Naiting Gu

A single-shot common-path phase-stepping radial shearing interferometer for wavefront measurements

A single-shot common-path phase-stepping radial shearing interferometer (RSI) is proposed for wavefront measurements. In the proposed RSI, three quarter-wave plates are used as phase shifters to produce four spatially separated phase-stepping fringe patterns that are recorded simultaneously by a single CCD camera. The proposed RSI can measure the wavefront under test in real-time, and it is also insensitive to environmental vibration due to its common-path structure. Experimentally the proposed RSI is applied to detect the distorted wavefronts generated by a liquid crystal spatial light modulator. The measured aberrations are in good agreement with that obtained with (by) a Hartmann-Shack wavefront sensor, indicating that the proposed RSI is a useful tool for wavefront measurements.

Modal wavefront reconstruction for radial shearing interferometer with lateral shear

In a radial shearing interferometer, a portion of the test beam is magnified and used as the reference for the tested wavefront. However, the reference portion is always off center (lateral shear), which complicates the wavefront reconstruction. A modal method for solving this problem is presented here. This method uses orthogonal Zernike polynomials and its matrix formalism to calculate the Zernike coefficient of the wavefront under test. This approach has easier implementation, is better filtering, and has a more adaptive practical situation. The corresponding mathematical formula is deduced, and a computer simulation is also made to verify operation of the algorithm. The result of simulation analysis shows that the proposed method is correct and accurate.

Experimental study of a modified phase diversity with a diffraction grating

The measurement ability of the conventional Phase diversity wavefront sensor (C-PD WFS) is limited by the accuracy and dynamic range of CCD cameras. In this letter, a modified Phase diversity wavefront sensor based on a diffraction grating (G-PD WFS) is proposed. We build a corresponding experimental setup to compare the measurement accuracy of the G-PD WFS and the C-GPDWFS under the same experimental conditions. The experimental results show that the measurement ability of G-PD WFS is improved obviously, especially for the wavefront aberration with larger amplitude.

INSTRUMENT DESCRIPTION AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A HIGH-ORDER ADAPTIVE OPTICS SYSTEM FOR THE 1 m NEW VACUUM SOLAR TELESCOPE AT FUXIAN SOLAR OBSERVATORY

A high-order solar adaptive optics (AO) system including a fine tracking loop and a high-order wavefront correction loop has been installed at the 1 m New Vacuum Solar Telescope of the Fuxian Solar Observatory, in routine operation since 2016. The high-order wavefront correction loop consists of a deformable mirror with 151 actuators, a correlating Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor with 102 subapertures of which the Absolute Difference Square Algorithm is used to extract the gradients, and a custom-built real-time controller based on a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and multi-core Digital Signal Processor (DSP). The frame rate of the wavefront sensor is up to 3500 Hz and this is, to our knowledge, the fastest solar AO system. This AO system can work with a Fried parameter r(0), at the 500 nm wavelength, of larger than 3 cm. The first 65 modes of the Zernike aberrations can be efficiently corrected and the Strehl ratio of the corrected TiO image for the solar pore is superior to 0.75 with the Fried parameter r(0) larger than 10 cm. In this paper, the design of the system is described, and high-resolution solar observational images are presented. Furthermore, the performances of the AO system are evaluated according to the data recorded by the real-time controller.

An updated 37-element low-order solar adaptive optics system for 1-m new vacuum solar telescope at Full-Shine Lake Solar Observatory

A low-order solar adaptive optics (AO) system, which consists of a fine tracking loop with a tip/tilt mirror and a correlation tracker, and a high-order correction loop with a 37-element deformable mirror, a correlating Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor and a high-order wavefront correction controller, had been successfully developed and installed at 1-m New Vacuum Solar Telescope of Full-shine Lake (also called Fuxian Lake) Solar Observatory. This system is an update of the 37-element solar AO system designed for the 26-cm Solar Fine Structure Telescope at Yunnan Astronomical Observatory in 2009. The arrangement of subapertures of the Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor was changed from square to hexagon to achieve better compensation performance. Moreover, the imaging channel of the updated system was designed to observe the Sun at 710nm and 1555nm simultaneously. The AO system was integrated into the solar telescope in 2011, and AO-corrected high resolution sunspots and granulation images were obtained. The observational results show that the contrast and resolution of the solar images are improved evidently after the correction by the AO system.

