Year 3. This Annual Report Is Structured to Reflect These Changes

Home , Claire Ellen Max, Sandra Faber, Tom Cornsweet

AN NSF-FUNDED CENTER

Center for Adaptive Optics

Director: Jerry Nelson

Managing Director: Chris Le Maistre Annual Report Associate Directors: August 1, 2002 Andrea Ghez Claire Max Scot Olivier Andreas Quirrenbach Program Year 3 Austin Roorda David Williams Reporting from November 1 2001 to October 31 2002

Phone: 831-459-5592 Fax: 831-459-5717 email: [email protected]

Institutions: University of California Santa Cruz University of California Berkeley California Institute of Technology University of Chicago University of Houston Indiana University University of California Irvine University of California Los Angeles University of Rochester University of California San Diego Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Adaptive Optics have enabled the first images showing color receptors in the human eye. In these images, two people with “normal” color vision are shown to have dramatically different distributions of the three color sensors

1 Table of Contents 1. General Information ...... 6 1.1. Institutional Data ...... 6 1.2 Executive Summary ...... 9 1.2.1 CfAO Mission, Goals and Strategies ...... 9 1.2.2 Themes ...... 9 1.2.3 Research Management ...... 10 1.2.4 Partnerships ...... 11 1.2.5 Highlights for Year 3...... 11 1.2.6 Closing remarks...... 13 2. Research ...... 14 Center’s Overall Research Objectives...... 14 Performance and Management Indicators...... 14 Problems...... 14 2.1 Theme 1: Education and Human Resources: ...... 15 2.2 Theme 2: Adaptive Optics for Extremely Large Telescopes ...... 15 2.2.1 Goals of Theme 2 and Role of the CfAO...... 15 2.2.2 Activities During Year 3: Outcomes, Accomplishments, and Impacts...... 16 2.2.2.1 Design of Multi-Conjugate AO Systems for 30-m Telescopes...... 16 2.2.2.1.1 What is Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics? ...... 16 2.2.2.1.2 Design of MCAO Systems...... 18 2.2.2.1.3 MCAO control systems and wavefront reconstruction ...... 19 2.2.2.1.4 New modeling tools...... 19 2.2.2.1.5 Dealing with laser guide star spot elongation for ELT’s...... 20 2.2.2.1.6 Key hardware components ...... 22 2.2.2.2 Developing and testing lasers for use as sodium-layer LGS...... 22 2.2.2.2.1 Pulsed solid-state sum-frequency laser for sodium-layer LGS...... 23 2.2.2.2.2 New fiber laser for sodium-layer LGS...... 24 2.2.2.3 Developing techniques for doing quantitative astronomy with LGS...... 26 2.2.2.3.1 Quantitative characterization of anisoplanatism and its effects on the PSF...27 2.2.2.3.2 Real-time PSF reconstruction for Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors...... 28 2.2.2.3.3 Deconvolution of astronomical images...... 28 2.2.2.3.4 Measurements of atmospheric turbulence parameters ...... 30 2.2.2.3.5 Measurements of anisoplanatism using short exposures...... 30 2.2.2.4 Astronomical science related to laser guide star AO on 30-m telescopes...... 31 2.2.2.4.1 Adaptive optics studies of the Galactic Center ...... 32 2.2.2.4.2 Adaptive optics studies of faint high-redshift galaxies ...... 33 2.2.2.4.3 Nearby Active Galactic Nuclei...... 35 2.2.2.4.4 AO Imaging of Solar System Bodies ...... 36 2.2.3 Plans for the next reporting period...... 37 2.3 Theme 3: Extreme Adaptive Optics (ExAO): Enabling Ultra-High Contrast Astronomical Observations...... 39 2.3.1 Goals of Theme 3 and Role of CfAO...... 39 2.3.2 System design and analysis...... 41 2.3.3 Instrumentation design and analysis...... 42

2 2.3.4 High-contrast astronomical observations...... 43 2.3.5 Current AO system performance optimization...... 44 2.3.6 High-order MEMS development...... 45 2.3.7 High-resolution wavefront control algorithm development...... 46 2.4 Theme 4 – Compact Vision Science Instrumentation for Clinical and Scientific Use ...... 48 2.4.1 Goals of Theme 4 and Role of CfAO...... 48 2.4.2 Angular Tuning of Single Cones...... 48 2.4.3 The Role of Higher Order Aberrations in Accommodation...... 48 2.4.4 The Topography of the Cone Mosaic in Humans with Known Photopigment Gene Arrays...... 49 2.4.5 Image Processing for High Resolution Retinal Imaging...... 49 2.4.6 The Effectiveness of Different Aberrations on Subjective Blur ...... 50 2.4.7 Clinical Applications of High Resolution Retinal Imaging with Adaptive Optics .....50 2.4.8 Progress on Vision Science Instrumentation...... 51 2.4.9 First Results with University of Houston’s Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope...... 52 2.4.10 Indiana University’s Progress on the Coherence-Gated Retinal Camera...... 53 2.4.11 LLNL Adaptive Optics Phoropter...... 53 2.4.12 Optimization of AO systems for Vision Science...... 54 2.4.13 Progress on Low Cost Wave Front Correctors for Vision Science...... 54 2.4.14 Summary of Year 4 Research...... 55 3. Education...... 57 3.1 Educational Objectives...... 57 3.2 Performance and Management Indicators...... 57 3.3 Problems Encountered Reaching Education Goals...... 58 3.4 The Center's Internal Educational Activities...... 59 3.4.1 Annual Professional Development Conference ...... 59 3.4.2 Mini-Grant Project ...... 61 3.4.3 Third Annual Summer School on Adaptive Optics...... 62 3.5 The Center's External Educational Activities...... 62 3.5.1 Stars, Sight, and Science Summer Course ...... 62 3.5.2 Four Year and Community College Internships...... 64 3.5.3 ALU LIKE Traineeships ...... 66 3.6 Summary of Professional Development Activities for Center Students ...... 66 3.7 Integrating Research and Education...... 67 3.8 Plans for Year Four ...... 67 3.8.1 Overview ...... 67 3.8.2 Annual Professional Development Workshop ...... 67 3.8.3 Mini-Grant Project ...... 68 3.8.4 Summer School ...... 68 3.8.5 Stars, Sight and Science ...... 68 3.8.6 Science, Engineering and Technology Training (SETT) ...... 68 3.8.7 Internships and Educational Programs for Hawaiians ...... 68 3.8.8 Clustered Mentoring...... 69 3.8.9 New project: Research and practice in teaching and learning science for researcher scientists...... 69

3 4. Knowledge Transfer...... 70 4.1 Knowledge Transfer Objectives...... 70 4.2 Problems...... 70 4.3 Description of Knowledge Transfer Activities ...... 71 4.4 Other Knowledge Transfer Activities ...... 74 4.5 Knowledge Transfer Activities - Future Plans...... 74 5. Partnerships ...... 76 5.1 Partnership Objectives...... 76 5.2 Problems...... 76 5.3 Description of Partnership Activities ...... 77 5.4 Other Partnership Activities ...... 81 5.5 Partnership Activities - Future Plans...... 81 6. Diversity ...... 83 6.1 Diversity Objectives...... 83 6.2 Performance and management indicators...... 83 6.3 Problems...... 83 6.4 Center Contributions to developing US Human Resources ...... 84 6.5 Plans ...... 85 6.6 Diversity Impacts ...... 86 7. Management ...... 88 7.1 Center Organization ...... 88 7.2 Performance and Management Indicators...... 90 7.3 Problems...... 91 7.4 Management and Communication Systems ...... 91 7.5 Center’s Internal and External Advisory Committees ...... 91 7.6 The Center’s Strategic Plan...... 92 8. Center-wide Output and Issues...... 94 8.1 Center Publications...... 94 8.2 Conference Presentations ...... 99 8.3 Dissemination Activities - Year3 CfAO-Sponsored Workshops...... 102 8.4 Awards...... 102 8.5 Graduating M.S. and Ph.D. students ...... 103 8.6 Patents and Licensing etc...... 103 8.7 Other Knowledge Transfer Activities ...... 104 8.8 Center Demographics...... 105 8.9 Summary Table ...... 110 8.10 Media Publicity received by the Center ...... 111 8.10.1 Dr. Rita Colwell (Director of NSF) visited to UCSC...... 111 8.10.2 Laser Guide Star “First Light” at Keck Observatory ...... 113 8.10.3 Keck AO images and movie of Io...... 114 8.10.4 General Articles and Coverage of AO: ...... 115 8.10.5 CfAO World Wide Web site: ...... 116 9. Indirect/Other Impacts...... 117 10. Budgets...... 118 Appendix A: Biographical information for new faculty member ...... 119 Appendix B: Organization Chart, Center for Adaptive Optics (Year 4)...... 120

4 Appendix C: Summary Minutes of Advisory Board Meetings...... 121 Report of the Program Advisory Committee ...... 121 Report of the External Advisory Board...... 124 Appendix D: Additional Media Materials...... 134

5 1. General Information 1.1. Institutional Data

Date submitted August 1 2002

Reporting period November 1 2001 to Oct 31 2002

Name of the Center Center for Adaptive Optics

Name of the Center Director Professor Jerry Nelson

Lead University University of California, Santa Cruz

Contact information

Address 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 Phone Number (831) 459 5592 Fax Number (831) 459 5717 Email Address of Center [email protected] Director Center URL http://cfao.ucolick.org/

Names of participating institutions, role, and (for each institution) name of contact person and other contact information Institution 1 Name University of Rochester Address 510 Hylan, Rochester, NY, 14627-0140 Phone Number (716) 275 6672 Fax Number (716) 271 3043 Contact Professor David Williams Email Address of Contact [email protected] Role of Institution at Center Lead institution in Vision Science Research

Institution 2 Name University of Houston Address Houston, TX 77204-2163 Phone Number (713) 743 1952 Fax Number (713) 743 0965 Contact Professor Austin Roorda Email Address of Contact [email protected] Role of Institution at Center Support Center – Vision Science.

6 Institution 3 Name Indiana University Address School of Optometry, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47402-1847 Phone Number (812) 855 7613 Fax Number (812) 855 7045 Contact Professor Donald Miller Email Address of Contact [email protected] Role of Institution at Center Support Center – Vision Science.

