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High-brightness and short-pulse-width ( approximately 200 ps) x-ray lasers offer biologists the possibility of high-resolution three-dimensional imaging of specimens in an aqueous environment without the blurring effects associated with natural motions. As a first step toward developing the capabilities of this type of x-ray microscopy we have used a tantalum x-ray laser (lambda = 4.483 nm) together with an x-ray zone plate lens to image a test pattern. The observed image shows a detector-limited resolution of approximately 75 nm and paves the way to three dimensional biological imaging with high spatial resolution (20-30 nm).

The Solid-State, Heat-Capacity Laser (SSHCL), under development at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a large aperture (100 cm{sup 2}), confocal, unstable resonator requiring near-diffraction-limited beam quality. There are two primary sources of the aberrations in the system: residual, static aberrations from the fabrication of the optical components and predictable, time-dependent, thermally-induced index gradients within the gain medium. A deformable mirror placed within the cavity is used to correct the aberrations that are sensed externally with a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor. Although it is more challenging than external correction, intracavity correction enables control of the mode growth within the resonator, resulting in the ability to correct a more aberrated system longer. The overall system design, measurement techniques and correction algorithms are discussed. Experimental results from initial correction of the static aberrations and dynamic correction of the time-dependent aberrations are presented.

The use of a Hartmann wave-front sensor to accurately measure the line-integrated electron density gradients formed in laser-produced and z-pinch plasma experiments is examined. This wave-front sensor may be used with a soft-x-ray laser as well as with incoherent line emission at multikilovolt x-ray energies. This diagnostic is significantly easier to use than interferometery and moire deflectometry, both of which have been demonstrated with soft-x-ray lasers. This scheme is experimentally demonstrated in the visible region by use of a Shack-Hartmann wave-front sensor and a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator to simulate a phase profile that could occur when an x-ray probe passes through a plasma. The merits of using a Hartmann sensor include a wide dynamic range, broadband or low-coherence-length light capability, high x-ray efficiency, two-dimensional gradient determination, multiplexing capability, and experimental simplicity. Hartmann sensors could also be utilized for wavelength testing of extreme-ultraviolet lithography components and x-ray phase imaging of biological specimens.

We introduce a wave-optics based simulation code written to model a complete free space laser communications link, including a detailed model of an adaptive optics compensation system. We present the results obtained by this model, where the phase of a communications laser beam is corrected, after it propagates through a turbulent atmosphere. The phase of the received laser beam is measured using a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor, and the correction method utilizes a MEMS mirror. Strehl improvement and amount of power coupled to the receiving fiber results for both 1 km horizontal and 28 km slant paths will be presented.

Horizontal path laser communications are beginning to provide attractive alternatives for high-speed optical communications. In particular, companies are beginning to sell fiberless alternatives for intranet and sporting event video. These applications are primarily aimed at short distance applications (on the order of 1 km pathlength). There exists a potential need to extend this pathlength to distances much greater than a 1km. For cases of long distance optical propagation, atmospheric turbulence will ultimately limit the maximum achievable data rate. In this paper, we propose a method of improved signal quality through the use of adaptive optics. In particular, we show work in progress toward a high-speed, small footprint Adaptive Optics system for horizontal path laser communications. Such a system relies heavily on recent progress in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) deformable mirrors as well as improved communication and computational components. In this paper we detail two Adaptive Optics approaches for improved through-put, the first is the compensated receiver (the traditional Adaptive Optics approach), the second is the compensated transmitter/receiver. The second approach allows for correction of the optical wavefront before transmission from the transmitter and prior to detection at the receiver.

The development of high brightness and short pulse width (200 picoseconds) x-ray lasers now offers biologists the possibility of high-resolution imaging of specimens in an aqueous environment without the blurring effects associated with natural motions and chemical erosion. As a step toward developing the capabilities of this type of x-ray microscopy, a tantalum x-ray laser at 44.83 angstrom wavelength was used together with an x-ray zone plate lens to image both unlabeled and selectively gold-labeled dried rat sperm nuclei. The observed images show approximately 500 angstrom features, illustrate the importance of x-ray microscopy in determining chemical composition, and provide information about the uniformity of sperm chromatin organization and the extent of sperm chromatin hydration.

Results of experiments with the laser guide star adaptive optics system on the 3-meter Shane telescope at Lick Observatory have demonstrated a factor of 4 performance improvement over previous results. Stellar images recorded at a wavelength of 2 micrometers were corrected to over 40 percent of the theoretical diffraction-limited peak intensity. For the previous two years, this sodium-layer laser guide star system has corrected stellar images at this wavelength to approximately 10 percent of the theoretical peak intensity limit. After a campaign to improve the beam quality of the laser system, and to improve calibration accuracy and stability of the adaptive optics system using new techniques for phase retrieval and phase-shifting diffraction interferometry, the system performance has been substantially increased. The next step will be to use the Lick system for astronomical science observations, and to demonstrate this level of performance with the new system being installed on the 10-meter Keck II telescope.

