Off-line and on-line modal optimization of the MMT-AO system

摘要

The MMT adaptive optics system has been in operation for over 2 years. Besides being a technological demonstration, it has achieved remarkable success. However, the system is presently limited by a few factors, one of which is the lack of an optimised controller. In this paper, we review the optimised modal integrator and evaluate its potential for MMT-AO. We find that it can indeed increase the system sensitivity by one magnitude but that a careful analysis of wave front sensor data must be performed to remove artefacts that can severely bias the outcome of the optimization.