Institution 4 Name University of Chicago Address 5640 S. Ellis Ave., Chicago, IL 60637 Phone Number (773) 702 8208 Fax Number (773) 702 8212 Contact Professor Edward Kibblewhite Email Address of Contact [email protected] Role of Institution at Center Develop Sodium Laser

Institution 5 Name California Institute of Technology Address 1201 East California Blvd. Pasedena, CA 91123 Phone Number (626) 395 6798 Fax Number (626) 585 1917 Contact Dr. Richard Dekany Email Address of Contact [email protected] Role of Institution at Center Multi-conjugate Adaptive Optics; Astronomy

Institution 6 Name University of California, Berkeley Address 36 Sproul Hall, Mail Code 5940, Berkley, CA 94720 Phone Number (510) 642 8238 Fax Number (510) 642 3411 Contact Professor James Graham Email Address of Contact [email protected] Role of Institution at Center Coronographs, Astronomical Science, MEMS Technology

Institution 7 Name University of California, Los Angeles Address 10945 Le Conte, Suite 1401, Los Angeles CA. 90095- 1406 Phone Number (310) 206 0420 Fax Number (310) 206 2096 Contact Professor Andrea Ghez Email Address of Contact [email protected] Role of Institution at Center Astronomical Science, Coronographs

7 Institution 8 Name University of California at Irvine Address 160 Administration Bld., Irvine, CA 92697-1875 Phone Number (949) 824 6619 Fax Number (949) 824 2174 Contact Professor Gary Chanan Email Address of Contact [email protected] Role of Institution at Center Adaptive Optics Studies

Institution 9 Name University of California, San Diego Address 9500 Gilman Drive, Dept. 0934, La Jolla, CA 92093- 0934 Phone Number (858) 534 7930 Fax Number (858) 534 7051 Contact Professor Andreas Quirrenbach Email Address of Contact [email protected] Role of Institution at Center Astronomical Science, Informing the public re. Adaptive Optics

Institution 10 Name Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Address P.O. Box 808, L435, Livermore, CA 94551 Phone Number (925) 422 5442 Fax Number (925) 422 3519 Contact Dr. Claire Max Email Address of Contact [email protected] Role of Institution at Center Astronomical Science, MEMS Technology.

Institution 11 Name Carthage College Address 2001 Alford Drive, Kenosha, WI 53140 Phone Number (262) 551 5864 Fax Number Contact Professor Douglas N. Arion Email Address of Contact [email protected] Role of Institution at Center Development of Instructional Materials for Teaching

8 1.2 Executive Summary In March 2001, the membership of the Center for Adaptive Optics (CfAO) developed and endorsed a statement of mission, goals and strategies. It also reorganized its research into themes for Year 3. This Annual report is structured to reflect these changes. 1.2.1 CfAO Mission, Goals and Strategies Mission: To advance and disseminate the technology of adaptive optics in service to science, health care, industry, and education. Goal: To lead the revolution in AO, by developing and demonstrating the technology, creating major improvements in AO systems, and catalyzing advances nationwide within the next decade. Strategies: CfAO will pursue its purpose and achieve its goal by: 1. Demonstrating the power of AO by doing forefront science. 2. Increasing the accessibility of AO to the scientific community. 3. Developing and deploying highly capable AO systems and laser beacons. 4. Coordinating and combining research efforts to take advantage of the synergies afforded by the Center mode of operations. 5. Integrating education with our research. 6. Building a Center community that is supportive of diversity through vigorous recruiting, retention, and training activities. 7. Encouraging the interaction of vision scientists and astronomers to promote the emergence of new science and technology. 8. Leveraging our efforts through industry partnerships and cross-disciplinary collaborations. 1.2.2 Themes The reorganization of the Center’s Year 3 education and research efforts into themes has encouraged Center investigators to develop collaborative programs rather than work in the traditional “individual research investigator” mode. A description of the themes follows.

Theme 1: Education This is a crucial CfAO activity, and its integration with our research is an important challenge. Specific goals and initiatives of our Education program include: 1. increasing the versatility of Center students and post-doctoral researchers. 2. establishing a center-based model for retention and advancement of college-level students from under-represented groups: 3. increasing the number of high school students from under-represented groups who are prepared to pursue a science/technology/mathematics degree in college:

9 most technical areas of adaptive optics. Making a major contribution towards achieving this national priority is a natural and suitable objective for the CfAO. The benefits of multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) include widening the diffraction-limited field of view and achieving near-complete sky coverage with laser beacons (by overcoming the cone effect). While the ultimate implementation of a MCAO system for a 30-m telescope will require both time and resources far beyond the scope of the CfAO, we believe that we can develop the crucial concepts and components needed for its successful implementation.

Theme 3: Extreme Adaptive Optics (ExAO), Enabling Ultra-High-Contrast Astronomical Observations The ExAO theme is scientifically driven by the need to achieve high-contrast imaging and spectroscopic capabilities to enhance the detection and characterization of extra-solar planetary systems and their precursor disk material. By improving image quality, ExAO systems will enable the detection of faint objects close to bright sources that would otherwise overwhelm them. This is accomplished both by increasing the peak intensity of point-source images and by removing light scattered by the atmosphere and the telescope optics into the “seeing disk”. This combination of effects can dramatically improve the achievable contrast ratio for astronomical observations.

The primary goal of this theme is to catalyze the development of the next generation of high- order adaptive optics systems in order to achieve unprecedented capabilities for high-contrast astronomy. This will require activities in ExAO system design along with the design and building of instruments, in particular a coronagraph, optimized for high-contrast observations.

Theme 4: Compact Vision Science Instrumentation for Clinical and Scientific Use Ophthalmic AO systems have been demonstrated in the laboratory for scientific research. The next horizon is to engineer compact, robust AO systems for use in clinics as well as scientific laboratories. The long-term goal is to commercialize a compact AO system for ophthalmic applications. Along the way, these new and existing AO systems will be used to advance our understanding of human vision, and to explore medical applications of adaptive optics. This is a crucial way to provide feedback for the utility of the advanced AO designs. 1.2.3 Research Management Conferences - The Center organizes two annual research Fall and Spring workshops requiring attendance by all researchers. In addition smaller workshops and symposia on specialized topics, are held during the year as the needs arise.

The Fall workshop provides researchers the opportunity to share their research results with their colleagues while in Spring they are encouraged to plan future research and to develop collaborative projects. Shortly after the Spring meeting, researchers forward their proposals for continuing or new research. Each proposal is reviewed by external and internal reviewers and then discussed in committee. Those “on the edge” are directed to the Program Advisory Committee (PAC) for discussion and advice.

Administrative management is provided by the Center’s Executive Committee (EC) made up of Center representatives including Theme leaders. The EC meets biweekly utilizing video and tele-

10 conferencing links. The Center’s Director and EC are assisted by two external committees – the External Advisory Board (EAB) and the PAC. The EAB meets annually and advises on the broad direction of the Center. It reports to a University oversight committee chaired by the Vice- Provost for Research at UCSC. The PAC also meets annually and assists in ensuring the scientific and technical vitality of the Center’s research program. 1.2.4 Partnerships The objective of CfAO’s partnership activities is to enhance the Center’s ability to fulfill both its research and education goals. The Center is pursuing this objective through: 1. leveraging its efforts through industry partnerships and cross-disciplinary collaborations. 2. stimulating further investment by government and industry sources in AO research and development 3. catalyzing the commercialization of AO technologies leading to technological advancements relevant to CfAO research objectives and enabling broader use of adaptive optics. As of July 2002, the CfAO has active partnership activities with 13 optics and micro-electronics companies, 5 national laboratories, 5 non-CfAO universities (including one HBCU), 7 astronomical observatories, and 2 international partner institutions. In addition, 9 aerospace corporations are participants in a project on secure free-space communication links. This project is a direct outcome of CfAO infrastructure investments. 1.2.5 Highlights for Year 3 1. The CfAO runs an annual professional development workshop in Hawaii. Students and post docs receive training in inquiry based teaching and learning methods. Additionally this year in Maui, a broad sector of the local community including the US Airforce, the Maui Community College and local high school science teachers participated in designated sections of the program. 2. The Center is working closely with Maui Community College in its transition from a Community College to a four-year college. Currently, there are no native Hawaiian technology specialists working in the Observatories in Hawaii. The CfAO’s assistance in developing technology-based courses will help to overcome this deficiency. 3. The Center participates in the annual COSMOS summer program, providing the Stars, Sight and Science option. Students taking this option are primarily minority students (Hispanic). Each year fifteen new students complete the course and join a pool of former course graduates for whom Center associates provide continued mentoring for the remainder of their high school careers. 4. Collaboration - While the themes foster collaboration between researchers, research that cuts across themes and involves both astronomers and vision scientists is particularly encouraged. Two specific examples in year 3 of this are: 1. the application of deconvolution techniques to retinal image enhancement and 2. in the case of MEMS technology, Center astronomers are collaborating with the vision science team at the University of Rochester. New MEMS devices developed at or through Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) are shipped to Rochester and tested in their AO test bed. An AO test bed has also been developed at LLNL and delivered to vision scientists at UC Davis. 5. We developed new computed-tomography approaches for adaptive optics control using data from multiple guide stars. These have promise particularly for laser guide stars, where the

11 cone-of-rays geometry is similar to the “fan-beam” configuration for which a number of CT algorithms have previously been developed for medical applications. 6. The optical design of ELT AO systems progressed in a partnership between the CfAO and the CELT 30-m telescope project. Using suitably sized DM’s for wide field performance, we completed a preliminary AO optical relay design. An AO relay design for an ELT had not, to our knowledge, been accomplished before. In addition, we identified issues and potential solutions related to the large defocus of laser guide star light at the telescope focus 7. We progressed toward developing optimal control-system architectures, and improved methods for real-time wavefront reconstruction. With respect to real-time control, a modification of the Fast Fourier Transform algorithm to account for arbitrary aperture shape has enabled us to increase the computational speed of Shack-Hartmann wavefront reconstruction from O(n2) to O(n logn) computations, where n is the (large) number of actuators. This advance makes it computationally feasible to do the real-time control of a 6,000-actuator deformable mirror using present off-the-shelf computer technology. 8. Simulating AO systems on ELT's is a significant computational challenge. Current AO simulations were developed to run on single-processor workstations, but the amount of time required to complete an ELT simulation is prohibitively large. An AO simulation code that had been used for the Keck telescope was ported to a parallel-processing computer. Initial tests show that the speedup on a 64-processor machine is promising and can shorten the run time of a CELT or GSMT-sized problem significantly, making quick-turnaround parameter studies feasible. We expect to have this code running sample problems for 30-m telescopes by the end of year 3. 9. Learning to compensate for a phenomenon called laser spot elongation is critical to using laser beacons on Extremely Large Telescopes. This year we investigated a method of compensating for this type of spot elongation by making additional laser spots and statistically combining information from the various spots. We showed that three laser launch telescopes is the practical minimum, and that this method requires about twice as many photons and three times as many images as are needed for an ideal round spot. 10. The current generation of Na dye lasers at the Lick, Keck, and ESO’s VLT Observatories requires too much maintenance and electricity for 5 to 10 units per telescope to be practical. The CfAO is pursuing two approaches to developing new lasers for sodium-layer guide stars. The first is improving a sum frequency laser, and in Year 3 LiteCycles delivered the first of three new gain modules to the University of Chicago, where testing is under way. The other approach the Center is pursuing as a longer-term goal is developing a new fiber laser. The fiber technology has the potential to provide a compact, efficient, robust laser source using components developed for the telecommunications industry. Early tests are promising. 11. AO systems provide a new tool to image planetary objects at a spatial resolution comparable to that obtained by spacecraft, but with richer opportunities for long-term follow-up of targets known to have physically significant variability (e.g. volcanoes, storms, and clouds). We have observed a wide variety of solar system objects including Uranus, Neptune, Titan, Io, binary asteroids, and Trans Neptunian Objects. Not only has this work resulted in numerous scientific publications; it has also been widely covered in the media (see list of media coverage in a later section of this report). This project is a collaboration between three Center nodes. 12. An imaging polarimeter was developed for the IR camera on the Lick Observatory AO system (IRCAL). The system saw first light in March 2002. It is unique because it is the

