Optimal Atmospheric Compensation for Anisoplanatism in Adaptive-Optical Systems

摘要

Anisoplanatism in adaptive optics (AO) systems is a performance- degrading effect that arises whenever light ftom the wave-front sensor beacon and light ftom the object of interest sample different volumes of optical turbulence. This effect occurs if there is either a spatial separation between the object and the beacon, or a spatial separation between the wave-front sensor and phase-compensation aperture, or if both types of separation are present in the AO system. Anisoplanatism results in an increased value of the aperture- averaged residual phase variance after AO compensation, which causes an exponential decrease in system performance. This dissertation offers a theoretical framework in which the most-general form of anisoplanatism can be analyzed.