66910o 1

Multi-laser-guided adaptive optics for the Large Binocular Telescope
M. Lloyd-Hart, R. Angel, R. Green,

1
T. Stalcup,
2
N. M. Milton, and K. Powell
Center for Astronomical Adaptive Optics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85821
1
LBT Observatory, 933 N. Cherry Av., Tucson, AZ 85721
2
MMT Observatory, 933 N. Cherry Av., Tucson, AZ 85721
ABSTRACT
We describe the conceptual design of an advanced laser guide star facility (LGSF) for the Large Binocular Telescope
(LBT), to be built in collaboration with the LBTs international partners. The highest priority goal for the facility is the
correction of ground-layer turbulence, providing partial seeing compensation in the near IR bands over a 4 field. In the
H band, GLAO is projected to improve the median seeing from 0.55 to 0.2.
The new facility will build on the LBTs natural guide star AO system, integrated into the telescope with correction by
adaptive secondary mirrors, and will draw on Arizonas experience in the construction of the first multi-laser adaptive
optics (AO) system at the 6.5 m MMT.
1
The LGSF will use four Rayleigh beacons at 532 nm, projected to an altitude of
25 km, on each of the two 8.4 m component telescopes. Initial use of the system for ground layer correction will deliver
image quality well matched to the LBTs two LUCIFER near IR instruments. They will be used for direct imaging over
a 44 field and will offer a unique capability in high resolution multi-object spectroscopy.
The LGSF is designed to include long-term upgrade paths. Coherent imaging at the combined focus of the two apertures
will be exploited by the LBT Interferometer in the thermal IR. Using the same launch optics, an axial sodium or
Rayleigh beacon can be added to each constellation, for tomographic wavefront reconstruction and diffraction limited
imaging over the usual isoplanatic patch. In the longer term, a second DM conjugated to high altitude is foreseen for the
LBTs LINC-NIRVANA instrument, which would extend the coherent diffraction-limited field to an arcminute in
diameter with multi-conjugate AO.
1. THE LBT AND ITS INSTRUMENTATION
The LBT, shown in a recent photograph in Figure 1, comprises two 8.4 m primary mirrors on a common mount. The
telescope is now operating with a prime focus camera as the first-light science instrument. Several instruments will be
deployed at the telescope over the next two years that can operate autonomously, but will also benefit from the
application of adaptive optics (AO). Of primary importance for early application of the LGSF is a pair of instruments
called LUCIFER, one of which will attach to each of the LBTs unit telescopes. The two copies are being built by a
consortium of five German institutes as part of Germanys contribution to the LBT; one unit is shown in final assembly
in Figure 2. They are scheduled for first light in early 2008 and early 2009. Each is a near IR spectrograph and imager
working in the wavelength range from 0.9 to 2.5 m. They are multi-mode instruments intended for seeing limited as
well as diffraction limited operation. The main features are:
Direct imaging over a 44 field of view (FOV) in the
seeing limit with 0.12 pixels.
Multi-object spectroscopy with cold slit masks. A 23-mask
cassette is provided.
Long-slit spectroscopy with 4 slit and resolution up to
10,000 in the seeing limit and up to 40,000 in the diffraction
limit. Two gratings are provided with a third slot available.
Diffraction-limited imaging over a 3030 FOV with
0.015 pixels.
The detectors are each 20482048 Hawaii 2 arrays. They are
optimized differently, with detector quantum efficiencies as
shown in Table 1. When coupled with AO, LUCIFER will offer
a unique capability on 8-m class telescopes: high resolution
multi-object spectroscopy in the near IR, which has particular
application in cosmology to the study of high redshift galaxies.
Figure 1. The Large Binocular Telescope on Mt. Graham,
Arizona has two 8.4 m primary mirrors on a common
mount.
Astronomical Adaptive Optics Systems and Applications III, edited by Robert K. Tyson, Michael Lloyd-Hart
Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6691, 66910O, (2007) 0277-786X/07/$18 doi: 10.1117/12.734821
Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6691 66910O-1
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The laser-guided AO system will also serve to sharpen the images seen
by the LBT Interferometer.
2
With 23 m baseline, the LBT is now the
largest optical telescope in the world on a single mount, an essential
factor in providing a large FOV at the coherent combined focus. LBTI,
under construction at Arizona and scheduled to come on line in 2009,
will be the first instrument to take full advantage of the resolution
offered by coherent combination of the beams from the two unit
telescopes. Operating in the thermal IR from 5 to 20 m, LBTI will
take advantage of the laser AO capability to probe regions of scientific
interest where no bright natural star is available. These will typically
be extragalactic sources, for instance probing the stellar dynamics and
the spectral energy distribution of the disk around the central black
hole in M31, or, more locally, heavily obscured regions such as the
center of our own Galaxy. With AO in operation, the LBT will place
just four warm surfaces between the sky and the LBTI dewar. For
operation at these thermal wavelengths it will therefore be more
sensitive than either the Keck or VLT interferometers.
Later on, the high-resolution interferometric capability will be
extended to the near IR with the addition of LINC-NIRVANA,
3
under
construction at the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg
as a collaboration between LBTs German and Italian partners.
Expected to be operational in 2010, LINC-NIRVANA will offer a 20 field of view with resolution as high as 10
milliarcsec. To give an example of its application, at this resolution, and with the sensitivity of LBTs aperture,
equivalent to a 12 m single aperture, stellar populations in galaxies at 5 20 Mpc will be resolved. For the first time,
individual stars in giant elliptical galaxies will be within reach, allowing their star formation history to be investigated
directly.
1.1. Adaptive optics at the LBT
The LBT was designed from the outset to include AO as an integral part of the telescope, and to that end the telescope is
being equipped with a pair of adaptive secondary mirrors (ASM) of the same construction as the ASM built for the 6.5 m
MMT.
4
Natural guide star (NGS) wavefront sensors are nearing completion. First light with the first ASM is anticipated
in late Spring 2008 with the second ASM to follow one year later. Each has 672 actuators, projecting to 29 cm spacing
on the primaries, and a response time of 0.5 ms.
5
The first generation of AO instruments, LUCIFER, LBTI, and LINC-
NIRVANA, will operate in the near and thermal IR, but the capacity will be in place to support a second generation that
will push AO correction down to visible wavelengths.
High-order AO compensation is now de rigueur for large general-purpose astronomical telescopes, with a general
expectation that over limited fields of view, diffraction-limited imaging will be available in at least the near IR J, H, and
K bands. The system to be implemented at the LBT relies on an ASM to ensure the highest optical efficiency and more
importantly the lowest emissivity for work that extends into the thermal IR. The first-light AO system will rely entirely
on NGS and therefore will be limited in sky coverage, particularly for work at high redshift where many objects of
interest are to be found in otherwise blank regions of the sky, and in highly obscured regions such as stellar nurseries. In
such regions, no sufficiently bright star will be found to serve as a reference beacon for AO wavefront correction.
A laser-guided AO system is therefore essential to realize the full scientific potential of the LBT, and such a system is
now planned by three major partners in the LBT consortium: the University of Arizona, the Max Planck Institut fr
extraterrestrische Physik in Garching, and the Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri in Florence. The design, described in
detail in the following sections, builds on pioneering work with multiple Rayleigh laser guide stars (RLGS) at the 6.5 m
MMT. This approach offers a number of compelling advantages. In the first instance, the cost of a system which relies
on a number of lasers that are cheaply available from commercial vendors is substantially less than a system based on
even a single sodium LGS. The cost of a 10 W sodium laser alone, such as the one recently installed on Gemini North,
would exceed $5M, and it is not clear that the LBT could operate satisfactorily with a single center-mounted sodium
LGS. The effects of spot elongation (which would be comparable to the Keck II telescope) and off-axis anisoplanatism
(which would be substantially worse) would combine to reduce the achievable Strehl ratio. A better system would
deploy two sodium LGS, projected from behind the two ASMs, but the cost of such a system would be much higher.
Figure 2. The first of the two LUCIFER imager/
spectrographs near completion.
Waveband: J H K
LUCIFER 1 0.33 0.75 0.73
LUCIFER 2 0.53 0.58 0.55
Table 1. LUCIFER detector quantum efficiencies
M E D A N C N 2 P R O F I L E O F A L L P R O F I L E S
m e d i a n p r o f i l e
+ / 2 5 % v a r i a t i o n
1 o 1 o _ 1 6
c r i 2 v a l u e [ m 2 " 3 1
a )
0
0
0
( 0
C )
C )
C )
0
0
0
- c
C )
- c
1 0 1 5
In addition to lower cost, the application of multiple RLGS offers scientific benefits. Detailed site studies with
SCIDAR
6,7
have confirmed that the LBT site is excellent, with median seeing of 0.67, and that it manifests a boundary
layer of turbulence which frequently accounts for the majority of the seeing; Figure 3 shows the median of the profiles in
this study. Removing the effect of this layer would offer image resolution in the near IR bands better than 0.2 over a
field of ~5 as a matter of routine. The technique to do this is called ground-layer adaptive optics (GLAO), and relies on
measurements of the atmospheric wavefront aberration from a number of beacons placed around the corrected FOV.
8