12 first dual-channel polarimeter sensitive at K-band (using a LiYF4 Wollaston prism). Because K-band gives maximum Strehl, IRCAL will deliver contrast sensitivities that surpass any other IR imaging polarimeter. 13. At the inception of CfAO, the only node with a functioning AO system for vision science was the University of Rochester. CfAO funding has lead to a second-generation device at Rochester as well as three new instruments that are now functioning at Houston, Indiana, and UC Davis. The UC Davis device was designed and built at LLNL. 14. One the most significant vision theme developments in year three was Houston’s progress in realizing its AOSLO. The significance of this instrument is that it allows retinal imaging in real-time, unlike the Rochester instrument that takes single snapshots. Moreover, it is able to axially section the retina, so that light from other layers of retina than the desired one can be rejected. The Houston AOSLO has also produced high resolution movies showing single white blood cells flowing through retinal capillaries, the first time this has ever been visualized in vivo. 15. A portable adaptive optics phoropter suitable for clinical demonstration has been developed at LLNL, in collaboration with the University of Rochester and in partnership with Bausch and Lomb. This device allows a patient to view a visual acuity chart through adaptive optics. The AO system automatically measures and corrects the aberrations of patient’s eye and provides a prescription for glasses, contact lenses, or a refractive surgical procedure. 16. Spin-off company - One of the Center’s graduate students on successfully completing his Ph.D. has formed a company Iris AO, Inc. to manufacture the deformable mirrors that were the basis of his thesis research. The CfAO has contracted to purchase some of these mirrors when they become available. 17. The CfAO Industrial Advisory Board was organized in year 3 in order to improve industrial relations. The goals of the IAB are to: 1. Enable effective transfer of knowledge developed by CfAO research to industrial community – increase interaction between industrial and CfAO personnel. 2. Provide industrial perspective and advice to CfAO researchers for planning of $4 Million annual NSF funded research and development program. 3. Move towards the organization of an Industry Consortium to enable more industry directed research on adaptive optics leveraged from ongoing CfAO research. 1.2.6 Closing remarks This third year of the CfAO has been extremely successful, with a very productive research program, involving increasing collaborative efforts between members. This was particularly noteworthy for the year 4 research proposals. The education and outreach programs continue to be focused and coherent. Industrial partnerships are growing and creation of an Industrial Advisory Board is under consideration.

13 2. Research

Center’s Overall Research Objectives The overall research objectives of the Center are: 1. To use and promote existing Adaptive Optics (AO) technology in the service of Astronomical and Vision Science in particular and science in general. 2. To improve the technology associated with Adaptive Optics (AO) components and subsequently to develop improved AO systems for both Astronomy and Vision Science. These include improved performance and robustness together with reductions in dimensions and cost.

While the research objectives remain unaltered, in year 3 the Center, as has been reported in Section 1.2.2, has reorganized the management of its research into themes. These being Extremely Large Telescopes, Extreme Adaptive Optics and Compact Vision Science Instrumentation. The thematic approach has improved collaboration between researchers both within and across themes. Performance and Management Indicators. In their research proposals for Year 3, Principal Investigators (PI’s) identified milestones that would be achieved for each of their projects in the coming year. They are required to forward quarterly reports to their Theme Leaders. These are reviewed and evaluated against the milestones that researchers identified in their proposals.

Project evaluation also occurs during the annual proposal review process, where progress against milestones is an important criterion for continuation of a project’s funding. The Proposal Review Committee (PRC) consisting of the Executive Committee, reviews all proposals and recommends funding levels to the Director. Problems 1. The science/technology balance continues to be debated within the Center. Under the theme organization, technology has gained precedence but there is sensitivity towards this issue and a desire to maintain a good level of science within the Center. 2. The two main areas focused on for technological advancement in AO are lasers and MEMS technology. Both are high-risk ventures but critical for the success of future planned advances for AO systems both in astronomy and vision science.

Goals of the Center related to the Thrust Areas The Center’s thrust areas or themes are closely aligned to the Center’s goals/objectives as outlined above. The research themes are directly related to the application and advancement of Adaptive Optics in Astronomy and Vision Science. Further, vision scientists, through their interaction with astronomers within the Center, are implementing AO and image enhancement techniques that originated in Astronomy. The Center’s Education programs encompass the Center’s science and through programs like COSMOS and the Summer School is promulgating information on Adaptive Optics to all sectors of the Community – from High School students to professional scientists and engineers.

14 2.1 Theme 1: Education and Human Resources: In compliance with the Annual Report template. This theme is reported in Section 3 - Education 2.2 Theme 2: Adaptive Optics for Extremely Large Telescopes Faculty: Gary Chanan, Imke de Pater, Sandra Faber, Andrea Ghez, Raja Guhathakurta, Ed Kibblewhite, James Larkin, Claire Max, Ian McLean, Jerry Nelson, Andreas Quirrenbach Research Scientists: Brian Bauman, Raymond Beach, Julian Christou, Jay Dawson, Richard Dekany, Chris Ebbers, Brent Ellerbroek, Donald Gavel, Vesa Junkkarinen, Zhi Liao, Bruce Macintosh, Terry Mast, Steve Payne, Deanna Pennington, Andrew Phillips, Lisa Poyneer, Giovanna Pugliese, Erez Ribak, Mitchell Troy Staff - Alex Drobshoff, Michael Spencer Postdoctoral Researchers: Matthew Britton, Gabriela Canalizo, Vincento Canto, Michele Carpenter, Anshu Dubey, Rainer Koehler, Miska Le Louarn, Matthias Schoeck, Eric Steinbring, Simone Trilling, Amanda Young Graduate Students: Matthew Barzcys, Elizabeth Gire, Tiffany Glassman, Vanessa Harvey, Seth Hornstein, David Lafreniere, Jason Melbourne, Andrew Puckett, Carramah J. Quiett, Lynne Raschke, Joseph Rhee, Angelle Tanner, Luke Taylor Undergraduate – Sabrina DaCosta 2.2.1 Goals of Theme 2 and Role of the CfAO The highest recommendation of the National Academy of Sciences’ Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Report1 was the design and construction of a ground based 30-m telescope equipped with adaptive optics (AO) (a so-called “giant segmented mirror telescope” or GSMT). Developing an AO system for such a telescope will be extremely challenging and will require an extension of almost every area of AO system design and component technology. Making a major contribution towards achieving this national priority is a suitable objective for the Center for Adaptive Optics.

Internationally, there are at least four design studies under way2 for specific 30 meter to 100 meter telescopes, collectively categorized as “Extremely Large Telescopes, or ELTs. Each of these design studies is aimed towards obtaining funding to build a 30 to 100-m telescope that is projected to cost many hundred million dollars. With the potential of these large projects, it has been imperative for the CfAO to consider what its role should be in this new and fast-moving field. Currently, none of these studies is well funded.

During Year 3 we focused on defining a role for the CfAO that will be synergistic with the ongoing telescope-specific ELT projects, yet for which the Center can provide real intellectual leadership. Our intensive discussions on this topic in Year 3 have included retreats, workshops, and telecons aimed at producing a Center-wide roadmap, and a work plan defining projects on

1 Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millenium, Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee, NAS, National Academy Press, Washington DC, 2001 2 The California Extremely Large Telescope (CELT) by the University of California and Caltech, the Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope (GSMT) by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories’ New Initiatives Office and the Gemini Observatory, the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope (OWL) by the European Southern Observatory, and a design effort in Scandinavia called The Euro50, a European consortium.

15 which Center members can collaborate for the next three to five years. The work plan and roadmap efforts will be discussed in a following section. Here we describe our overall goals.

We decided that the CfAO can play a key role in the following ways:

1) We can investigate a broader range of AO architectures and approaches than the telescope- specific projects can. The telescope-specific projects must narrow down their technology options in order to meet schedules for Conceptual Design Reviews, Preliminary Design Reviews, funding plans, etc. Yet in the new field of AO for Extremely Large Telescopes, there remains a great deal of room for innovation and new concepts. The Center can explore these new approaches, which would feed back into the designs of specific ELT installations at a later date if we can show that they are superior.

2) In parallel with the above, we can delve deeper into a few specific approaches to AO for Extremely Large Telescopes, in order to develop a more profound understanding of the design issues than can be done by individual, schedule-driven ELT projects. The outcomes for this approach will be new optimization methods and higher performance for specific AO systems designs.

3) In the process of developing conceptual designs, error budgets, and systems studies, we will identify key hardware components whose further development will carry the highest leverage for AO systems on Extremely Large Telescopes. The Center will develop partnerships to co-fund hardware development for these key components in collaboration with other interested observatories and development groups. Partnerships are essential, since the cost of the necessary component development is far too large for one group to undertake alone. 2.2.2 Activities During Year 3: Outcomes, Accomplishments, and Impacts Our Year 3 activities focused on four areas: 1) Clarifying the key elements in the design of “multi-conjugate AO” systems for 30-m telescopes; 2) Developing and testing prototype lasers for use as sodium-layer laser guide stars (LGS) on 30-m telescopes; 3) Developing techniques for doing quantitative astronomy with LGS, with emphasis on characterizing the point spread function; and 4) Doing astronomical science related to the eventual deployment of laser guide star AO systems on 30-m telescopes. Below we describe our activities, outcomes, accomplishments, and impacts in these areas during Year 3.

2.2.2.1 Design of Multi-Conjugate AO Systems for 30-m Telescopes

2.2.2.1.1 What is Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics? In the multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) technique, which is still to be demonstrated in the field, several deformable mirrors (DM’s) are placed at locations in the optical train that are optically conjugate to specific heights in the Earth’s atmosphere, typically near distinct layers of turbulence. Several lasers or natural stars are used as reference beacons or guide stars, as shown schematically in Figure 2.2-1. With several beacons, tomographic reconstruction of the atmosphere becomes possible. This is essential when using LGS, in order to overcome the failure of a single laser guide star at a finite altitude to fully probe the volume of air above the telescope through which starlight passes. This “cone effect” becomes more severe as the telescope diameter is increased, and the use of multiple LGS becomes absolutely necessary for

16 Turbulent Layers Telescope Layer 1 Wavefront Layer 2 DM1 DM2 sensors

Atmosphere UP

Figure 2.2-1. Diagram of a multi-conjugate AO system. Two deformable mirrors (DM1 amd DM2) are placed at locations that are optically conjugate to two layers of atmospheric turbulence (Layer 1 and Layer 2). Two wavefront sensors measure the shape of the wavefront as seen from two star directions, and a computer uses the wavefront sensor signals to calculate the feedback signals to send to the two deformable mirrors. Figure from a presentation by Ellerbroek and Rigaut. infrared imaging with telescopes larger than 10-meter diameter (Figure 2.2-2). MCAO correction yields an additional scientific benefit in that it provides a mechanism for correcting over larger fields of view than a single-deformable-mirror AO system.

