used the aperture-averaged scintillation as the main metric to evaluate optical system performances. We found that, similar to laser beam propagation in atmospheric turbulence, adaptive optics is very effective in improving the performance of laser communication links if an optimum aperture size is used. For the specific cases we analyzed in this study, scintillation was reduced by a factor of ∼7 when 15 modes were removed and when the aperture size of the transceiver was large enough to capture 4-5 speckles of the oceanic turbulence-affected beam.

Performance of real-time adaptive optics compensation in a turbulent channel with high-dimensional spatial-mode encoding.

The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of photons is a promising degree of freedom for high-dimensional quantum key distribution (QKD). However, effectively mitigating the adverse effects of atmospheric turbulence is a persistent challenge in OAM QKD systems operating over free-space communication channels. In contrast to previous works focusing on correcting static simulated turbulence, we investigate the performance of OAM QKD in real atmospheric turbulence with real-time adaptive optics (AO) correction. We show that even though our AO system provides a limited correction, it is possible to mitigate the errors induced by weak turbulence and establish a secure channel. The crosstalk induced by turbulence and the performance of AO systems is investigated in two configurations: a lab-scale link with controllable turbulence, and a 340 m long cross-campus link with dynamic atmospheric turbulence. Our experimental results suggest that an advanced AO system with fine beam tracking, reliable beam stabilization, precise wavefront sensing, and accurate wavefront correction is necessary to adequately correct turbulence-induced error. We also propose and demonstrate different solutions to improve the performance of OAM QKD with turbulence, which could enable the possibility of OAM encoding in strong turbulence.

Wide field-of-view, high-resolution Solar observation in combination with ground layer adaptive optics and speckle imaging

Context. High angular resolution images at a wide field of view are required for investigating Solar physics and predicting space weather. Ground-based observations are often subject to adaptive optics (AO) correction and post-facto reconstruction techniques to improve the spatial resolution. The combination of ground layer adaptive optics (GLAO) and speckle imaging is appealing with regard to a simplification of the correction and the high resolution of the reconstruction. The speckle transfer functions (STFs) used in the speckle image reconstruction mainly determine the photometric accuracy of the recovered result. The STF model proposed by Friedrich Wöger and Oskar von der Lühe in the classical AO condition is generic enough to accommodate the GLAO condition if correct inputs are given. Thus, the precisely calculated inputs to the model STF are essential for the final results. The necessary input for the model STF is the correction efficiency which can be calculated simply with the assumption of one layer turbulence. The method for calculating the correction efficiency for the classical AO condition should also be improved to suit the GLAO condition. The generic average height of the turbulence layer used by Friedrich Wöger and Oskar von der Lühe in the classic AO correction may lead to reduced accuracy and should be revised to improve photometric accuracy. Aims. This study is aimed at obtaining quantitative photometric reconstructed images in the GLAO condition. We propose methods for extracting the appropriate inputs for the STF model. Methods. In this paper, the telemetry data of the GLAO system was used to extract the correction efficiency and the equivalent height of the turbulence. To analyze the photometric accuracy of the method, the influence resulting from the distribution of the atmospheric turbulence profile and the extension of the guide stars are investigated by simulations. At those simulations, we computed the STF from the wavefront phases and convolved it with the high-resolution numerical simulations of the solar photosphere. We then deconvolved them with the model STF calculated from the correction efficiency and the equivalent height to obtain a reconstructed image. To compute the resulting photometric precision, we compared the intensity of the original image with the reconstructed image. We reconstructed the solar images taken by the GLAO prototype system at the New Vacuum Solar Telescope of the Yunnan Astronomical Observatory using this method and analyzed the results. Results. These simulations and ensuing analysis demonstrate that high photometric precision can be obtained for speckle amplitude reconstruction using the inputs for the model STF derived from the telemetry data of the GLAO system.

On-sky correction of non-common path aberration with the pyramid wavefront sensor

The paper deals with with the on-sky performance of the pyramid wavefront sensor-based Adaptive Optics (AO) systems. These wavefront sensors are of great importance, being used in all first light AO systems of the ELTs (E-ELT, GMT, and TMT), currently in design phase. In particular, non-common path aberrations (NCPAs) are a critical issue encountered when using an AO system to produce corrected images in an associated astronomical instrument. The AO wavefront sensor (WFS) and the supported scientific instrument typically use a series of different optical elements, thus experiencing different aberrations. The usual way to correct for such NCPAs is to introduce a static offset in the WFS signals. In this way, when the AO loop is closed the sensor offsets are zeroed and the deformable mirror converges to the shape required to null the NCPA. The method assumes that the WFS operation is linear and completely described by some pre-calibrated interaction matrix. This is not the case for some frequently used wavefront sensors like the Pyramid sensor or a quad-cell Shack-Hartmann sensor. Here we present a method to work in closed-loop with a pyramid wavefront sensor, or more generally a non-linear WFS, introducing a wavefront offset that remains stable when AO correction quality changes due to variations in external conditions like star brightness, seeing, and wind speed. The paper details the methods with analytical and numerical considerations. Then we present results of tests executed at the LBT telescope, in daytime and on sky, using the FLAO system and LUCI2 facility instrument. The on-sky results clearly show the successful operation of the method that completely nulls NCPA, recovering diffraction-limited images with about 70% Strehl ratio in H band in variable seeing conditions. The proposed method is suitable for application to the above-mentioned ELT AO systems.