Wavefront sensing for GLAO is most readily done with a constellation of RLGS. The average of the signals from these
beacons yields an estimate of the low-lying aberration which is common to them all. Wavefront correction is best done
by a deformable mirror (DM) that is optically conjugated to the ground layer. The LBT is ideally suited for GLAO in
this sense since the Gregorian configuration of its ASMs places the conjugate height of the wavefront correction in the
boundary layer itself at a height of 100 m.
The deployment of multiple RLGS also offers a path to
diffraction-limited imaging through tomographic
wavefront sensing. In this technique, the signals from
the beacons are not simply averaged together, but
analyzed to give an instantaneous view of the three-
dimensional structure of the turbulent aberration. By
integrating through this volume along any chosen line
of sight, the required wavefront correction can be
calculated and applied to one or more DMs that are
optically conjugated to layers of particularly strong
turbulence in the atmosphere. This use of multiple
DMs as well as multiple laser beacons, termed multi-
conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO), achieves a
diffraction-limiited image over an extended FOV, on
the order of 1. The general principle of tomography
has been demonstrated on-sky now in three
experimental MCAO system.
9-12
Experiments at the
MMT specific to tomographic sensing with multiple
RLGS have shown that imaging close to the near-IR
diffraction limit can be achieved even with a single DM, with the usual single-conjugate limit imposed by
anisoplanatism. Baranec et al. describe the first closed-loop tests with a multi-RLGS system which will lead to a full
demonstration of laser tomography.
1

The system planned for the LBT is designed as a phased implementation. In Phase 1, GLAO will be offered with
LUCIFER which can already take advantage of the partially corrected image over a 4 field. With modest additional
effort, the system can be made to work with LBTI by adding an optical feed to the wavefront sensors (WFS) from the
two LBTI ports as well as the LUCIFER ports. The Phase 1 GLAO system designed for partial seeing compensation in
the near IR will in fact already be of high enough quality to deliver diffraction-limited performance at the longer thermal
wavelengths. Diffraction-limited imaging in the near IR with tomography will be the subject of Phase 2, with additional
LGS and WFSs, now drawn into a tighter constellation. The system would then fully exploit LUCIFERs diffraction-
limited imaging and long-slit spectroscopic capabilities.
Phase 3 would provide MCAO, already designed as an upgrade path into LINC-NIRVANA, offering the extremely high
resolution of the telescope at the coherent focus in the near IR. Ideally, MCAO would be implemented with the addition
of a sodium LGS to each half of the telescope. Combined with the lower-altitude RLGS, this hybrid sensing system will
require just a single tip-tilt star for full multi-conjugate correction, which would otherwise require three well separated
stars.
13,14
With this in mind, the laser launch optics for the LBT system are being designed to accommodate both 532 nm
for the RLGS and 589 nm for the sodium LGS.
The LBT, with 23 m baseline in one axis, may be thought of as the first of a new generation of extremely large
telescopes (ELT) of 30 m class. The Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope, recommended by the most recent Decadal
Survey as the top priority for ground-based astronomy in the US, is the conceptual prototype for a number of new ELT
projects in the US and Europe. All will require multi-LGS AO to guarantee all-sky access at full resolution. Single LGS
will no longer suffice, being limited by focal anisoplanatism even at the range of a sodium beacon. It is essential then
Figure 3. Median, 25, and 75 percentile C
n
2
profiles observed at
the LBT during a recent campaign of SCIDAR measurements.
H
e
i
g
h
t

a
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o
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t
e
l
e
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(
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)