Figure 2.2-2. Diagram of a multi-conjugate AO system illustrating the use of a single laser guide star (left) and multiple LGS (right). One can see schematically that multiple guide stars obtain a better sample of turbulence above the telescope.

17 2.2.2.1.2 Design of MCAO Systems The Gemini Observatory has designed a MCAO system for the 8-m Gemini South telescope, and plans to commission this system by 2004. However significant new conceptual and practical issues arise with MCAO design for telescopes 30 meters or larger in diameter. These new issues are sufficiently complex that no viable point design exists today for an MCAO system on a 30-m or larger telescope. Our first goal is therefore aimed at producing such a point design. In Year 3 we made significant progress in several specific design areas, described in the current section. Equally importantly, we put considerable work into developing a roadmap for the future of this project. The roadmap will be described in Section 2.2.3: Plans for the Next Reporting Period.

There are several important stages in the design and analysis of MCAO systems. The first is the development of scaling laws to predict how AO performance changes with the number of deformable mirrors, guide stars, actuators, etc. In Year 3 we developed a set of such scaling laws, and tested their validity via computer simulations. To illustrate the ambitious nature of AO designs being considered for near infrared observing with a 30-m telescope, Table 2.2.1 lists a set of system parameters derived from our scaling laws:

Table 2.2.1: Parameters of MCAO System for a 30-m Telescope Observing wavelength 1 micron Strehl ratio 0.5 Deformable mirrors 4 or 5 mirrors, each having 6000 actuators Wavefront sensors 7 to 9 (matched to Na beacons), each with a 256x256 pixel CCD camera LGS (sodium-layer) 7 to 9 Tip-tilt sensors infrared cameras for multiple natural guide stars

We developed new computed-tomography approaches for adaptive optics control using data from multiple guide stars. These have promise particularly for laser guide stars, where the cone- of-rays geometry is similar to the “fan-beam” configuration for which a number of CT algorithms have previously been developed for medical applications. In the remainder of Year 3 and in Year 4 we will be incorporating the height profile and statistics of atmospheric turbulence as prior knowledge into the algorithms.

The optical design of ELT AO systems progressed in a partnership between the CfAO and the CELT 30-m telescope project. Using suitably sized DM’s for wide field performance, we completed a preliminary AO optical relay design. An AO relay design for an ELT had not, to our knowledge, been accomplished before. In addition, we identified issues and potential solutions related to the large defocus of laser guide star light: at the telescope focus, the laser guide star light is 2.2 m out of focus with respect to natural starlight, and even light from different parts of the 10-km-thick sodium layer are out of focus with respect to each other by up to 225 mm! We made significant progress in understanding this issue and developed several potential solutions. We will compare them during the remainder of Year 3, and in Year 4 we will delve more deeply into the most promising of these solutions.

18 2.2.2.1.3 MCAO control systems and wavefront reconstruction We made progress toward developing optimal control-system architectures, and improved methods for real-time wavefront reconstruction. This will lead to the creation of tractable real- time algorithms for MCAO control.

In the area of optimal control architectures, using the separation theorem from optimal control theory we showed that the wavefront control problem divides into two independently optimized components, avoiding the complex interactions that would otherwise complicate closed loop behavior. The conditional mean is the minimum variance wavefront estimate and applying this estimate to the deformable mirror in a best-fit sense results in optimal closed loop control. We are now working on Strehl-optimal wavefront controllers that utilize statistical knowledge of the Kolmogorov turbulence and the prior history of noisy wavefront measurements to produce a minimal mean square residual corrected wavefront in closed loop. To date, statistically optimal wavefront reconstruction has largely been restricted to the open-loop case. Our work in this area in Year 4 will emphasize optimal closed-loop control as well as predictive control.

Improved methods for computing estimated wavefronts will be crucial for Extremely Large Telescope AO systems. The complexity of computing conventional matrix-multiply reconstructors scales as O(n 3) for most AO systems, where n is the number of deformable mirror actuators. Even using this matrix requires O(n2) operations. This is impractical for proposed systems with extremely large n, even though the reconstructor need not be calculated in real time. It is known that sparse-matrix methods improve this scaling for least-squares reconstruction, but sparse techniques are not immediately applicable to the minimum-variance reconstruction proposed for MCAO systems with multiple wavefront sensors and deformable mirrors. We developed a method for applying sparse-matrix methods by use of a sparse approximation for turbulence statistics and by recognizing that the non-sparse-matrix terms arising from laser guide star position uncertainty are low-rank adjustments that can be evaluated using the matrix inversion lemma. The time needed to compute the sparse minimum-variance reconstruction for a conventional natural guide star AO system scales as O(n3/2) but this benefit is not directly available to MCAO. In the remainder of Year 3 and in Year 4 we will investigate alternative methods to avoid this limitation. Our approach is the conjugate gradient method with a multigrid preconditioner to speed up convergence, with a layer-oriented (block) symmetric Gauss-Seidel smoother inspired by layer-oriented MCAO control algorithms.

Another approach to improving real-time control, a modification of the Fast Fourier Transform algorithm to account for arbitrary aperture shape has enabled us to increase the computational speed of Shack-Hartmann wavefront reconstruction from O(n2) to O(n logn) computations, where n is the (large) number of actuators. This advance makes it computationally feasible to do the real-time control of a 6,000-actuator deformable mirror using present off-the-shelf computer technology.

2.2.2.1.4 New modeling tools In order to develop a specific point design of an AO system for a 30-m telescope, more detailed modeling tools are needed. Simulating AO systems on ELT's is a significant computational challenge. Current AO simulations were developed to run on single-processor workstations, but the amount of time required to complete an ELT simulation on such a workstation is

19 prohibitively large. We are taking two complementary approaches improve computational tools for MCAO system design.

In the first near-term approach, this year we ported an AO simulation code that had been used for the Keck telescope to a parallel-processing computer. Initial tests show that the speedup on a 64- processor machine is promising and can shorten the run time of a CELT or GSMT-sized problem to a time that makes quick-turnaround parameter studies feasible. We expect to have this code running sample problems for 30-m telescopes by the end of year 3.

In the second approach, which is longer term and aimed at a more flexible computer simulation code for use by Center members, we are developing a new modular MCAO design code. In Year 3 we began development of a set of open source C++ class libraries to support functionality for the simulation of AO systems for ELT's.. It is anticipated that this software will be used by many Center researchers as a tool for several CfAO projects: MCAO system design, performance characterization of the current generation of single conjugate AO systems, and as a testbed for new wavefront reconstructor concepts.. An initial release supporting natural guide star speckle simulations is planned by the end of August 2002. Subsequent releases over the course of Year 4 will include support for single conjugate natural- and laser-guidestar AO simulations, and will lead towards a release supporting the simulation of full-up MCAO systems on ELT's.

2.2.2.1.5 Dealing with laser guide star spot elongation for ELT’s Learning to compensate for a phenomenon called laser spot elongation is critical to using laser beacons on Extremely Large Telescopes. This effect is the result of the finite thickness of the atmospheric layer that is being illuminated by the laser. As shown in Figure 2.2-3, a sodium- layer laser guide star illuminates a cylindrical region in the upper atmosphere at a height of about 90 km, and since the sodium layer is roughly 10 km thick, this illuminated cylinder is roughly 10

Figure 2.2-3. Geometry of the sodium atoms illuminated by a laser projection telescope that is 15 meters away from a particular wavefront sensor subaperture. The spot as seen by in the subaperture is a line that is 3.8 arc sec long and about 0.5 arc sec wide.

km long. When the luminous cylinder is viewed from a small part of the aperture of the

20 telescope (say a single lenslet in a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor), the cylinder is typically viewed slightly from the side and is imaged as a line, rather than a circular spot. The length-to- width of the line can be quite large for 30-m diameter telescopes. For example a wavefront sensor lenslet that is 15 m away from the location of a laser beam projector “sees” a laser spot that is 3.8 arc sec long but only 0.5 arc sec wide (at a good astronomical site). Since the basis of Shack-Hartmann wavefront reconstruction is to measure the centroid motions of each of the lenslet images, the centroid location is the essential output. In a photon-statistics-limited centroid estimate, the uncertainty will be proportional to the image size. Hence the centroid accuracy will be about 8 times worse along the major axis of the ellipse than along its minor axis, requiring 64 times the photons for the same accuracy while being more sensitive to systematic errors.

This year we investigated a method of compensating for this type of spot elongation by making additional laser spots and statistically combining information from the various spots. (Others have proposed solutions that involve moving optical components very rapidly, or reading out detectors very quickly.) Since we desire an accurate estimate of the wavefront errors as seen from a luminous region in the sodium layer, we imagine placing two or more luminous cylinders in the same region, but generated from different laser launch telescope locations as shown in Figure 2.2-4. One can use the narrow width measurements from each elliptical spot to establish an accurate centroid location. The elliptical spots should be generated and measured in consecutive images. We have shown how to statistically combine this information. We showed

Figure 2.2-4. Left: Geometry of laser launch telescopes for the selected subaperture of the wavefront sensor. Right: Shape of the three laser spots in the sodium layer, as seen in the selected subaperture. that three laser launch telescopes is the practical minimum, and that this method requires about twice as many photons and three times as many images as are needed with ideal round spots. In Year 4 we will refine these estimates and evaluate other potential methods for dealing with laser spot elongation.

21 2.2.2.1.6 Key hardware components Wavefront sensors for astronomical AO systems have typically been based on silicon CCD technology and operate at wavelengths below 800 nm. Near infrared wavefront sensors with a response out to longer wavelengths such as 1.8 microns are potentially very important for natural guide star AO systems, because the density of potential guide stars increases significantly at longer wavelengths, thus increasing the sky coverage fraction. Infrared wavelengths are essential for probing star forming regions in dark clouds, and for the Galactic Center where visible-light stars are rare. For laser guide star systems that will be used in conjunction with AO for Extremely Large Telescopes, infrared sensors are of great interest for tip-tilt control. Our current design calculations indicate that infrared tip-tilt sensors may be essential for the operation of MCAO systems with multiple LGS on 30-m telescopes.

Unfortunately, application of the current generation of infrared arrays to wavefront sensing is challenging because of poor noise performance. We are collaborating with the Rockwell Science Center (a CfAO industrial partner) to develop and test new methods of “on-chip” gain within each pixel, so that the signal voltage is larger before it suffers readout noise from the multiplexing device. A prototype chip is currently being laid out with 7 or 8 completely new circuits. The chip will have a 128 x 128 pixel format with each alternative technology grouped together in 32 strips. When the first devices become available early in Year 4, the UCLA Infrared Imaging Detector Lab will be ready to do noise performance tests using a test station which we developed over the last year and a half with support from the CfAO and matching support from UCLA (Figure 2.2-5).

Figure 2.2-5. Left: The new UCLA test dewar completed during Year 3. Right: The multi-strip structure of the new prototype Rockwell infrared detector.

