Time delay compensation method for tip-tilt control in adaptive optics system.

The time delay engendered by wavefront sampling and data processing inevitability exists in almost all the wavefront sensor (WFS) based adaptive optics (AO) systems. Also, when WFS is used for tip-tilt aberration detection, the time delay significantly reduces the tip-tilt correction performance of the AO system. In this paper, we focus on researching time delay in a tip-tilt (TT) control system and introduce a predicted signal compensation method (PSCM) to compensate the time delay by modifying the WFS detected signals. Based on a precise model of a TT dynamic control system, the detection delay of TT corrections included in a WFS detected signal can be compensated. Experiments are conducted in the lab: the pure integrator (I), proportional and integral (PI) wavefront TT controllers, and these controllers with PSCM are compared to test the efficiency of the PSCM for TT corrections. For the PI controller, the rejection bandwidth increases from 52 to 62 Hz by using PCSM; meanwhile, the open-loop phase margin increases from 45 to 60 deg. In addition, astronomical observation results are also given based on the PI wavefront TT controller. The PSCM improves the Strehl ratio by a factor of 1.3. The new method is proven to improve the AO system closed-loop performance not only for increasing the closed-loop rejection bandwidth but also in favor of the error attenuation at low frequency. Furthermore, the method does not introduce more noise to the system.