4 .
t
-
- t
l . a 2 . o 2 . 2 I 2 -
w a v e l e n g t h [ u r n i
that the techniques required to make the most of these giant and very expensive new telescopes be developed in advance
on existing telescopes. The LBT multi-RLGS system will offer an opportunity to do so, going beyond even the MCAO
system now under construction at the 8 m Gemini South telescope.
2. ANTICIPATED PERFORMANCE OF GLAO AT THE LBT
Simulations have been carried out to estimate the value of GLAO at the LBT. Four Rayleigh beacons were taken at the
corners of a 4 square. Layered C
n
2
profiles were constructed to approximate those in the SCIDAR data that represented
seeing conditions characterized as poor (FWHM = 1.0 at V; r
0
(500 nm) = 11 cm), average (FWHM = 0.75 at V; r
0

(500 nm) = 15 cm) and good (FWHM = 0.5 at V; r
0
(500 nm) = 23 cm). These values correspond respectively to the
95
th
, 70
th
, and 10
th
percentiles for the telescope. Results of a numerical simulation of system performance are shown in
Figure 4, which shows the FWHM of the corrected and uncorrected on-axis point-spread functions (PSFs) as functions
of near IR wavelength. For K band, even in the poor seeing case, GLAO reduces the image width to 0.21. Typically,
imaging in H and K bands will be at 0.2 or better, with J band image resolution benefiting as well by about a factor of
two. In all cases, the seeing is reduced substantially with the greatest relative gains when the seeing is poor. This bears
out previous work
15,16
which suggests that GLAO will be of particular value in poor seeing, recovering good to excellent
performance in the near IR on nights that would otherwise yield doubtful scientific return.
For astronomical purposes, resolution is not the only
important figure of merit. For observations requiring
significant FOV, for which GLAO is ideal, uniformity
of the PSF over the field is essential to preserve
accurate photometry and astrometry. The simulation
modeled 25 field points in a 55 grid across the 4
field of LUCIFER; these did not explicitly include the
directions of the four RLGS. The results, averaged
over the azimuthal angle for J and K bands are shown
in Figure 5. For given waveband and seeing
conditions, the variation in width is typically no more
than 0.01 across the full field, with slight
improvement in directions close to the lasers. The
error bars in Figure 5 represent the maximal extent of
the widths found at each radius; again, this is reduced
at the half-angle of the laser constellation.
The basic observing modes of LUCIFER are
summarized in Table 2. Of particular scientific
interest for GLAO is the multi-object spectroscopic
capability with pixel-limited resolution of 0.24. Up
to about 100 objects can be accommodated in each of
23 slit masks held in a single robotic cassette.
3. MULTI-LASER-GUIDED AO SYSTEM CONCEPTUAL DESIGN
The LGSF for LBT is designed to satisfy a number of goals:
Exploit the scientific competitive edge of LUCIFER MOS and wide field imaging.
Be a reliable, low maintenance system with low risk that minimizes required changes to existing telescope systems.
Promptly realize ground-layer adaptive correction, seen as scientifically important by the LBTs Science and
Technical Committee (STC).
Anticipate an upgrade path to on-axis diffraction-limited operation in the near IR.
Anticipate an upgrade path to wide-field, modest Strehl, diffraction-limited operation with MCAO.
The top level requirements set forth by the STC are listed in Table 3. Since GLAO is seen to be of particular value to the
LBT because of the strength of the observed boundary layer, it is clear that multiple guide stars are essential. GLAO
with natural stars is very difficult; high-order wavefront correction at high speed would require stars of V magnitude 13
or brighter, even for the more relaxed requirements of GLAO compared to correction to the diffraction limit. To find
Figure 4. Full width at half maxima for simulated PSFs with (solid
lines) and without (dashed lines) GLAO correction as functions of
wavelength. The blue lines represent poor conditions, red lines
represent average conditions, with good conditions in pink as
described in the text.
0 . 2 4
0 . 2 2
0 . 2 0
0 . 1 6
0 I 2 3
F
W
H
M

[
a
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r
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c
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0

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,

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0

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three such stars, a search radius of at least 10 is required,
17
greater than LBTs unvignetted FOV. Furthermore, NGS do
not offer a clear upgrade path to an all-sky diffraction-limited capability.
Laser guide stars are therefore required. Three options present themselves: the approach to GLAO taken by the SOAR
telescope,
18
which relies on a single low-level Rayleigh LGS to isolate the boundary layer; a constellation of sodium
LGS; a constellation of RLGS. The SOAR solution, while admirably simple in concept and well suited to a 4 m
telescope, would not provide good and uniform correction over a 4 FOV with an 8.4 m aperture. Furthermore, the
upgrade path to diffraction-limited performance is challenging. The use of sodium LGS could build on growing
experience at other observatories with single-beacon systems, but the need for a total of at least six, and preferably more,
beacons of at least 5 W each is in our case a prohibitive cost driver. The design concept for the LBT LGSF therefore
relies on a constellation of RLGS above each of the two primary mirrors.
The lasers themselves, pulsed doubled-YAG at 532 nm, are commercially available for a fraction of the cost per watt of
sodium lasers. Furthermore, numerical studies
15
have shown that RLGS in fact give slightly better GLAO performance
than an equivalent constellation of sodium LGS, because of the improved isolation of the boundary layer that is the basis
Radial distance (arcmin) Radial distance (arcmin)
F
W
H
M

(
a
r
c
s
e
c
)

F
W
H
M

(
a
r
c
s
e
c
)

Figure 5. FWHM of the GLAO-corrected PSF as a function of position within the field sampled by LUCIFER. (Right) J
band. (Left) K band. From top to bottom the curves represent poor, average and good seeing conditions. The error bars
represent the maxima and minima of the image width at field points sampled at a given radius.

