Characterization of deformable mirrors for the MagAO-X project

Kyle Van Gorkom, Kelsey L. Miller, Jared R. Males, Olivier Guyon, Alexander T. Rodack, Jennifer Lumbres, Justin M. Knight

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

The MagAO-X instrument is an upgrade of the Magellan AO system that will introduce extreme adaptive optics capabilities for high-contrast imaging at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. A central component of this system is a 2040-actuator microelectromechanical (MEMS) deformable mirror (DM) from Boston Micromachines Corp. (BMC) that will operate at 3.63 kHz for high-order wavefront control. Two additional DMs from ALPAO will perform low-order and non-common-path science-arm wavefront correction. The accuracy of the wavefront correction is limited by our ability to command these DMs to a desired shape, which requires a careful characterization of each DM surface. We have developed a characterization pipeline that uses a Zygo Verifire Interferometer to measure the surface response and a Karhunen-Loeve transform to remove noise from our measurements. We present our progress in the characterization process and the results of our pipeline applied to an ALPAO DM97 and a BMC Kilo-DM, demonstrating the ability to drive the DMs to a flat of ≤2nm and ≤4nm RMS in our beam footprint on the University of Arizona Wavefront Control (UAWFC) testbed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationAdaptive Optics Systems VI
EditorsDirk Schmidt, Laura Schreiber, Laird M. Close
PublisherSPIE
ISBN (Print)9781510619593
DOIs
StatePublished - 2018
EventAdaptive Optics Systems VI 2018 - Austin, United States
Duration: Jun 10 2018Jun 15 2018

Publication series

NameProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume10703
ISSN (Print)0277-786X
ISSN (Electronic)1996-756X

Other

OtherAdaptive Optics Systems VI 2018
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityAustin
Period6/10/186/15/18

Keywords

  • deformable mirrors
  • extreme adaptive optics
  • high-contrast imaging

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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