Improve the loop frequency of liquid crystal adaptive optics by concurrent control technique

A method to improve the loop frequency of liquid crystal adaptive optics systems (LC AOSs) was investigated. Based on open-loop control, a concurrent control scheme was proposed and the correction frequency of the LC AOS was increased from 85 Hz to 212 Hz. A simulated correction analysis illustrates that the distortion rejection ability of our LC AOS was improved with -1.1 dB by using the concurrent control technique. A 500 m horizontal turbulence correction experiment was done to validate our considerations. Firstly, 500 m horizontal turbulence was measured and its Greenwood frequency and atmospheric coherence length is 31.5 Hz and 4-5 cm, respectively. Then, 500 m horizontal turbulence was corrected in real time by using consecutive and concurrent control methods. The corrected results indicate that the resolution and contrast of the image was significantly improved by the concurrent control method. These results show that the concurrent control method can be used for LC AOSs to improve the correction frequency. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.