Parameter Imaging Spectroscopy
GLAO
Plate scale
FOV
Resolution
0.12/pixel
4 4

0.24
0.12/pixel
4 2

1000 10,000. Long slit and MOS capability
Full AO
Plate scale
FOV
Resolution
0.015/pixel
0.5 0.5
Diffraction limit
0.015/pixel
0.5 0.5
4000 40,000. Long slit mode
Table 2. Observing modes of the LUCIFER imager/spectrograph.
Parameter Requirement
Corrected FOV 4
Science wavelength regime > 1.2 m
Near IR improvement in resolution Factor of 2 or greater
Near IR improvement in energy concentration Factor of 3 or greater
Useable seeing conditions 75
th
percentile or better, r
0
(500 nm) > 13 cm
Table 3. Top-level system requirements for the LBT LGSF.
r m
( - V
of the SOAR design. This is the approach that has been adopted for the MMT, and we propose to build on that
experience in constructing the LBT system.
An overview of the telescope with the laser AO systems installed is shown in Figure 6. The lasers are housed in units at
the top of the structure, with one laser head dedicated to each beacon. The beams are expanded by launch optics and the
full-size beam is directed across the top of the telescope to a light-weight silicon carbide fold mirror above each
secondary mirror. The returning beacon light is corrected by the ASM, then reflected off the tertiary mirror towards the
LUCIFER instrument port. In front of the port a rugate (graded index) narrow-band beam splitter separates the 532 nm
light and reflects it into the WFS optics. The remaining optical light and the near IR are transmitted by the beam splitter
to the telescopes AGW unit and LUCIFER. The WFS optics include a dynamic refocus element that tracks the return
image of each pulse of laser light as it rises from 20 to 30 km range, the same range of altitude used at the MMT.
3.1. Lasers and launch optics
The beam projector design is illustrated (not to scale) in Figure 7, drawing on the design of the MMTs laser beam
projector. For each of the two apertures, four doubled-YAG lasers of 15 W each are mounted inside a single thermally
controlled box on the gantry between the two halves of the telescope. A series of 3 lenses on a slide allows selection of
the beam waist, whose optimal value depends on the seeing: the 1/e width should be approximately 3r
0
. An insertable
attenuator reduces the transmitted power to a few mW so that alignment can be safely carried out with the beacon lasers
themselves. Periscopes allow adjustment of the constellation diameter. Each mirror of the periscope is required to move
only in one axis of rotation. thereby preserving the path length with a minimum of degrees of freedom.
An image of the exit pupil is formed at a fold mirror which is held in a fast-steering gimbaled mount. Piezo actuators
allow for fast beam jitter control, with the signal coming from the mean motion of all the Shack-Hartmann spots on all
four LGS WFS. Experience at the MMT has shown this is critical to maintaining stable system performance. DC
motors on the mirror mount allow pointing adjustment of the constellation as a whole to be coaxial with the telescope.
Leakage through the fast steering mirror forms images of the pupil and far field on separate cameras, which will be used
for manual alignment of the beams. It is not anticipated that active control of the pointing of individual beams will be
required; FEA modeling of the laser head support will be carried out to ensure a sufficiently rigid structure. A separate
low-power on-axis laser can be used as an alignment aid.
LBTI port
LUCIFER port
RLGS WFS
assembly
Lasers and
launch optics
Lightweight
fold flat
Outgoing laser
beams
Figure 6. Overview of the placement of the key components of the RLGS AO system. The lasers and launch optics for both unit
telescopes are housed in a common thermally-controlled environment at the top of the telescope, with full-size beams transmitted
to fold flats behind the ASMs. The WFS optics are mounted above the instrument ports on each side.
I
q
The two powered elements of the launch optics form a reverse Galilean telescope mounted in a barrel at the exit of the
thermally controlled box. The larger element has one aspheric surface to control spherical aberration. This allows the
use of faster optics producing a smaller, more rigid system. The magnification of the lens pair was chosen such that the
default projected beam waist is slightly less than 30 mm. This size was selected to produce a small beam diameter over
the entire range of altitude sampled by the LGS WFS, from 20 to 30 km. A smaller beam waist would produce a smaller
spot size at the focus, but this creates a beam that diverges faster so at the ends of the range gate the spot size is
significantly larger resulting in an increased integrated spot size. Recent measurements at the MMT show that this waist
size is a good choice; in seeing of 0.6 the short exposure spot size was measured to be less than 0.7 FWHM.
3.2. Wavefront sensor system
The wavefront sensor system is illustrated in Figure 8. After reflection off the telescopes tertiary mirror, a graded-index
beam splitter reflects beacon light in a 30 nm wide notch centered on 532 nm to the WFS. The remaining visible light
and the near IR are transmitted. The former reflects off LUCIFERs tilted entrance window where starlight is imaged on
the fast tip-tilt sensor in the AGW unit. The latter is again transmitted into LUCIFER. Figure 9 shows the transmission
curve for the rugate filter now used to separate beacon light in the MMT system, designed by Barr Associates; a similar
filter will be used as the notch reflector in front of LUCIFER. Note that the coating on this filter was not designed to
transmit in the IR since it is placed after the science instruments dichroic entrance window in that system. We
anticipate that further design effort will improve the transmission in J through K bands, particularly in the S polarization.
The beacon light is reflected upward by a mirror that can rotate to address either the LUCIFER port or the LBTI port. In
this way, both instruments can take advantage of the laser AO. The light passes through a field lens, a polarizing beam
splitter, and a quarter wave plate. The latter, seen in double pass, rotates the polarization of the beacon light so that after
compensation by the dynamic refocus resonator mirror, the light is reflected into the RLGS WFS assembly. The field
lens and a relay lens cell image the focal plane onto the moveable mirror in the dynamic refocus assembly itself.
Details of the dynamic refocus assembly are shown in the Zemax model of Figure 10. The system uses a moving mirror
to adjust the telescope focus to track each laser pulse as it rises through the atmosphere. If done in the native f/15 beam
from the telescope, this would require a mirror motion of over 100 mm which is impossible at the 5 kHz repetition rate
that the lasers operate at. The lens system creates a high NA space for the moving mirror, which reduces the required
stroke to a feasible 350 m. Unlike the previous design for the MMT, the moving mirror in this system is flat which
Laser heads
Periscopes
Alignment laser source
Field imager
Pupil
imager
Launch input
lens
Fold flat
above ASM
Launch
exit lens
Pupil
mirror
A
t
t
e
n
u
a
t
o
r

