Expected performance of the Pyramid wavefront sensor with a laser guide star for 40 m class telescopes

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Oyarzún, Francisco, Chambouleyron, Vincent, Neichel, Benoit, Fusco, Thierry, Guesalaga, Andrés
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866910694741377024
author Oyarzún, Francisco
Chambouleyron, Vincent
Neichel, Benoit
Fusco, Thierry
Guesalaga, Andrés
author_facet Oyarzún, Francisco
Chambouleyron, Vincent
Neichel, Benoit
Fusco, Thierry
Guesalaga, Andrés
contents The use of artificial Laser Guide Stars (LGS) is planned for the new generation of giant segmented mirror telescopes, to extend the sky coverage of their adaptive optics systems. The LGS, being a 3D object at a finite distance will have a large elongation that will affect its use with the Shack-Hartmann (SH) wavefront sensor. In this paper, we compute the expected performance for a Pyramid WaveFront Sensor (PWFS) using a LGS for a 40 m telescope affected by photon noise, and also extend the analysis to a flat 2D object as reference. We developed a new way to discretize the LGS, and a new, faster method of propagating the light for any Fourier Filtering wavefront sensors (FFWFS) when using extended objects. We present the use of a sensitivity model to predict the performance of a closed-loop adaptive optic system. We optimized a point source calibrated interaction matrix to accommodate the signal of an extended object, by means of computing optical gains using a convolutional model. We found that the sensitivity drop, given the size of the extended laser source, is large enough to make the system operate in a low-performance regime given the expected return flux of the LGS. The width of the laser beam, rather than the thickness of the sodium layer was identified as the limiting factor. Even an ideal, flat LGS will have a drop in performance due to the flux of the LGS, and small variations in the return flux will result in large variations in performance. We conclude that knife-edge-like wavefront sensors, such as the PWFS, are not recommended for their use with LGS for a 40 m telescope, as they will operate in a low-performance regime, given the size of the extended object.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_10177
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Expected performance of the Pyramid wavefront sensor with a laser guide star for 40 m class telescopes
Oyarzún, Francisco
Chambouleyron, Vincent
Neichel, Benoit
Fusco, Thierry
Guesalaga, Andrés
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
The use of artificial Laser Guide Stars (LGS) is planned for the new generation of giant segmented mirror telescopes, to extend the sky coverage of their adaptive optics systems. The LGS, being a 3D object at a finite distance will have a large elongation that will affect its use with the Shack-Hartmann (SH) wavefront sensor. In this paper, we compute the expected performance for a Pyramid WaveFront Sensor (PWFS) using a LGS for a 40 m telescope affected by photon noise, and also extend the analysis to a flat 2D object as reference. We developed a new way to discretize the LGS, and a new, faster method of propagating the light for any Fourier Filtering wavefront sensors (FFWFS) when using extended objects. We present the use of a sensitivity model to predict the performance of a closed-loop adaptive optic system. We optimized a point source calibrated interaction matrix to accommodate the signal of an extended object, by means of computing optical gains using a convolutional model. We found that the sensitivity drop, given the size of the extended laser source, is large enough to make the system operate in a low-performance regime given the expected return flux of the LGS. The width of the laser beam, rather than the thickness of the sodium layer was identified as the limiting factor. Even an ideal, flat LGS will have a drop in performance due to the flux of the LGS, and small variations in the return flux will result in large variations in performance. We conclude that knife-edge-like wavefront sensors, such as the PWFS, are not recommended for their use with LGS for a 40 m telescope, as they will operate in a low-performance regime, given the size of the extended object.
title Expected performance of the Pyramid wavefront sensor with a laser guide star for 40 m class telescopes
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.10177