Wavefront compensation using liquid crystal spatial light modulators-scaling issues

Abstract

We have demonstrated compensation of a severely warped meter-class telescope and explored there performance. Real time holographic (RTH) compensation can permit the use of large imperfect mirrors of misphased mirror segments in aggressively lightweighted deployable optics. The technique can also compensate for dynamic aberrations introduced by vibrations and thermal loading. This can greatly reduce the weight and complexity of isolation and positioning systems for large deployable telescope systems. The optical efficiency of an optically addressed spatial light modulator (OASLM)-based holographic compensation system can approach 40%.