Abstract
We present a design of a thermal-infrared optimized adaptive optics system for the TMT 30-meter telescope. The approach makes use of an adaptive secondary but during an initial implementation contains a more conventional ambient-temperature optical relay and deformable mirror. The conventional optical relay is used without sacrificing the thermal background by using multiple off-axis laser guide stars to avoid a warm dichroic in the common path. Three laser guide stars, equally spaced 75" off axis, and a "conventional" 30×30 deformable mirror provide a Strehl > 0.9 at wavelengths longer than 10 microns and the LGS beams can be passed to the LGS wavefront sensors with pickoff mirrors while a one-arcminute field is passed unvignetted to the science instrument and NGS WFSs. The overall design is relatively simple with a wavefront correction similar to existing high-order systems (e.g. 30×30) but still provides competitive performance over the higher-order TMT NIR AO design at wavelengths as short as 3 microns due to its reduced thermal emissivity. We present our figures of merit and design considerations within the context of the science drivers for high-spectral resolution NIR/MIR spectroscopy at 5-28 microns on a 30-meter ground-based telescope.
© 2006 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the TMT partner institutions. They are the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy (ACURA), the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), the California Institute of Technology and the University of California. This work was supported, as well, by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, which is operated by AURA under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation, the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, and the National Research Council of Canada.
[](https://doi.org/10.1117/12.670062)
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Advances in Adaptive Optics II, Art. No. 62720S. Bellingham, WA. ISBN: 9780819463371.
SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation
, Orlando, FL, 24-31 May 2006
