液晶波前校正器作为一种高单元密度的新型波前校正器件,通过相息图的衍射可以轻松实现十微米的波前位相校正量。因此,基于液晶波前校正器的自适应光学(LCAO)系统是21世纪天文观测领域非常有希望普及的系统。但是液晶波前校正器存在响应速度慢(〉10ms)、能量利用率低的双重问题,国际上一直处于探索研究中。本课题组不但解决了能量问题,而且在速度方面不断取得进步,所研制的LCAO系统与1.23m口径望远镜连接,清晰观测到土星及其环绕的光环带,分辨出4.8和5.5视星等的α-Com双星,成像分辨率达到1.8倍衍射极限分辨率;目前系统延迟时间只有2ms,可以说已达到工程应用水平,在装备8~10m级大口径天文学望远镜方面极具应用潜力。
Liquid crystal wavefront corrector can easily achieve 10μm phase stroke correction through kinoform diffraction pattern.Therefore,the liquid crystal adaptive optics(LCAO)system is very promising in the field of astronomical observations in the 21 st century.Disadvantages of the liquid crystal wavefront corrector are low response speed and low energy efficiency.Our group not only solves the energy problem,but also continuously improves the performance of speed.The LCAO system developed by our group is connected to the 1.23 mtelescope.As a result,Saturn and its planetary ring was clearly observed,and theα-Com binary was also resolved.The imaging resolution is up to 1.8times of the diffraction limit of the 1.23 mtelescope.Currently the system is only a 2ms delay,and it has entered the engineering stage.Therefore,the LCAO system has potential applications in 8to 10 mlarge diameter astronomy telescope.