M-ary pulse position modulation performance with adaptive optics corrections in atmospheric turbulence

ABSTRACTThe performance of M-ary pulse position modulated (PPM) optical wireless communication (OWC) systems in atmospheric weak turbulence medium is evaluated by using adaptive optics corrections. Piston, tilt, defocus and coma components of adaptive optics corrections are applied to the avalanche photodetector (APD) type of receiver and the results are obtained depending on various turbulence and receiver parameters. The lognormal channel distribution is used to model the weak atmospheric turbulence conditions. Adaptive optics correction increases the bit-error-rate (BER) performance of an OWC system operating in atmospheric turbulence conditions. Piston component yields the highest BER performance, followed by the tilt, defocus and coma adaptive optics correction components respectively.

Field-Programmable System-on-Chip-Based Control System for Real-Time Distortion Correction in Optical Imaging

The digital transition requires real-time control of complex systems with short loop time and low latency in various applications. Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are, in principle, capable of complying with this task but demand, on the other hand, a high programming effort. In this article, we propose a field-programmable system on chip (FPSoC) as a hybrid solution of an FPGA and a central processing unit (CPU) on a single monolithic die to combine the strengths of both architectures. An FPSoC-based adaptive optical wavefront correction system is presented as a case study to correct camera images in real time that are distorted by time-varying aberrations. While a short total loop time is achieved by interfacing the camera and a deformable mirror on a low level directly with the FPGA, all computationally nonintensive tasks are implemented on the CPU to keep the flexibility, reusability, and development expense low. The system corrects the optical distortion of water surface waves with up to 3600 control cycles per second and spatially attenuates the distortion up to Zernike polynomial 14 with up to 150 Hz. The FPSoC system enables fast spatiotemporal aberration correction in technical processes and offers a perspective for measuring complex flows through fluctuating interfaces.

Numerical comparison of adaptive optics correction based on stochastic parallel gradient descent and phase conjugate in scintillation conditions

Adaptive optics (AO) systems with wavefront sensors are based on the phase conjugate (PC) principle. These systems do not work effectively when the scintillation intensity in the receiver aperture becomes significant. AO correction technique based on stochastic parallel gradient descent (SPGD) control algorithm is an alternative approach which does not depend on wavefront sensor but optimizes the performance metric directly. In this study, we established a simulation model for an SPGD–AO system in which the SPGD optimisation algorithm was applied to control the tip-tilt and the deformable mirrors to correct the aberration in several turbulence scenarios. The performances of the SPGD–AO and the PC–AO correction schemes were tested in different scintillation conditions based on numerical simulations of dynamic turbulence. In weak scintillation conditions, the effects of the SPGD–AO correction were as accurate as those of the PC–AO correction, but upon scintillation increasesσR2>1, the SPGD–AO yielded a significant correction effect compared to PC correction. The results also showed that SPGD did not require any wavefront phase information, but it was very effective for discontinuous phase correction.

Lower sensitivity to peripheral hypermetropic defocus due to higher order ocular aberrations.

Many myopia control interventions are designed to induce myopic relative peripheral refraction. However, myopes tend to show asymmetries in their sensitivity to defocus, seeing better with hypermetropic rather than myopic defocus. This study aims to determine the influence of chromatic aberrations (CA) and higher-order monochromatic aberrations (HOA) in the peripheral asymmetry to defocus. Peripheral (20° nasal visual field) low-contrast (10%) resolution acuity of nine subjects (four myopes, four emmetropes, one hypermetrope) was evaluated under induced myopic and hypermetropic defocus between ±5D, under four conditions: (a) Peripheral Best Sphere and Cylinder (BSC) correction in white light; (b) Peripheral BSC correction+CA elimination (green light); (c) Peripheral BSC correction+HOA correction in white light; and (d) Peripheral BSC correction+CA elimination+HOA correction. No cycloplegia was used, and all measurements were repeated three times. The slopes of the peripheral acuity as a function of positive and negative defocus differed, especially when the natural HOA and CA were present. This asymmetry was quantified as the average of the absolute sum of positive and negative defocus slopes for all subjects (AVS). The AVS was 0.081 and 0.063 logMAR/D for white and green light respectively, when the ocular HOA were present. With adaptive optics correction for HOA, the asymmetry reduced to 0.021 logMAR/D for white and 0.031 logMAR/D for green light, mainly because the sensitivity to hypermetropic defocus increased when HOA were corrected. The asymmetry was only slightly affected by the elimination of the CA of the eye, whereas adaptive optics correction for HOA reduced the asymmetry. The HOA mainly affected the sensitivity to hypermetropic defocus.

Robustness to bad frames in angular differential imaging: a local weighting approach

Context. The detection of exoplanets by direct imaging is very challenging. It requires an extreme adaptive-optics (AO) system and a coronagraph as well as suitable observing strategies. In angular differential imaging, the signal-to-noise ratio is improved by combining several observations. Aims. Due to the evolution of the observation conditions and of the AO correction, the quality of the observations may vary significantly during the observing sequence. It is common practice to reject images of comparatively poor quality. We aim to decipher when this selection should be performed and what its impact on detection performance is. Methods. Rather than discarding a full image, we study the local fluctuations of the signal at each frame and derive weighting maps for each frame. These fluctuations are modeled locally directly from the data through the spatio-temporal covariance of small image patches. The weights derived from the temporal variances can be used to improve the robustness of the detection step and reduce estimation errors of both the astrometry and photometry. The impact of bad frames can be analyzed by statistically characterizing the detection and estimation performance. Results. When used together with a modeling of the spatial covariances (PACO algorithm), these weights improve the robustness of the detection method. Conclusions. The spatio-temporal modeling of the background fluctuations provides a way to exploit all acquired frames. In the case of bad frames, areas with larger fluctuations are discarded by a weighting strategy and do not corrupt the detection map or the astrometric and photometric estimations. Other areas of better quality are preserved and are included to detect and characterize sources.