The laser guide star adaptive optics system currently being developed for the Keck 2 telescope consists of several major subsystems: the optical bench, wavefront control, user interface and supervisory control, and the laser system. The paper describes the design and implementation of the wavefront control subsystem that controls a 349 actuator deformable mirror for high order correction and tip-tilt mirrors for stabilizing the image and laser positions.

Atmospheric turbulence severely limits the resolution of ground-based telescopes. Adaptive optics can correct for the aberrations caused by the atmosphere, but requires a bright wavefront reference source in close angular proximity to the object being imaged. Since natural reference stars of the necessary brightness are relatively rare, methods of generating artificial reference beacons have been under active investigation for more than a decade. In this paper, we report the first significant image improvement achieved using a sodium-layer laser guide star as a wavefront reference for a high-order adaptive optics system. An artificial beacon was created by resonant scattering from atomic sodium in the mesosphere, at an altitude of 95 km. Using this laser guide star, an adaptive optics system on the 3 m Shane Telescope at Lick Observatory produced a factor of 2.4 increase in peak intensity and a factor of 2 decrease in full width at half maximum of a stellar image, compared with image motion compensation alone. The Strehl ratio when using the laser guide star as the reference was 65% of that obtained with a natural guide star, and the image full widths at half maximum were identical, 0.3 arc sec, using either the laser or the natural guide star. This sodium-layer laser guide star technique holds great promise for the world's largest telescopes.

A sodium-layer laser guide star adaptive optics system has been developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) for use on the 3-meter Shane telescope at Lick Observatory. The system is based on a 127-actuator continuous-surface deformable mirror, a Hartmann wavefront sensor equipped with a fast-framing low-noise CCD camera, and a pulsed solid-state-pumped dye laser tuned to the atomic sodium resonance line at 589 nm. The adaptive optics system has been tested on the Shane telescope using natural reference stars yielding up to a factor of 12 increase in image peak intensity and a factor of 6.5 reduction in image full width at half maximum (FWHM). The results are consistent with theoretical expectations. The laser guide star system has been installed and operated on the Shane telescope yielding a beam with 22 W average power at 589 nm. Based on experimental data, this laser should generate an 8th magnitude guide star at this site, and the integrated laser guide star adaptive optics system should produce images with Strehl ratios of 0.4 at 2.2 {mu}m in median seeing and 0.7 at 2.2 {mu}m in good seeing.

The architecture and major system components of the sodium-layer laser guide star system at LLNL will be described, and experimental results reported. The subsystems include the laser system, the beam delivery system including a pulse stretcher and beam pointing control, the beam director, and the telescope with its adaptive-optics package.

Recent results from the Laser Guide Star Project at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are presented. Photometry of the return signal has shown that the photon return is approximately 10 photons/cm2/ms at the pupil of the receiving telescope in agreement with a detailed model of the sodium interaction. Wavefronts of the laser guide star have also been measured with a Shack-Hartmann technique and power spectra have been shown to agree with those of nearby natural stars. Plans for closed loop demonstrations using the laser guide star at LLNL and nearby Lick Observatory are discussed.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

The x-ray holography program at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has two principal goals: the development of x-ray diffraction techniques for DNA sequence analysis and the development of x-ray laser holography for structural analysis of intact biological cells and organelles. DNA sequence analysis will be accomplished via x-ray diffraction techniques to determine the ensemble average of the sequence of labels along the individual elements of crystalline DNA. X-ray laser holographic imaging will be accomplished via 3-D x-ray holography to elucidate the structure of few hundred angstrom objects such as 300 A chromatin fibers, nuclear pores and nucleic acid replication complexes in living cells. Existing laboratory x-ray lasers will be used to produce flash x-ray holograms of the biological structures.

We describe the design and the early results of a feasibility experiment for sodium-layer laser-guide-star adaptive optics. Copper-vapor-laser-pumped dye lasers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation program are used to create the guide star. The laser beam is projected upward from a beam director that is located ~5 m from a 0.5-m telescope and forms an irradiance spot ~2 m in diameter at the atmospheric-sodium layer (at an altitude of 95 km). The laser guide star is approximately fifth magnitude and is visible to the naked eye at the top of the Rayleigh-scattered laser beam. To date, we have made photometric measurements and open-loop wave-front-sensor measurements of the laser guide star. We give an overview of the experiment’s design and the laser systems, describe the experimental setup, show preliminary photometric and open-loop wave-front-sensor data on the guide star, and present predictions of closed-loop adaptive-optics performance based on these experimental data. The long-term goal of this effort is to develop laser guide stars and adaptive optics for use with large astronomical telescopes.

We 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. An emission spot size of 3.0 m was measured, with an implied laser irradiance spot diameter of 2.0 m. The rms spot motion at the higher laser powers, with active beam-pointing control, was less than 0.5 arcsec and had little effect on the observed spot size under these conditions. We measured the resonant backscatter from the sodium layer as a function of laser power to obtain a saturation curve. With a transmitted power of 1100 W and an atmospheric transmission of 0.6, the irradiance from the guide star at the ground was 10 (photons/cm2)/ms, corresponding to a visual magnitude of 5.1. The implications for the performance of wave-front sensors with a laser guide star of this magnitude and resulting closed-loop adaptive-optics performance are discussed.