Optimisation of the range gating and calibration processes on the GLAS Rayleigh Laser Guide Star at the WHT

Physics – Optics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

The Laser Guide Star commissioned in 2007 at the WHT on La Palma is based on Rayleigh backscattering of a 515 nm beam provided by a diode pumped Q-switched doubled frequency Yb:YAG laser launched from behind the WHT secondary mirror. At the time the laser beam is focused at a distance of 15km above the telescope ground and its power just under 20W. With such a pulsed laser, careful fine tuning of the range gate system is essential to isolate the most focused part of the LGS and eliminate parts of the laser plume which would degrade the Shack-Hartmann spots and consequently AO correction. This is achieved by an electro-optic shutter using Pockels cells, triggered by a delay generator synchronised on the laser pulses, and by spatial filters. Images of 0.15" resolution in J and H bands, very close to expected performance, have been routinely taken as soon as the third and fourth commissioning runs. Here we show the performance of the range gate system as measured and improved over the successive commissioning runs, as well as the off sky and on sky calibration procedures of the LGS AO system.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Optimisation of the range gating and calibration processes on the GLAS Rayleigh Laser Guide Star at the WHT does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Optimisation of the range gating and calibration processes on the GLAS Rayleigh Laser Guide Star at the WHT, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Optimisation of the range gating and calibration processes on the GLAS Rayleigh Laser Guide Star at the WHT will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-791960

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.