Article
Article
Adaptive optics
Article By:
Pasachoff, Jay M. Hopkins Observatory, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Last reviewed:February 2022
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.010000
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- Adaptive optics, published August 2019:Download PDF
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Technologies to optimize the performance of optical systems wherein controllable optical elements maintain a sharply focused image in the presence of wavefront aberrations. The practical development of adaptive optics started in the late 1960s. Main applications have been to compensate for the effects of atmospheric turbulence in ground-based astronomical telescopes (Fig. 1) and to improve the beam quality of lasers for use in communications, imaging, microscopy, and optical fabrication. A distinction is made between active optics, in which optical components are modified or adjusted by external control to compensate slowly changing disturbances, and adaptive optics, which applies to closed-loop feedback systems employing sensors and data processors, operating at much higher frequencies. See also: Astronomical observatory; Astronomy; Astronomical imaging; Atmosphere; Control systems; Laser; Optical communications; Optical microscope; Optics; Telescope
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