2.2.2.2 Developing and testing lasers for use as sodium-layer LGS If natural stars are used to measure the turbulence in the earth’s atmosphere, less than 10% of the sky is accessible to high-Strehl AO correction at near-infrared wavelengths; even smaller fractions are accessible at visible wavelengths. LGS can remedy this by creating artificial stars or “beacons” almost anywhere in the sky. They are therefore crucial for broad applications of AO in astronomy.

22 For the next generation of telescopes 30 meters in diameter and larger, multiple LGS will be needed in order to correct for the “cone effect” and for tomographic wavefront reconstruction.

CfAO is currently using a first generation of custom-built dye lasers to create sodium-layer LGS. These lasers, tuned to the 589 nm resonance line of sodium, create an artificial beacon at altitudes of 95 – 105 km in the earth’s atmosphere. The laser guide star system at Lick Observatory is working well (best Strehl ratios > 0.6 at K band); the one at Keck Observatory is in the process of being commissioned. Under separate NSF auspices, a University of Illinois group is commissioning a Rayleigh-beacon laser guide star AO system utilizing a commercial pulsed excimer UV laser. While Rayleigh beacon systems are less expensive than sodium-layer systems and the lasers are commercially available, for very large telescopes (diameter > 10 m) sodium-layer beacons are usually predicted to be superior to Rayleigh beacons because of their greater height.

Because MCAO systems on future 30 m telescopes will most likely require 5 to 10 LGS, development of a robust, compact, energy-efficient laser system is crucial. The current generation of dye lasers at the Lick, Keck, and ESO’s VLT Observatories requires too much maintenance and electricity for 5 to 10 units per telescope to be practical. The CfAO is pursuing two approaches to developing new lasers for sodium-layer guide stars, and in Year 3 we began a collaboration with the University of Illinois group which specializes in Rayleigh guide stars. Both of the CfAO’s sodium-laser projects are highly leveraged with our partner institutions, since new laser development and engineering are quite expensive. Both sodium-laser projects involve industrial partnerships, and one is in collaboration with an international partner, the European Southern Observatory.

To facilitate strong collaboration among laser experts, the Center held a workshop on laser beacons in March 2002. The workshop was attended by experts from academia, industry, and national laboratories, and was deemed by all to be extremely useful. Several new industrial partnerships are in process as a result of this workshop.

2.2.2.2.1 Pulsed solid-state sum-frequency laser for sodium-layer LGS The goal of this project is to produce a diode-pumped solid-state pulsed sum-frequency laser with average power > 20 W, for use at an astronomical observatory. The laser consists of three laser gain modules, two of which lase at 1.32 micron wavelength and one at 1.06 microns. Light from the two different wavelengths is combined in a sum-frequency nonlinear crystal to make the 589 nm light required to create a laser guide star spot in the atmospheric sodium layer.

This University of Chicago project is co-funded by the CfAO and the Gemini Observatory (a CfAO partner), in an industrial partnership with LiteCycles, a Tucson, AZ-based laser company. LiteCycles is building three laser gain modules, which will be tested at Chicago. The University of Chicago has designed and is building the sum-frequency conversion package, the optical bench, an on-board control computer, and a servo control system. The University of Chicago will do the final packaging, system integration, and testing of the sum-frequency laser.

23 The goal is to deploy this laser on the 200 inch Palomar telescope, for use with Palomar’s excellent AO system. This will be an important step in view of the fact that today there is only sodium-layer laser guide star in full operation (at Lick Observatory), yet broad experience with this technology will be critical for the success of multiple-laser-guide-star systems on Extremely Large Telescopes.

In Year 3 LiteCycles delivered the first of three gain modules (Figure 2.2-6) to the University of Chicago, where testing is now under way. The other two gain modules will be shipped to Chicago in the fall of 2002. Based on initial tests at LiteCycles, the sum-frequency laser should meet its goal of producing 20 watts of 589 nm light on a sustainable basis. A laser launch telescope was designed in Year 3, and user interface software for the laser control computer is under development. Costs of the necessary infrastructure and laser installation at Mt. Palomar will be assumed by the Observatory, not by the CfAO. The goal for Year 4 will be to fully integrate and test this laser, to show that it can produce its power goals at 589 nm, and to add additional features if deemed necessary for the goal of installation at a telescope.

Spatial Lite Cycles Relaxation Filter Output Gain Module Oscillation Coupler Suppressor

LLNL Diode Laser Mode Locker Active High Reflectance Mirror and Cavity

Figure 2.2-6. Optical layout of the LiteCycles 1.06 micron Nd:YAG laser in the laboratory at the University of Chicago

2.2.2.2.2 New fiber laser for sodium-layer LGS In addition to the project described above, the Center is pursuing the longer-term goal of developing a new fiber laser for laser guide star applications. By combining an Er:doped fiber laser operating at 1583 nm with a 938 nm Nd:silica fiber laser, one can generate 589 nm CW light via sum-frequency mixing in a periodically poled crystal. The fiber technology has the

24 potential to provide a compact, efficient, robust laser source using components developed for the telecommunications industry. The short-term goal is to demonstrate a 5 - 10 W CW fiber laser at 589 nm. If successful, we plan to scale these technologies to output powers > 10 W in collaboration with commercial vendors.

Our goals for Year 3 were to demonstrate the individual component technologies (Er:doped fiber laser, Nd:silica fiber laser, and sum-frequency crystal) and to begin system integration. Strong progress has been made. We successfully demonstrated the Er:doped fiber laser operating at 1583 nm with 10 W of linearly polarized output and a tuning range from 1582.6 nm to 1583.3 nm. A photo of the system is shown in Figure 2.2-7.

Figure 2.2-7: Erbium:doped fiber laser system, currently producing 10 watts of laser power at a wavelength of 1583 nm. As had been anticipated, the main technical challenge lies in the development of the Nd:silica fiber laser, because of the need to suppress ASE losses at 1088 nm. We identified a number of ways in which this suppression can be accomplished: 1) Using a high power laser diode seed pulse and a low numerical aperture fiber, we can extract gain preferentially at 938 nm; 2) Lowering the operating temperature of the fiber amplifier quenches ground state absorption that inhibits gain at the 938 nm transition; 3) Losses at 1088 nm can be selectively induced by bending the fiber; 4) A multi-stage amplifier with lower gain fiber segments separated by an in- line dichroic filter (1088 nm rejection) can increase ASE suppression; 5) Long period fiber Bragg gratings can be used to induce loss at 1088 nm; 6) A fiber amplifier design incorporating a depressed index core can suppress lasing at 1088 nm and possibly allow room temperature operation of the system.

In Year 3 we successfully demonstrated methods 1-4. Our collaborator at Hampton University will pursue method 5) during the coming months. To date we have obtained 938 nm laser power of 2.2 Watts from the Nd:silica fiber. A second fiber amplifier, utilizing a different design from another vendor, is now being tested. With a further iteration on the fiber specifications, we expect to reach our milestone of 10 W in Year 4.

25 To generate 589 nm light we must mix light from the two fiber lasers in a periodically poled nonlinear crystal (PPLN, PPLT or PPKTP). Experiments to evaluate these materials are under way. To date we have generated 1.1 W of 532 nm light (11% conversion efficiency) in PPKTP with no evidence of crystal damage. Experiments in PPLN, a higher efficiency material, are scheduled to begin shortly. In the remainder of Year 3 we plan to demonstrate scaling of periodically poled materials to high average power via elliptical beam formatting. In addition, we will use a sum-frequency mixing crystal to demonstrate a low power 589 nm source using the 938 nm and 1583 nm lasers. In Year 4 our goal is to complete the integration and testing of this laser at a power level of 5 – 10 W CW.

We have established a collaboration with the European Southern Observatory, which is taking a strong interest in our next-generation fiber-laser concept. ESO in contributing both critical hardware and a graduate student to this effort. We are also collaborating with a group at Hampton University in the area of ASE suppression for the 938 nm fiber laser using fiber Bragg gratings. Hampton University, an HBCU in Hampton, Virginia, is a private university with about 5700 students, and is one of only four HBCUs in the nation that have Ph.D. programs in physics. The leader of the program in ASE suppression is Donald Lyons, a University Endowed Professor with appointments in both the Physics Department and the Department of Electrical Engineering.

2.2.2.3 Developing techniques for doing quantitative astronomy with LGS Images from ground-based astronomical AO systems are not perfectly sharp, but have residual uncorrected wavefront errors. The presence of these errors is revealed in the images of stars, which should be perfect point sources. The distribution of light in a star image is called the "point spread function " or PSF. PSFs typically produced by AO systems have a diffraction- limited “core” surrounded by a larger but fainter “halo” the diameter of the seeing disk. If the AO correction were perfect, the PSF would have all of its light energy in the diffraction-limited core.

When an AO system performs very well, the halo is quite faint compared with the core. As AO performance degrades, the halo begins to contain a larger and larger fraction of the total energy from the star. During the night as turbulence in the atmosphere varies, the PSF varies as well. A second factor that makes the PSF vary is distance of the target object from its guide star. The AO correction is best close to the guide star or laser, but progressively degrades once the science target is more than a few arc seconds away. This effect is called “anisoplanatism.”

Quantitative astrophysical measurements require accurate knowledge of the PSF for both photometry and spectroscopy. One of the most important things the CfAO can do in order to make AO a broadly useful tool in astronomy is to develop methods by which the PSF may be quantitatively measured during regular astronomical observing. Such methods will be essential to the success of AO on ELTs, but must be developed now, in the near term, to assure the general acceptance of AO in the near term as a quantitative image improvement technique.

In Year 3 we continued our work aimed at developing methods of PSF characterization, began a new project to use the real-time output of a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor to construct the

26 instantaneous PSF, developed and tested new deconvolution methods for AO image processing, and pursued practical approaches to measuring atmospheric turbulence parameters in real time.

2.2.2.3.1 Quantitative characterization of anisoplanatism and its effects on the PSF In Year 1 we obtained images at Lick Observatory of the M15 globular cluster, using a star within the cluster as the guide star for the AO system. We took AO-corrected pictures of the cluster for two whole nights as the cluster rose and set, and examined how rapidly the quality of AO correction degraded away from the guide star. To our knowledge, these M15 data are the first of their kind in providing continuous AO coverage of a dense star field in multiple colors over many hours under varying conditions. This study yielded the important conclusion that the form of the degradation with angle could be modeled, and was roughly constant over the night. We could predict off-axis image quality by using a night-to-night model that was calibrated observing a star cluster once per night. Although it was difficult to get an accurate measure of the isoplanatic angle, use of these calibration strips to estimate the degradation of the PSF with radius was quite reproducible.

Last year we repeated these measurements at Lick using the much brighter laser guide star. Figure 2.2-8 shows H-band mosaics of the globular cluster using natural guide star (left) and laser guide star (right) techniques. The bright star in the upper right part of the image was used as the natural guide star. The laser was pointed at different locations to obtain the different

Figure 2.2-8. Mosaics of H-band images of the globular cluster M 15, from Lick Observatory. Left: natural guide star AO. The bright star in the upper right hand corner was the guide star. Strehl ratio was 8%. Right: laser guide star AO. The point spread functions are much more constant across the mosaic. Strehl ratio was 15-20%. (The quadrant on the lower left was not observed with the laser guide star in this series of measurements.) sections of the mosaic on the right. Quantitative measurements show that the PSF was much more constant with angle when the laser was used, as expected. Average Strehl ratios were 15- 20% for the laser guide star mosaic, and 8% for the natural guide star mosaic.