s
t
a
g
e

B
e
a
m

e
x
p
a
n
d
e
r

s
t
a
g
e

Global
focus
stage
Figure 7. Layout of the lasers and launch optics for each component telescope. For clarity, only two of the four laser heads
are shown. At the output of each laser is a set of weak lenses on a stage which can be used to adjust the beam waist size to
suit prevailing seeing conditions. A removable attenuator allows for work on the optics without the safety risk of propagating
the full power beams. A periscope on each beam allows the size of the constellation to be varied continuously. A fast
steering mirror at an image of the pupil allows control of beam jitter. Leakage through this mirror is used to image the pupil
and the far field for alignment. A lens pair in a reverse Galilean configuration expands the beams to full size; they are
directed across the top of the telescope to a large lightweight fold mirror above the ASM.
N
I
I
I ,
' I t
" p
produces significantly looser alignment tolerances. The light is reflected back through the lens cell which converts it
back to f/15, matching the input beam. Since a polarizing beam splitter and a wave plate serve to separate the
refocused output from the input beams, the entire field can be imaged and any number of beacons used. The design
works for any projected pattern up to 5. The only adjustments required for this are to translate the field lens along the
optical axis and to move the radial position and focus of the WFS cameras. It is therefore straightforward to change the
operating beacon diameter to switch between different correction modes for the RLGS AO system.
The WFS cameras are supported in a box-beam superstructure looking down. Although initial operation of the LGSF
will be exclusively in GLAO mode, provision will be made for later upgrade to support tomography for LTAO or
Figure 8. The major components of the RLGS WFS as they will be
mounted to the structure on one half of the telescope. Beacon light
from the secondary reflects off the tertiary, a notch reflector and a
fold flat. A cold plate behind the notch reflector prevents thermal IR
leakage into LUCIFER. A field lens forms an image of the pupil (the
ASM) in front of the dynamic refocus resonator. The linearly
polarized light passes through a polarizing beam splitter and a
wave plate and is imaged onto the moving mirror on the resonator.
After another pass through the wave plate, the light reflects off the
beam splitter and up to the WFS assembly. This includes the four
Shack-Hartmann sensors and motorized periscopes in front of each.
LGS WFS
assembly
Dynamic refocus
resonator
LUCIFER
Field lens
Polarizing
beam splitter
Dynamic refocus driver
& motion controllers
WFS CCD
controllers
Tertiary
mirror
Notch reflector
for LUCIFER
Notch
reflector
for LBTI
Acquisition
camera
Cold plate
Switchable
fold flat
l i # i r
I
S p o l a r i z a t i o n
W a v e l e n g t h ( y m )
P p o ' a r i z a t i o n
0 . 9 5
0 . 9
0 . 8 5
0 . 5
a
MCAO. To this end, the four initial WFS cameras will be mounted on radial translation stages. Adjustment of the tilt of
the first mirror in the periscope feeding each camera will be motorized as well to repoint the cameras for different field
angles. Figure 11 illustrates both GLAO and LTAO configurations, including the planned fifth camera in the center
which will be added later to support tomography.
The camera heads will be small custom thermoelectric dewars by SciMeasure. As baseline, the CCDs will be the 8080
CCD39 devices from E2V, but newer devices of 256256 pixels with ~1 e- read noise at high frame rate are under
investigation (e.g. the CCID35 of MIT/LL). Such devices would be binned 22 on chip, reducing the angular extent of
the charge diffusion boundary between pixels and improving the sensitivity of the Shack-Hartmann slope sensor.
Because of unknown jitter in the outgoing laser beams, overall image motion is not sensed by the RLGS. This must still
be determined with reference to a natural star. This is done in visible light transmitted through the notch reflector.
LUCIFERs entrance window is a dichroic beam splitter angled at 15 to the optical axis. Light shortward of 1 m is
Figure 9. Theoretical trace of the transmission of the
rugate filter now used in the MMT to separate beacon
light. A similar filter would be used as the beam splitter
in front of LUCIFER.
Polarizing
beam splitter
wave
plate
Moveable
mirror
From field lens
Refocused output
100 mm
350 m
motion
Figure 10. Details of the dynamic refocus assembly. Light from
just two of the four beacons is shown for clarity. The 6-element
lens cell forms a flat focal plane on the moving mirror, which
tracks the pulses of laser light over the range from 20 to 30 km.
Figure 11. Details of the RLGS WFS cameras, shown without the supporting superstructure. Shown are the four cameras
required for GLAO and the central camera planned for the upgrade to tomography later on in the arrangement for 4 diameter
field. (Inset top) For tomography, the field diameter will be reduced to 1.3, requiring that the cameras be translated radially
and the first mirror of each periscope rotated. (Inset bottom) Detail of a single camera assembly showing the periscope
pointing adjustment by means of a motor driving a worm gear.
Central WFS
Periscope pointing
adjustment motor
Focus adjustment
stage
Periscope
mirrors Field stop
reflected to the optics of the Acquisition, Guiding, and Wavefront sensing
(AGW) unit.
19
The near IR longward of 1.1 m is transmitted to the LUCIFER
focal plane array. The AGW unit contains the optical systems required for
active optics compensation when full AO is not in use, which rely on light from
a star within a 10 FOV. It also supports a relay to a fast framing camera for tip-
tilt sensing with natural starlight. The arrangement is illustrated in Figure 12.
3.3. Reconstructor computer for Phase 1 GLAO operation
The LGS AO system will process the GLAO reconstruction for each of the two
LBT apertures completely independently. The architecture for the hardware and
software will draw heavily on the reconstructor now in routine use at the MMT.
For each aperture, there will be four 1616 LGS WFS each with 204 illuminated
subapertures as well as a single NGS tip/tilt sensor. The GLAO reconstruction