Progress on the 1.8m solar telescope: the CLST

In order to study some special solar activities, such as the emergence, evolution and disappearance progress of the sunspot and magnetic flux, and the key role of magnetic field, a new 1.8-meter size high-resolution solar telescope —the CLST will be built in the Institute of Optics and Electronics(IOE), Chinese Academy of Science(CAS), which locates in Chengdu, China. The CLST has a classic Gregorian configuration, alt-azimuth mount, retractable dome. Besides that, a large mechanical de-rotator will be used to cancel the image rotation, and finally it will cooperate with another kind of mechanical de-rotator to cancel both of the pupil rotation and image rotation. Φ3 arc-minute field of view will help the CLST to observe the whole solar activity region, and if necessary the FOV can be enlarged to Φ 6 arc-minute. A 1.8m primary mirror with honeycomb sandwiches structure made by using ULE material will reduce about 70% of weight. Thermal controlling system will also be equipped for the CLST, which including Heat-Stop, primary mirror, tube truss, mount and the other optics elements. An experimental system for validating thermal controlling of primary mirror and Heat-Stop has been built, and the temperature tracking results will be illustrated in this paper. Currently, we have finished the detailed design of the CLST, and some important components also have been manufactured and finished. In this paper, we describe some important progresses and the latest status of the CLST project during these two years.

Solar adaptive optics for 1m new vacuum solar telescope

Adaptive Optics (AO) has become the requisite equipment of the ground-based large solar telescope to correct the wavefront aberration induced by the atmospheric turbulence. Two generation solar AO systems, one is the 37-element loworder AO system with 2100Hz frame rate and the other is 151-element high-order AO system with 3500Hz frame rate, were successfully developed in 2013 and 2015 respectively. In this presentation, the development of the two AO systems for 1-m New Vacuum Solar Telescope (NVST) at Fuxian Solar Observatory (FSO) will be introduced and the solar high resolution observational results are presented.

1.8-m solar telescope in China: Chinese Large Solar Telescope

Abstract. For better understanding and forecasting of solar activity, high resolution observations for the Sun are needed. Therefore, the Chinese Large Solar Telescope (CLST) with a 1.8-m aperture is being built. The CLST is a classic Gregorian configuration telescope with an open structure, alt-azimuth mount, retractable dome, and a large mechanical de-rotator. The optical system with an all reflective design has a field of view of larger than 3 arc-min. The 1.8-m primary mirror is a honeycomb sandwich fused silica lightweight mirror with an ultra lower expansion material and active cooling. The adaptive optics system will be developed to provide the capability for diffraction-limited observations at visible wavelengths. The CLST design and development phase began in 2011 and 2012, respectively. We plan for the CLST’s start of commission to be in 2017. A multiwavelength tomographic imaging system, ranging from visible to near-infrared, is considered as the first light scientific instrument. The main system configuration and the corresponding postfocal instruments are described. Furthermore, the latest progress and current status of the CLST are also reported.

Real time controller for 37-element low-order solar adaptive optics system at 1m new vacuum solar telescope

A low-order solar adaptive optics (AO) system had been successfully built and installed at 1m New Vacuum Solar Telescope (NVST) of Full-shine Lake Solar Observatory. The real time controller (RTC) of the AO system, which consists of a correlation tracker and a high-order wavefront correction controller, was developed. In this system, the absolute difference algorithm is used to detect wavefront gradients. A new architecture with field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and digital signal processor (DSP) for the real-time controller based on systolic array and pipeline was designed. The controller was integrated into the AO system and saw the first light on February 24th, 2011, using solar granulation as the beacon. Later, the AO-corrected high resolution sunspots images were obtained using sunspots as the beacon. The observational results show that the contrast and resolution of the solar images are improved evidently after the correction by the AO system. The design of the RTC and the observational results will be presented.

Influence of wavefront aberration on the imaging performance of the solar grating spectrometer

The solar grating spectrometer is an important tool to study the thermodynamic properties of the solar atmosphere with different height distribution, but its imaging performance will be degraded by the wavefront aberration. On the other hand, narrow slit of the grating spectrometer will filter the wavefront aberration to a certain extent. In this paper, the mathematical relation between the wavefront aberration and the imaging performance of the grating spectrometer is derived. The numerical simulation is performed and is validated by the experiment. The results demonstrate that: The influence of the wavefront aberration with the different types and magnitudes on the spectral resolution and the energy utilization is different. The influence of the different slits on the wavefront aberrations is different. Generally, the smaller the slit is, the better the spectral resolution is. However, this is not true for the low-frequency dominated aberration, e.g. the defocus, since its low frequency will also be blocked by the narrow slit. If the influence of the filter slit on the wavefront aberration cannot be taken into account, it will lead to adaptive optics over-compensation.