Although these results were encouraging, quantitative analysis suggested that PSFs cannot be measured accurately enough for high-precision photometry using this sort of once-nightly calibrations. Hence we are pursuing options for real-time PSF measurements as a function of distance from a guide star. We are exploring whether an accurate realtime PSF can be

27 synthesized from concurrent measurements of the atmospheric structure above the telescope. Such measurements would use a separate device called a "SCIDAR" to measure the degree of turbulence in the atmosphere as a function of height. We are helping to coordinate a large campaign in the fall of 2002 to characterize the atmospheric properties above one of the world's most important astronomical mountains, Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Many instruments in addition to the SCIDAR will be measuring the atmosphere. Simultaneously and along the same lines of sight, two state-of-the-art AO systems — on the Keck telescopes and on the Gemini telescope — will be taking AO data. The aim will be to see whether the AO PSFs and their degradation off axis can be modeled and understood from the independent atmospheric measurements. If they can be, atmospheric measurements will facilitate more accurate imaging and photometry from AO systems on existing telescopes, and from future AO systems envisioned for the next generation of Extremely Large Telescopes.

2.2.2.3.2 Real-time PSF reconstruction for Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors Even the most sophisticated AO systems are not able to deliver perfect images. Hence a posteriori data processing (deconvolution) is required in order to maximize the science output. Point spread function (PSF) reconstruction, whereby these residual aberrations are fully characterized for each image, is therefore critical as input for deconvolution. Most AO science images do not have any suitable point source in the field of view to provide PSF information. However, several methods exist to estimate the PSF during an AO corrected exposure. The most elegant is to use the data processed by the AO control loop during the image acquisition itself because 1) no observing time is lost 2) the estimated PSF captures the exact conditions during the science acquisition. Such a method has been successfully developed for curvature sensing systems3, but has not yet been successfully applied to Shack-Hartmann based AO systems. Figure 2.2-9 illustrates the success of the Véran algorithm for curvature-based AO systems.

We began a new project in Year 3 to develop such a method and to test it on two AO systems: Altair, the Gemini North AO system, and the low order AO system of the National Solar Observatory. The intent is to use these systems as test beds and to apply the method to other AO systems at a later stage. This year we developed the theory for the new method, and compared it with laboratory data from the ALTAIR AO system. In Year 4 we will apply the method to AO systems on telescopes. This is a collaboration between UCSC, the National Solar Observatory, the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Victoria, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

2.2.2.3.3 Deconvolution of astronomical images Deconvolution is a computational method by which one can find a more accurate portrayal of an object being imaged by using an estimate of the point spread function. In “blind deconvolution” one can solve for both the PSF and the astronomical image, starting from multiple snapshots of both the image and a reference star. Thus our research on deconvolution dovetails in a natural way with research on the AO PSF described in the previous section.

3, Veran, J.-P., Rigaut, F., Matre, H. and Rouan, D. (1997), “Estimation of the adaptive optics long-exposure point- spread function using control loop data,” JOSA A, 14, 3057, 1997

28 Figure 2.2-9. Point spread function reconstructed from real-time AO data at PUEO curvature-sensing AO system,

Canada France Hawaii Telescope. Guide star magnitude mR = 10.4, and r0 = 15.4 cm. Observing wavelength was in the K-band (an H2 narrow-band filter). The measured PSF and estimated PSF lie directly on top of each other .

In addition to these connections with the CfAO’s efforts on PSF estimation, our deconvolution group has had an extraordinarily fruitful interaction with almost all of the Center’s projects in astronomical science and vision science. Since AO is always “pushing” towards higher image quality, AO data are a fertile area for using existing deconvolution methods and an excellent testing ground for improved techniques. For the broader use of existing deconvolution methods, the Center’s role has been to teach non-experts in deconvolution the “tools of the trade” through collaborations with our deconvolution experts. In the development and testing of improved techniques, the Center’s astronomical and vision science projects have provided a wide variety of “test cases” that our deconvolution researchers have been using to push the limits of their codes and to improve their performance.

Two examples of these collaborations follow:

1) Images of the dense star field at the Galactic Center. Data obtained with the Keck and Gemini AO systems are being analyzed using two different deconvolution algorithms (multi-frame iterative blind deconvolution and parametric blind deconvolution) as well as with the Starfinder computer code. The latter is a star-field fitting program that finds all the point sources in the field using PSF fitting. We made significant improvements to the Starfinder code in Year 3, which expanded its capabilities for anisoplanatic fields and made it more robust and user- friendly. The ability to iterate between Starfinder and several different deconvolution algorithms in order to better deal with the anisoplanatic PSF has turned out to provide a very fruitful approach to PSF characterization. The goal here is to learn how to best do quantitative analysis of photometry and astrometry from crowded field AO images. This project is a collaboration between investigators at UCSC, UCLA, and UCSD.

29 2) Images of planets and other Solar System bodies. We investigated the capabilities of different deconvolution techniques for application to images of the disks of planets, asteroids, and similar bodies. In particular we compared our iterative blind deconvolution code idac with MISTRAL, a program developed at ONERA in France that uses regularization to preserve hard edges in the reconstructed object. Our short-term goal, on which much progress was made in Year 3, is to identify which features of the various deconvolution algorithms work best under what circumstances. The project is a collaboration between investigators at UCSC, UC Berkeley, and LLNL.

2.2.2.3.4 Measurements of atmospheric turbulence parameters Real time knowledge of basic parameters characterizing atmospheric turbulence, such as the coherence length r0 and the outer scale L0 , is of strong interest for optimizing AO system performance as well as for guiding the observer during the night and for later data analysis and deconvolution. A CfAO-led collaboration between UC Irvine, Palomar Observatory, Keck

Observatory, and the University of Nice has led to new r0 diagnostic capabilities using realtime data from the Palomar and Keck AO systems. In addition, this project deployed a Generalized Seeing Monitor (GSM) operating simultaneously with AO and interferometry observations at Palomar, and with AO and DIMM observations at Mauna Kea. The goal was to assess the reliability of using a compact instrument such as a GSM to measure the outer scale of turbulence

L0 , and to compare values of r0 measured by the GSM with those deduced from AO and DIMM data.

Figure 2.2-10 shows an example of r0 data taken over a period of 75 minutes in September 2001 and analyzed during Year 3. The key in the top right corner shows that data were taken in both open-loop and closed-loop AO modes. The general agreement in the average r0 between open- and closed-loop data represents a dramatic improvement over our previous results (the scatter is partly due to noise, but mostly due to real changes of the atmosphere). This improvement was obtained only after painstaking re-calibrations of the wavefront sensor and the deformable mirror, undertaken as part of this overall effort. Thus this project led to a more thorough calibration of the AO systems at Palomar and Keck than had been required previously to operate the AO systems in their usual modes. We expect that a result of this improved system calibration will be improved AO system performance.

In the remainder of Year 3 and in Year 4, we will complete the data analysis from our atmospheric measurement campaigns at Palomar and Mauna Kea. In Year 4 we will complete and document the atmospheric characterization software tool that we are writing at Palomar and Keck. The tool will allow use of diagnostics and telemetry from the AO systems themselves for the purpose of calculating important atmospheric parameters, and optimizing AO system performance on a frequent basis in response to changes in the “seeing.”

Also in Year 4, we will further solidify the new collaborations we are developing between three different Extremely Large Telescope projects (CELT, GSMT, and OWL) for the purpose of site characterization methods and instruments.

2.2.2.3.5 Measurements of anisoplanatism using short exposures In a collaboration between CfAO scientists at UCSC and LLNL, we used short exposure measurements of binary stars taken during the August 2001 laser guide star run at Lick

30 Observatory to measure PSF degradation as the angular offset between the guide star and the target star increases. The short exposure data “freeze” the AO compensation, permitting image motion measurements to also be made. Analysis of two binary stars with separations of 7 arc sec and 12 arc sec shows that high-order anisoplanatism results in off-axis Strehl ratios of 82% and 75% of the on-axis values respectively. We showed directly that the Strehl loss is due to reduced high spatial frequency components in the compensated PSF of the off-axis star. Our measurements demonstrate that even within the isoplanatic patch (which was estimated to be approximately 24 arc sec), off-axis PSFs are degraded in their high spatial frequency content. This effect needs to be taken into account in our deconvolution algorithms.

Figure 2.2-10. Values of r0 as measured with the Palomar AO system during the night of September 9, 2001. The time is measured from the beginning of the first measurement. The key in the top right corner shows which of the data were taken in open-loop mode and which were taken closed-loop. Note the consistency between values obtained in open-loop and closed-loop modes.

We were also able to measure tip-tilt anisoplanatism at these small angular separations, using the laser guide star. The angular error due to tip-tilt anisoplanatism was approximately 1/3 of the size of the diffraction-limited core for the cases that we measured. As this is a sizeable fraction of the laser guide star system’s error budget, we plan to continue these tip-tilt investigations in Year 4.

2.2.2.4 Astronomical science related to laser guide star AO on 30-m telescopes When the Center’s new Strategic Plan turned from a scientific focus towards a more technological one, we wanted to preserve a role for cutting-edge astrophysics done with AO and LGS. Theme 2 is one of the two “homes” for such science projects, the other being in Theme 3: Extreme Adaptive Optics. In our Center mode of operation each of the science projects is done

31 in a collaborative fashion. A common theme is interest in using their own data to test the various deconvolution approaches being developed by the Center.

Within the context of AO for ELT’s, our goals are to do astronomical science that takes good advantage of LGS and that develops new data analysis methods; to do science that uses spectral image slicing with AO (spectra as function of x and y on the sky); and in special cases to do other science when a strong case can be made for its long-term relevance to AO and LGS on ELT’s. In Year 3 we supported four astronomical science projects in Theme 2.

2.2.2.4.1 Adaptive optics studies of the Galactic Center We are studying the environment of our Galaxy's central supermassive black hole in order to measure the dynamics, distribution, and properties of stars in the central stellar cluster. Using both AO imaging and spectroscopy, we are pinpointing the position of the central dark mass with high accuracy, and constraining the dark mass distribution at smaller radii than ever before. The spatial distribution, spectral types, and variability of the stellar sources we are observing probe the properties of the stellar population close to the central black hole.

From the point of view of AO observing techniques, studying the Galactic Center presents many challenges, ranging from observational, due to the lack of a bright natural guide star at optical wavelengths, to analytical, due to the crowded stellar field at near-infrared wavelengths. (For natural guide star operation one is limited to faint off-axis stars, e.g. with R = 13.2 magnitude and off-axis distance of 30 arc sec). We are therefore studying AO performance on this field with a variety of different AO systems (Keck and Gemini; natural and in Year 4 laser guide star) from the point of view of PSF quality, overall Strehl ratio, stability, and anisoplanatism. In

Figure 2.2-11. Central panel: Gemini North AO image of the Galactic Center, in H and K bands. Insets: Keck images of specific objects marked with arrows. All of the insets show objects with extended spatial structure.

addition we are investigating the astrometric and spectroscopic accuracies that can be achieved

32 in such a crowded stellar field. These results will thus be of considerable interest to the AO community in general.