must control 672 actuators at 500 Hz on the corresponding ASM. The following
describes the pipelined, parallel architecture which will be implemented using a
rack of six computers per aperture, a shared monitor and keyboard, a dedicated
10 gigabit ethernet network switch, and a UPS (Figure 13).
Each of the four LGS WFS cameras will have a dedicated rack-mount control
computer containing a single quad-core 3+ GHz CPU running Linux to handle the camera readout and the
corresponding slope calculations These four LGS WFS control computers (LWCC) have only modest memory and disk
space requirements and so can be purchased as commodity hardware. Each LWCC will require an EDT PCI-DV frame
grabber card to interface with the camera controller and a single 10 GB ethernet interface card.
These hardware requirements are scaled from current experience with the MMTs PC-based reconstructor computer used
for the NGS AO system. It performs 210 slope calculations from 105 illuminated subapertures in approximately 60 s
on a single 2.6 GHz CPU. Each LWCC on the LBT will perform 408 slope calculations in parallel on two CPUs. Thus,
although the LBT must process eight times as many slopes per aperture as the current MMT system, the four LWCCs,
each using 2 CPUs, will be able complete the slope calculations in less than 60 s. Since each WFS will have a
dedicated LWCC, there will be no additional latency for camera readout operations compared to the existing MMT
system that operates routinely at 560 Hz. The LWCCs will forward the slope measurements to a single GLAO
reconstructor computer over the 10 GB Ethernet interface.
RTR
LWCC
TTCC
LWCC
LWCC
LWCC
slopes
10 GB switch
RTR
LWCC
TTCC
LWCC
LWCC
LWCC
slopes
10 GB switch
10 GB switch
ASCC
WFS, RTR, & DM telemetry
DM
fiber
actuator cmds
DM telemetry
DM
fiber
actuator cmds
DM telemetry
Figure 13. Architecture of the real time hardware for the reconstructor computer. Each RLGS WFS is read by a LGS WFS
control computer (LWCC) which calculates local slopes and feeds them to the real-time reconstructor (RTR). Additional signals
are fed from a tip-tilt control computer (TTCC) reading the tilt sensor. Actuator commands are fed to the ASMs over optical
fiber, with telemetry from the capacitive sensors coming back to the RTR. Telemetry from each step of the processing chain is
passed to the AO supervisory control computer (ASCC) for archiving and near real-time computation of atmospheric parameters.
Light from
tertiary
Tip-tilt camera
on x, y, z stage
AGW unit
LUCIFER
Figure 12. Schematic view of the tip-tilt
camera arrangement within the LBTs
AGW unit.
There will be an additional rack-mount tip-tilt control computer (TTCC) to interface with the NGS tilt camera and
forward global tilt signals to the reconstructor computer over the 10 GB Ethernet interface. A dedicated 8-port 10 GB
switch will isolate the network traffic consisting of LGS and tip-tilt slopes.
A single GLAO reconstructor computer (RTR) containing two quad-core 3+ GHz CPUs running Linux will handle the
reconstruction as well as the communications required to control the DM. Details of the LWCC and RTR machines are
shown in Figure 14. The slopes from the four WFS will be averaged before multiplication by the reconstructor. In
addition, signals from accelerometers on the secondary mirror hub will be fed to the servo controller running on one of
the processors of the second CPU. The RTR must carry out a matrix-vector multiplication with a 410672 matrix and
will require two 10 GB ethernet interface cards and a fiber optic interface to the DM. One of the ethernet interfaces will
be dedicated to reading slopes from the four LWCCs and the TTCC. The second will be used to transmit WFS, RTR,
and DM telemetry information to the LBT supervisory AO control system. The RTR will require 4 GB of memory but
has only modest disk space requirements and so can also be purchased as commodity hardware.
Again, the current MMT reconstructor provides an anchor for scaling the requirements. It performs a reconstruction
from 210 slopes to 336 actuator commands in approximately 140 s on a single 2.6 GHz CPU. After averaging the
slopes from the four LGS WFS, the LBT RTR will perform the reconstruction from 410 LGS WFS and tip-tilt slopes to
672 actuator commands in parallel on 4 CPUs. The latency due to the reconstruction will therefore be no more than 140
s. The RTR will also implement the real-time servo controller and a filter to remove unsensed modes on the basis of
the ASMs capacitive sensor signals, which will be read back to the RTR on every correction cycle.
Control loop latency is minimized since the LWCC computers can process each WFS frame in parallel with the
reconstruction and DM communications on the RTR for the previous frame. Thus, with a fast, dedicated fiber optic
interface between the RTR and the ASM control electronics, a control loop speed of 500 Hz is feasible.
A single, shared AO supervisory control computer (ASCC) will read the telemetry streams from the two RTR computers
over the 10 GB ethernet interface and log the telemetry data to disk. Data streams that will be available for continuous
logging at the full speed of the AO loop will be the slope vectors, the actuator commands, the mean mirror actuator
positions over each loop cycle as read by the capacitive sensors, and the currents applied to the voice coil actuators.
Optionally, the raw WFS pixel data may also be stored locally on each LWCC for periods of up to 60 s.
The ASCC will also analyze the telemetry data to perform low order modal offloading to the telescope mount and ASM
hexapod over a second ethernet interface as well as providing a real-time seeing monitor, controlling the system gain as
seeing conditions require, and monitoring the health of the ASM. The telemetry traffic will be segregated on a dedicated
8-port 10 GB switch.
3.4. Control architecture
The LGS control system must support the GLAO and future LTAO modes while working within the existing LBT
Figure 14. Details of the LWCC and RTR computers showing how the CPUs in each will be dedicated to the tasks of slope
calculation, wavefront reconstruction and data handling. The use of quad core processors will provide some built-in additional
processing capacity that will be available if required.
LWCC RTR

