Atmospheric Turbulence Generator Using a Liquid Crystal Spatial Light Modulator

Many devices are now being used in adaptive optics systems for compensating atmospheric distortions. We have developed a testbed that simulates atmospheric aberrations using a Liquid Crystal Spatial Light Modulator and the speed in which they vary may be controlled. This system allows the simulation of seeing conditions ranging from very poor to very good and these aberrations to be compensated by a second device. This second device may be a deformable mirror in conjunction with an Adaptive Optics System. Using these two devices simultaneously provides a well-defined quantitative characterization of the system and residual wavefront error using Point Spread Function and interferometric techniques.