Deformable mirror

A deformable is an example of an optic that evolves dynamically in response to external commands. Arroyo currently supports a simple model for the temporal evolution of a deformable mirror. In this model, each actuator moves from its current location towards its commanded location with constant linear velocity. If the actuator reaches the requested location before a new command is issued, it stops instantaneously. If it does not, the actuator instantaneously changes direction and begins to move towards the new commanded location with constant velocity. The actuator velocity is a parameter that may be specified by the library user. The mirror aperture is a template parameter, and may be chosen from one of several shapes. Currently the only actuator influence function supported by Arroyo is the pyramidal influence function. Hysteresis has been neglected as well.

Here is a set of movies showing a plane wave incident on a 7x7 actuator deformable mirror with a circular aperture. The plane wave had an electromagnetic wavelength of 1 micron. In these movies, the actuators were commanded to move cyclically between +/-.5 microns. New commands were issued every 10 milliseconds. Three different actuator velocities were chosen for this demonstration: 300, 100, and 33 microns/sec, and the resulting plane waves are displayed from left to right. The intermediate value is the one for which the mirror completes its move just as a new command is issued. The two other values correspond to actuator velocities 3 times faster and 3 times slower than this critical value.

Single actuator pattern

Piston pattern

Waffle pattern

Plus pattern

Cross pattern

This demonstration was generated using the program deformable_mirror_verification, which is included in the Arroyo distribution.