WFS
input
EDT
pixels
CPU
CPU

CPU
CPU
pixels
slope
calculation
3 other
LWCCs &
TTCC
slopes

DM
commands
ASCC
telemetry
DM
telemetry
cmds
CPU
CPU
CPU
CPU
CPU
CPU
CPU
CPU
reconstruction
A
c
c
e
l
e
r
o
m
e
t
e
r

s
i
g
n
a
l
s

1 0 . 0 1 0 0
T e m p o r a l F r e q u e n c y ( Hz )
D / 1 0 0
0 . 1
control architecture. The LGS controller is a decentralized
system, that is, it will not rely on inputs from other LBT control
systems such as active optics or pointing controls. To achieve
the desired system performance, the LGS control architecture
must be designed to minimize conflicting interactions with other
existing LBT control components. Care must be taken in the
design process to separate cross-talk between control elements in
various frequency regimes. In addition to supporting the GLAO
and LTAO modes, the controller must also be able to stabilize
the outgoing laser beams from telescope vibrations and wind
induced motions.
The LGS system must work with several different LBT control
components to perform effectively. Each control component
operates over specific spatial and temporal frequency regions,
illustrated in Figure 15. The primary frequency regimes are
listed below.
The low frequency regime consists of distortions to the primary mirror due to gravitational sag and thermal
expansion. Active optics is used to correct aberrations up to approximately 0.1 Hz. There is no significant
interaction among control components in this frequency regime.
Adaptive optics is used to correct for high spatial and temporal frequencies. The deformable mirror is used in both
GLAO and LTAO to correct for atmosphere turbulence effects on the image.
The Pointing Control System (PCS) is responsible for correct positioning of the telescope line of sight. It has an
effective bandwidth of approximately 3 Hz. The PCS can induce disturbances in the telescope which can affect both
the ASM and the LGS tip/tilt mirror.
Cophasing of the two primary mirrors will be performed by the LBT Bracewell interferometer. Occasional offsets in
piston will be offloaded to the secondary mirrors.
LGS beam stabilization is accomplished with a fast steering mirror at the full speed of the AO system.
Winds and other external disturbances can cause significant movement of the LGS beams which is seen as spot
movement on the LGS wavefront sensor. Low frequency disturbances from winds on the primary and secondary
structures can be removed by the ASM. However, higher frequency structural resonances are too fast for the optical
feedback loop to remove adequately and result in beam jitter. To remove the structural oscillations, the LGS system will
use accelerometers to estimate the structure motion. The signal will then be fed forward to a dedicated fast steering
mirror that attenuates the beam motion. Figure 16 shows an overview of all the LBT control systems that will operate
when the RLGS system is running.
4. SUMMARY
The LBT LGSF will offer a major enhancement of the telescopes scientific capabilities. Using multiple RLGS, GLAO
will be implemented in Phase 1 of a 3-phase plan that foresees eventual diffraction-limited operation at the coherent
combined focus down to 600 nm wavelength. At that point, the resolution of the 23 m baseline will be as high as 5
milliarcsec. Experience with the ASM and multi-RLGS operation at the MMT is now being brought to bear on the
larger telescope.
Early science goals for GLAO will seek to exploit the multi-object spectroscopy available on the two LUCIFER
instruments. With the large aperture and high optical efficiency, and the thermal cleanliness offered by the ASMs and
the cold slit masks they will be uniquely powerful tools for the study of high redshift galaxies, in particular addressing
star formation history and galaxy assembly during the era of reionization of the Universe at z>6.
Figure 17 illustrates the top level LGSF system milestones and the overall project timeline. The Phase A design study is
now underway and will lead to a conceptual design review at the end of 2007. One year later, after a system design
review, construction is expected to begin with the system for the first component telescope, Unit 1, delivered in mid
Figure 15. Spatial and temporal domains for LBT
control components.
A
c
t
i
v
e

o
p
t
i
c
s

P h a se A
P h a se B P h a se C / D
T r a d e
C o m m i ssi o n i n g / O p s
D e si g n B u i l d , A c c e p t a n c e T e st i n g , D e l i v e r y
S t u d i e s
L GS F P r e l i m i n a r y
L GS F S y st e m
S / W& Ha r d w a r e
C o m p l e t e
S y st e m
0 R e c o n st r u c t o r
S y st e m # 2
D e l i v e r y &
D e si g n
D e si g n R e v i e w
L a b T e st i n g
I n t e g r a t i o n
A r i z o n a F u n d i n g
S t a r t
UA D e si g n
S y st e m # 1
Un i t # 1 Un i t # 2 S h a r e d R i sk
T a sk s C o m p l e t e
C o m p l e t e 0 d e l i v e r y S d e l i v e r y O p s S t a r t
2 0 0 7 2 0 0 8 2 0 0 9 2 0 1 0 2 0 1 1 2 0 1 2
5 A r i z o n a M i l e st o n e C o l l a b o r a t i o n M i l e st o n e
2010. In parallel with integration and test work on Unit 1, Unit 2 will be assembled for delivery 9 months later. Shared
risk science operations with Unit 1 are projected to begin in early 2011, and commissioned operations with both systems
feeding LUCIFER and LBTI by mid 2012.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We are grateful to the staff of the MMT Observatory for their enthusiastic support of the experimental work on the ASM
and the multi-RLGS AO system which enables this design. Thanks to R. Genzel, S. Rabien, S. Egner, and R. Davies for
additional work in support of the LGSF design.
LGS Controller
GLAO
LTAO
Compute
atmospheric
properties
V,r
o

