Experimental studies of a deformable-mirror adaptive optical system*

The paper discusses some of the measured performance characteristics of two uncooled deformable designs along with some factors that must be considered in designing and utilizing such mirrors in multidither coherent optical adaptive technique (COAT) systems. One of the experimental mirrors is used as a combined phase dither-corrector element in an 18-channel transmitted-beam multidither COAT system. Some of the observed characteristics of this COAT system are presented, with special emphasis on observed differences between deformable-mirror and segmented-mirror system performance. Although the discussion concerns a COAT system designed to optimize the focal-plane irradiance of a transmitted laser beam, many of the mirror design concepts apply equally well to mirrors for white-light image compensation systems.