Kenneth Avicola

TL;DR: Adaptive optics (AO) is a technology that corrects in real time for the blurring effects of atmospheric turbulence, in principle allowing Earthbound telescopes to achieve their diffraction limit and to see as clearly as if they were in space as discussed by the authors.

TL;DR: A diffractive Alvarez lens is demonstrated that consists of two separate phase plates, each having complementary 16-level surface-relief profiles that contain cubic phase delays that produce a variable astigmatic focus.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe the design and early results of a feasibility experiment for sodium-layer laser-guide-star adaptive optics and present predictions of closed-loop adaptive-optics performance based on these experimental data.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe a series of experiments to characterize the sodium-layer guide star that was formed with the high-power laser developed for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation program.

TL;DR: In this article, the 3-meter Shane telescope at Lick Observatory was used for experiments with the laser guide star adaptive optics system, which demonstrated a factor of 4 performance improvement over previous results.