Figure 2.2-11 shows images of the regions near the black hole (marked Sgr A* in the Figure) from the Gemini North AO system (central panel) and the Keck AO system (individual insets). We have shown that all of the individual objects noted in the Figure are extended sources, some with rings or even horse-shoe structures around them. These objects are members of a class of cool featureless sources whose nature had previously been an enigma.

Using an improved PSF fitting algorithm, we increased to detection rate of stars in our existing data sets by 50%. We also obtained the first AO spectroscopy results on the individual stars which show the highest proper motions around the central black hole. We identified two stars (S0-17 and S0-18) as late spectral type by detecting CO bandhead absorption in their spectra. Their spectral properties are consistent with early K giants. Three other stars (S0-1, S0-2, and S0-16) lack CO bandhead absorption, and are probably early-type stars. Their absolute K magnitudes suggest they are late O - early B main sequence stars of ages < 20 Myr. If the stars are in fact this young, then their presence so close to the massive central black hole poses the intriguing problem of how the stars could have formed, or could have been brought, within the strong tidal field of the black hole. In Year 4 we plan to continue our spectroscopic observations of stars close to the black hole (Sgr A*), to carefully evaluate and document the trade-off between longer integration time and greater PSF quality, and to continue our collaborative work on new and more accurate PSF estimation methods.

2.2.2.4.2 Adaptive optics studies of faint high-redshift galaxies This project uses the Keck AO system and new infrared instrumentation to study the evolution of galaxies in the early universe. The long-term goal is to study the morphology, metallicity and star formation rates of faint galaxies as a function of time (redshift), and thereby determine when and how galaxies such as our Milky Way formed. We are the first group to observe faint field galaxies with a high order AO system and we have solved a variety of problems including PSF characterization, decomposition of galaxy images into structural components, anisoplanatism, and photometric reliability. Since a primary effort of any 30-m telescope will be to study high redshift galaxies, these preliminary observations also serve to develop techniques and strategies that are central to the AO for ELT’s theme. Currently our observations rely on natural guide star AO: we observe those faint galaxies that happen to lie near bright stars. During Year 3, the UCLA and Caltech participants imaged 16 fields, producing a catalog of more than 200 galaxies at cosmological distances and unprecedented spatial resolution. These images constitute the largest and deepest AO survey ever undertaken and are excellent for studying galaxy evolution.

While we are just beginning to analyze the new data set, we can already make some statements about the galaxy populations. For instance, a strange result that came out of Hubble Space Telescope’s deep galaxy images was the observation that the fraction of barred galaxies appeared to fall off dramatically past a redshift of 0.54. This contradicts hierarchical models of galaxy formation which predict a rise in the bar fraction corresponding to the rise in the galaxy merger and interaction rates. A complication of the HST result is that by a redshift of 0.7, I-band images

4 Abraham, R. G.; Merrifield, M. R.; Ellis, R. S.; Tanvir, N. R.; Brinchmann, J., “The evolution of barred spiral galaxies in the Hubble Deep Fields North and South,” Monthly Notices, 308, 569, 1999.

33 are seeing a rest frame wavelength of 480 nm where stellar bars are less prominent5. In inspecting our H-band galaxy sample (which still corresponds to infrared light in the rest frame), we are finding a large fraction of barred galaxies. Thus with further analysis in Year 4 we should be able to address this important evolutionary question in a significant way.

At redshifts above z=1, where use of classical galaxy morphologies is no longer appropriate, we can still study galaxy evolution. In particular, we can measure the number density of galaxies as a function of size, the 2-point correlation function down to small angular separations, the spheroidal luminosities, and the degree of asymmetry as functions of redshift. As shown in PSF

1” z=0.59

Example: 30”x30” Field All Bright objects are galaxies.

PSF

z=0.70 Figure 2.2-12 – A sample of galaxies obtained with adaptive optics during Y3 with NIRC2 on Keck. The central panel shows a single region with more than 10 galaxies. The surrounding panels show 10 galaxies chosen from 4 fields to illustrate the presence of disks, stellar bars, close companions and asymmetries. Also shown are two PSF stars to demonstrate the extremely high resolution of the data. In the 2nd panel from the top left, an apparent galaxy interaction is occurring and the faint point-like source is an excellent supernova candidate. Faint stars such as the PSF stars, are good candidates for proper motion studies.

5 Eskridge, P. B.; Frogel, J. A.; Pogge, R. W.; Quillen, A. C.; Davies, R. L.; DePoy, D. L.; Houdashelt, M. L.; Kuchinski, L. E.; Ramírez, S. V.; Sellgren, K.; Terndrup, D. M.; Tiede, G. P., Astronomical Journal 119, 536, 2000.

34 Figure 2.2-12, many of our high-redshift galaxies appear to have resolved companions within a projected separation distance of 20 kpc. Also, several galaxies are not symmetric and show knots of emission probably related to star formation. In Year 4 we will collect a more statistically complete data set to assess the significance of this trend.

2.2.2.4.3 Nearby Active Galactic Nuclei Scientific use of laser guide star adaptive optics (AO) is in its infancy. The laser guide star system at Lick Observatory is about to begin its third semester of shared-risk science observations. The laser guide star at Keck is in the midst of being commissioned now. The laser guide stars at Calar Alto and Starfire Optical Range have been decommissioned. Yet designs of adaptive optics systems for future 30-m telescopes rely on the use of multiple laser guide stars. There is a strong need to gain practical experience with laser guide star AO, to develop quantitative tools for observing and data analysis, and to establish a scientific track record that will inspire a broad group of astronomers to venture into this field.

We are studying the nuclear regions of nearby active galaxies that host black holes in their cores, and comparing them with the cores of "normal" galaxies in which there is no evident black hole activity. In Year 3 we utilized the laser guide star AO system at Lick Observatory and the natural guide star AO system at the Keck Observatory for this work, and compared our infrared imaging and spectra with visible-wavelength images and spectra from the Hubble Space Telescope. Once the laser guide star at the Keck Observatory becomes available in 2003 we will use it as well. Here we highlight our results for the nearby active galaxy NGC 6240.

NGC 6240 is undergoing a merger event. It contains starburst and wind activity, and an AGN. Figure 2.2-13a shows the twin nuclei of NGC 6240 imaged in the infrared with the Keck AO system. The two nuclei are ~ 2 arc sec apart and each nucleus is resolved in this image. The white lines show the outline of the NIRSPEC slit, which was 0.05 arc sec wide. NIRSPEC AO spectra (Figure 2.2-13b) show the high potential of adaptive optics in understanding the

Figure 2.2-13. Left (13a): Keck NIRC2 AO image of the twin nuclei of the merger-galaxy NGC 6240 in K- band. The white lines outline the position of the spectrograph slit. Right (13b): NIRSPEC AO spectrum of the two nuclei and the gas between them.

35 dynamics and physical conditions in AGN cores. The x-axis represents distance along the slit, while the y axis is the dispersion direction. The bright vertical stripe on the right of this spectrum is the brighter South nucleus; the fainter stripe on the left is the North nucleus. The two brightest lines of molecular hydrogen, 1-O S(2) (bottom of spectrum) and 1-0S(1) (top of spectrum) span both nuclei as well as the inter-nuclear region. We are analyzing these spectra to characterize the relative velocities of the two nuclei, of the inter-nuclear gas, and of excited nuclear wind.

In Year 4 we will work towards completing the survey of 25 to 30 nearby AGNs that we began in Year 2. In addition to AGNs we will observe nearby “normal” galaxies, in order to have a comparison group for our study of morphology and dynamics very close to the nuclei of these objects. Our long-term goal is to delineate the mechanisms responsible for the inward transport of material onto active black holes, in the region lying inside the inner Lindblad resonance.

2.2.2.4.4 AO Imaging of Solar System Bodies AO systems provide a new tool to image planetary objects at a spatial resolution comparable to that obtained by spacecraft, but with richer opportunities for long-term follow-up of targets known to have physically significant variability (e.g. volcanoes, storms, and clouds). We have observed a wide variety of solar system objects including Uranus, Neptune, Titan, Io, binary asteroids, and Trans Neptunian Objects. We acquired high-spatial-resolution images and spectra using AO systems at Lick, Keck, and ESO (ADONIS AO system), including Lick laser guide star imaging. Not only has this work resulted in numerous scientific publications; it has also been widely covered in the media (see list of media coverage in a later section of this report). This project is a collaboration between three Center nodes.

Here we illustrate the power of our new AO observations with one object, Jupiter’s volcanically active moon Io. The left side of Figure 2.2-14 shows our Keck adaptive optics images of Io in the infrared (2.2 microns) on February 20 and 22, 2001. These dates are significant because on Feb. 22, the Surt volcano underwent an outburst that was the largest and most energetic ever seen on Io. Looking back in retrospect to our image of Feb. 20, we see a small precursor to this Surt outburst. Multicolor AO photometry and spectroscopy indicate magma temperatures of ~1500K, suggesting that this Surt eruption contained ultramafic magma.

Figure 2.2-14. Left: Keck 2.2 micron adaptive optics images of Io on Feb. 20 and 21, 2001. Right: Galileo spacecraft visible-light images at the same date and orientation.

36 The resolution of our AO images was about 130 km on Io. On the right side of Figure 2.2-14 we show reconstructions from visible-light images of Io taken with the Galileo spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter. One can see by comparing the Keck and Galileo images from Feb 20 that there is excellent correspondence between infrared features seen with Keck AO, and the bright and dark spots seen with Galileo. The latter are known from independent observations to be sites of volcanic activity. (On the Feb. 22 images it is harder to see this correspondence, because the extremely bright Surt outburst has saturated the detector.)

In Year 4 we plan to use the Lick laser guide star AO system to expand our search for binary asteroids and to obtain AO images of Io in eclipse by Jupiter; to perform spatially resolved AO spectroscopy on Neptune, Uranus, Titan, and Io; and to continue our very fruitful deconvolution collaboration with emphasis on comparing different convolution methods’ abilities to do accurate photometry and astrometry. 2.2.3 Plans for the next reporting period Plans for specific study areas in the next reporting period (Year 4) have been included in the previous subsections as part of the description of each topical research effort.

In the present section we highlight results of our intense collaborative planning exercises in Year 3, aimed towards developing a Roadmap for the design of AO systems for Extremely Large Telescopes. Such AO systems will require multiple guidestars and multiple deformable mirrors in order to correct for effects of the turbulent atmosphere that become more severe as the telescope aperture becomes large. System architecture and component technology decisions will significantly impact performance and cost of the AO system relative to that of the entire telescope. Among the crucial decisions are: number of laser beacons, laser beacon power, number of conjugate deformable mirrors, number of actuators on the deformable mirrors, type of wavefront control algorithm, and method for realtime wavefront reconstruction. Currently there are significant gaps in the knowledge base concerning multi-conjugate, multi-guidestar adaptive optics: there is a lack of accepted analytic models parameterizing the key design issues, and current simulation codes cannot explore parameter space easily enough to provide the necessary design insight.