Telemetry
pixels
pixels
Primary mirror
cell support
Pointing Control
System (PCS)
Drive
motors
LGS
WFS
Tilt
sensor
Laser
resonator
Offload static
tip-tilt
Open loop corrections
Laser beacons
Fast steering mirror
Adaptive secondary
mirror
Secondary hexapod
Disturbances
Structural
vibration
Winds
Atmospheric
turbulence
Linear Accelerations
Actuator
commands
Offload static
focus and coma
Accelerometer
feedforward
Phase
Phase
Accelerometers
Figure 16. Overview of the control systems and disturbances that will be in effect during closed-loop operation of the RLGS AO
system.
Figure 17. Top level milestone chart for the LGSF.
6. REFERENCES
1. C. J. Baranec, M. Lloyd-Hart, N. M. Milton, T. Stalcup, M. Snyder, V. Vaitheeswaran, D. McCarthy, & R. Angel,
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2. P. M. Hinz, et al., 2003, The Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer, in Interferometry for Optical Astronomy
II, ed. W. A. Traub, Proc. SPIE 4838, 108.
3. S. E. Egner, et al., 2004, LINC-NIRVANA: the single arm MCAO experiment, in Advances in Adaptive Optics,
eds. D. Bonaccini, B. L. Ellerbroek, and R. Ragazzoni, Proc. SPIE 5490, 924.
4. A. Riccardi, et al., 2002, The adaptive secondary mirror for the 6.5m conversion of the Multiple Mirror Telescope,
in Beyond Conventional Adaptive Optics, May 7-10, Venice 2001, eds. E. Vernet, R. Ragazzoni, S. Esposito, and N.
Hubin, Proc. ESO 58, 1.
5. A. Riccardi, et al., 2003, Adaptive secondary mirror for the Large Binocular Telescope, in Astronomical Adaptive
Optics Systems and Applications, eds. R. K. Tyson, and M. Lloyd-Hart, Proc. SPIE 5169, 159.
6. S. E. Egner, 2006, Multi-conjugate adaptive optics for LINC-NIRVANA: laboratory tests of a ground-layer
adaptive optics system and vertical turbulence measurements at Mt. Graham, Ph.D. dissertation, University of
Heidelberg.
7. S. E. Egner, et al., 2007, Generalized SCIDAR measurements at Mount Graham, Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 119, 669.
8. F. Rigaut, 2002, Ground-conjugate wide field adaptive optics for the ELTs, in Beyond Conventional Adaptive
Optics, May 7-10, Venice 2001, eds. E. Vernet, R. Ragazzoni, S. Esposito, and N. Hubin, Proc. ESO 58, 11.
9. M. Langlois, et al., 2004, Solar multiconjugate adaptive optics at Dunn Solar Telescope: preliminary results, in
Advances in Adaptive Optics, eds. D. Bonaccini, B. L. Ellerbroek, and R. Ragazzoni, Proc. SPIE 5490, 49.
10. T. R. Rimmele, 2004, Recent advances in solar adaptive optics, in Advancements in Adaptive Optics, eds. D.
Bonaccini, B. L. Ellerbroek, and R. Ragazzoni, Proc. SPIE 5490, 34.
11. T. Berkefeld, et al., 2006, Multi-conjugate solar adaptive optics with the VTT and GREGOR, in Advances in
Adaptive Optics II, eds. B. L. Ellerbroek and D. BonacciniCalia, Proc. SPIE 6272, 627205.
12. E. Marchetti, et al., 2003, MAD the ESO multi-conjugate adaptive optics demonstrator, in Adaptive Optical
System Technologies II, eds. P. L. Wizinowich and D. Bonaccini, Proc. SPIE 4839, 317.
13. I. De La Rue and B. L. Ellerbroek, 2002, Multiconjugate adaptive optics with hybrid laser beacon systems, in
Adaptive Optics Systems and Technology II, eds. R. K. Tyson, D. Bonaccini, and R. C. Roggemann, Proc. SPIE
4494, 290.
14. M. Lloyd-Hart and N. M. Milton, 2003, Fundamental limits on isoplanatic correction with multiconjugate adaptive
optics, JOSA A 20, 10, 1949.
15. D. Andersen et al., 2006, Performance modeling of a wide-field ground-layer adaptive optics system, Publ.
Astron. Soc. Pac. 118, 1574.
16. M. Lloyd-Hart et al., 2006, Experimental results of ground-layer and tomographic wavefront reconstruction from
multiple laser guide stars, Opt. Ex. 14, 17, 7541.
17. J. N. Bahcall and R. M. Soneira, 1981, Predicted star counts in selected fields and photometric bands, Astrophys.
J. Supp., 47, 357B.
18. A. Tokovinin et al., 2004, Design of ground-layer turbulence compensation with a Rayleigh beacon, in
Advancements in Adaptive Optics, eds. D. Bonaccini, B. L. Ellerbroek, and R. Ragazzoni, Proc. SPIE 5490, 870.
19. J. Storm et al., 2004, Acquisition, Guiding, and Wavefront Sensing Units for the Large Binocular Telescope, in
Ground-Based Telescopes, ed. J. M. Oschmann, Proc. SPIE 5489, 374.

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Multi-laser-guided adaptive optics for the Large Binocular Telescope

M. Lloyd-Hart, R. Angel, R. Green,

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