From the Director

2003 has been a very eventful and productive year for the Center. In November 2003 we start our 5th year as the Center for Adaptive Optics.

CfAO joined with UC Observatories to secure funding for the Laboratory for Adaptive Optics, funded by the Moore Foundation. The first phase of the LAO is planned to be operational by February 2004. Laboratory space was identified, and renovations are currently underway. These will be completed in three phases with partial occupation of the laboratory after phase one. Dr. Don Gavel has accepted the position of Laboratory Director. Don was formerly with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where he was an Adaptive Optics scientist and control engineer. Recruitment of additional research and technical staff has proceeded and the team will move from temporary borrowed space into the renovated facility. Research programs for the laboratory include evaluation of extreme adaptive optics, where experiments are already underway to assess the absolute accuracy of wavefront measurements. Simulation of the conditions that cause point spread function degradation in ExAO will be a major topic. Simulation of the performance of Multi-conjugate AO (MCAO) will also be a major effort of the Lab.

The annual summer school on Adaptive Optics was held this year August 10th to 15th, with 100 participants including 23 international attendees. This year the summer school focused on advanced AO and newer areas for its application including confocal microscopy.

The National Science Foundation funds the Science and Technology Centers (STCs) for 10 years, with a mid-term evaluation prior to year 5 that determines whether funding will be continued in years six to ten. The Center successfully underwent this review in April 2003 and was recommended for continued funding through to year ten. Congratulations to the excellent team of researchers who make up the CfAO!

The Center formulated ambitious plans to be implemented over its ten-year life. In vision science these are coming to fruition in the form of five AO enhanced instruments for vision correction and retinal imaging.

In astronomy the complexity, scale and cost of projected instrumentation are far greater than those for vision science. In fact for most cases they are beyond the resources available to the Center. Consequently the Center has assumed the role of a catalyst for advancing the understanding of AO technology and its deployment in both 10 meter and future 30 meter telescopes. This means partnering with other efforts including work of international observatories and AO research efforts funded by the NSF. These efforts include developing high power Na lasers for artificial guide stars, developing deformable mirrors, advanced mathematical methods, and other subjects. The applications of AO for ExAO and the direct detection of planets is a particularly exciting effort of the CfAO. The ExAO effort is aimed at developing and deploying an instrument on a 8-10m telescope that will directly image Jovian sized planets around other stars. A variety of efforts are directed at developing AO for use on the next generation of giant ground based telescopes, 30-m diameter telescopes. Center members are playing strategic roles in these fundamental developments.

--Professor Jerry Nelson

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Center for Adaptive Optics