In Year 3 our efforts in the design of AO for ELTs were carried out at three CfAO nodes (Caltech, Santa Cruz, and Livermore), one partner node (Gemini), and one affiliated institution (Montana State University). The researchers at these five locations were in regular communication with each other. But their CfAO research was not tightly coordinated, nor did we have a long-range plan in this area with clear goals and milestones.

We knew at the start of Year 3 that this was a deficiency, and that the Center’s “Theme” approach would be greatly strengthened if the participants in the Theme AO design efforts were working together in a much more coordinated fashion. Hence as Year 3 progressed, we held series of workshops, discussions, and telecons aimed at defining our long-term goals, setting priorities, and choosing topics for Year 4 where there could be more intensive collaboration between groups.

In our workshops we took both “bottom-up” and “top-down” approaches. In our “top-down” discussions we decided on the following long-term goals: “Our goal is a viable point design for

37 a Multiconjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO) system on a 30-meter telescope. Our long-term mission is to obtain insight and understanding of ELT AO systems to a sufficient degree that we can be confident of the feasibility and performance of such a design.”

In addition we recognized the need for getting the broader astronomical community involved in defining the “science case” that is specific to adaptive optics on 30-m telescopes. To date, the two studies with which we are most familiar (CELT and GSMT) have made eloquent science cases for the telescope in general, but the discussions of the science benefits of various kinds of AO systems under consideration were not as well-developed as we feel is necessary. Hence we decided that fleshing out the “science case” for AO on 30-m class telescopes was a major goal. To address it, we decided that an important early product of our design effort should be a simple ELT AO model placed in the hands of astronomers, for the purpose of making the science case for the AO systems in the various proposals to build ELTs. A model that is accepted by the AO experts but easy to use by non-experts will allow astronomers to quantitatively evaluate the science advantage of using ELTs with AO.

The “bottom-up” discussions proceeded by listing all the important technical issues that need to be addressed (the list was very long...), and then prioritizing these issues. This process focused our thinking on areas that had to be understood in order to make even a zero’th order design of a laser guide star AO system for a 30-m class telescope. The output was a short list of the highest- priority items, followed by several prioritized topical sub-lists of second and third-priority issues. The highest-priority list is as follows:

1) Quantify the cone-effect for using multiple laser guide stars 2) Mitigate laser guide star spot elongation 3) Get the laser guide star light through the AO relay optics without severe aberration. 4) Determine feasible and efficient multi-conjugate AO reconstruction algorithms

In order to address the top-level goal and mission, and in order to answer the four highest- priority questions, we will develop extremely-large-telescope AO system models at multiple levels, from scaling-laws that can be evaluated with pencil and paper, to semi-analytic models that are parametric equations for performance but perhaps requiring a computer to evaluate, to full-scale turbulence-simulation tools that can be used to model the detailed behavior of point designs.

We have begun the process of writing down a detailed Roadmap for accomplishing our goals in the design of AO systems for 30-m telescopes. This Roadmap will include a systems-level analysis of critical-path issues for the success of AO for ELTs, together with milestones, outcomes, and a schedule for this CfAO research area.

38 2.3 Theme 3: Extreme Adaptive Optics (ExAO): Enabling Ultra- High Contrast Astronomical Observations

Faculty - Andrea Ghez, James Graham Research Scientists - Jim Brase, Peter Krulevitch, Bruce Macintosh, Scot Olivier, Don Philion, Lisa Poyneer, Anand Sivaramakrishnan Postdoctoral Researchers - Gaspard Duchene, Jennifer Patience, Marcos van Dam, Paul Kalas. Graduate Students - Emily Carr, James Lloyd, Russel Makidon, Caer McCabe, Marshal Perrin Undergraduate Students - Quinn Konopacky 2.3.1 Goals of Theme 3 and Role of CfAO Extreme Adaptive Optics is concerned with the development and utilization of AO systems and instrumentation that enable ultra-high-contrast astronomical observations. The primary scientific goal of this theme is to provide a unique capability for the study of planetary system formation, including the exploration of the characteristics of extra-solar planets through direct imaging.

Figure 2.3-1. – Example of a high-contrast observation with the current Keck AO system. The faint object in this image would be located ~125 AU from the bright star if these two objects were physically associated.

Detection of faint objects and structure is limited at smaller angular separations by the halo of scattered light. In order to detect objects at 5-10 AU from bright stars such as this (the distance where giant planets are found in our Solar System) it is necessary to develop powerful new AO systems and instrumentation to reduce the level of scattered light from the star at small field angles.

The rationale for the CfAO to select ExAO as a major organizational theme was based on the following considerations. 1. An ExAO system on current 8-10 meter telescopes could enable new astronomical science within 3-5 years (within the CfAO lifetime) by providing a significant improvement in sensitivity for the detection of dim objects near bright sources, e.g., planetary systems and precursor material. 2. An ExAO system could be a CfAO technology monument, i.e., the world’s most powerful AO system, with significantly better performance for high contrast science than any existing system.

39 3. An ExAO system could be a step towards AO for extremely large telescopes since an ExAO system on current 8-10 meter telescopes requires a similar number of control points (~104) to the baseline AO systems under consideration for future 30-50 meter telescopes. 4. The development of an ExAO system would take advantage of the Center mode of operation since this project would be larger in scope and duration than a typical single PI project, and could be accomplished only by coordinating and combining research efforts of multiple researchers at several institutions. 5. The development of key enabling technologies for an ExAO system would emphasize multi-disciplinary collaborations, including links to engineering research topics, and industrial partnerships. 6. The development of an ExAO system would strengthen links between astronomy and vision science since MEMS deformable mirrors are being developed for both vision science and astronomical systems, and current AO system performance characterization and optimization activities will address both astronomical and vision science systems.

In year 3, the ExAO theme was organized into 6 main areas of activity. Progress in these areas is described below. As in all CfAO themes, year-3 projects in the ExAO theme were proposed with specific sets of milestones and deliverables. In addition, prior to the proposal review process for year 3, an integrated document was prepared that combined all the project elements

Figure 2.3-2. – The expected population of extra-solar planets from Monte Carlo simulations shown in the observed angular separation/contrast plane at J band. The dashed line represents the performance of the strawman ExAO system with 20 cm actuator spacing on a 10-m telescope. ExAO detected planets are marked with a square, planets that could be detected by precision radial velocity techniques are circled. These results help define the dramatic scientific potential of ExAO.

40 into a coordinated plan for the ExAO theme. Based on the final year 3 funding allocations, milestones and deliverables were adjusted by the individual PI’s of supported projects in consultation with the Theme Leader. In order to track progress against the project milestones and deliverables, the Theme Leader receives quarterly reports from the PI’s. In addition, progress in specific areas is reviewed at a series of ExAO workshops held throughout the year. Overall, the ExAO theme projects have made excellent progress on their specific objectives, and no significant problems are foreseen in the remainder of the reporting period.

In year 4, the ExAO theme is moving to a more integrated, long-term organization with a comprehensive 5-year plan that incorporates all key project elements. Details of this plan are summarized below. Additional program management activities will be coordinated by the Theme Leader in year 4, including specific formal design reviews for deliverable hardware, in order to assure that long-term theme activities are adequately monitored. 2.3.2 System design and analysis. The aim of this effort is to develop new concepts, designs and implementation strategies for ExAO systems that enable specific scientific goals. Improved performance models of ExAO systems were developed by extending the scaling laws of Angel (1994 Nature) using realistic spatial and temporal correlations. Based on these improved performance models, along with realistic models for stellar populations and planetary properties derived from the most current observations and theories, Monte-Carlo simulations were performed to assess the capabilities of an ExAO system for direct detection of near-IR emission from extra-solar planets. These simulations demonstrated that even a broad survey of field stars would detect a significant population of planets, primarily because extra-solar planets have significant near-IR emission when young (< 1 GYr) or massive. In addition, it was found that identifying and targeting younger stars would increase success rate by factors of 5-10, and that many distinct target samples exist which would allow multiple research teams to utilize an ExAO system for parallel investigations.

Additional conclusions drawn from the Monte-Carlo simulations are that an ExAO system would probe a fundamentally different range of parameter space for extra-solar planet detection than radial-velocity searches, and would be a powerful complement to astrometric searches. Furthermore, because light from the planets is directly detected using an ExAO system, it would be possible to begin the process of characterizing the physics and chemistry of extra-solar planets. Further analysis has also predicted that ExAO could allow detection of dust densities ~100 times lower than HST/NICMOS. This would enable an ExAO system to probe dust in outer parts of mature systems, complementary to SIRTF and ALMA. It was also recognized that ExAO could allow visible-light AO on bright stars, enabling ultra-high-contrast imaging to probe stellar physics

Based on these scientific considerations and on technological considerations with respect to the state of the art and likely development scenarios for specific adaptive optics components, the CfAO has drafted a comprehensive 5 year plan for the construction and deployment of a ~3000 actuator ExAO system on an 8-10 meter telescope. Performance models for the initial strawman design predict a Strehl ratio of 0.9-0.95 at 1.65 mm and detectable contrast ratios of 107-108 for guide stars with brightness in the range of R=7-10. This plan also incorporates ongoing high-

41 contrast science with the Keck and Lick AO systems, and the development and deployment of an interferometric wavefront sensor operating directly on starlight in order to help meet the overall requirements on residual systematic aberrations.

Telescope

Conventional

AO system Figure 2.3-3. – Block diagram of the strawman ExAO system proposed to be MEMS constructed under the Center’s new 5- deformable year ExAO draft plan that would lead to mirror the deployment of an ExAO system on an 8-10 meter telescope in 2007. Dichroic Fast

(1 micron) Hartmann

WFS AO Computer

System

Dichroic Slow

(1.5 Interferometer

micron) WFS

Science

Camera

In year 4, the CfAO will support the first phase of the integrated ExAO 5-year plan, a conceptual design study phase for which major objectives are to continue to refine the science case, to verify technological feasibility, and to identify the host telescope and involve appropriate observatory staff in the next level of project planning. Under the draft plan, the ExAO system would be integrated in 2006 and deployed on a telescope in 2007 for a total cost of ~$6 million (not including the science camera which might already exist at an observatory). The current expectation is that the CfAO would fund ~50% of the overall cost of this project, and that NASA or a private foundation or another NSF program would fund the remaining 50%. Proposals to several of these external sources for this co-funding are currently under development. 2.3.3 Instrumentation design and analysis. ExAO systems must be coupled with instruments that are optimized for high-contrast imaging. In year 3, the focus of this activity has been the development of an imaging polarimeter for use with AO. This is an example of the type of instrumentation that could be combined with an ExAO system to enhance the capability to achieve the scientific goals of this theme. In this instrument, atmospheric speckle noise is overcome by using a Wollaston prism to image two polarization states simultaneously and thereby sense circumstellar dust in polarized light. Polarimetry is a powerful probe of the circumstellar disk environment and yet, despite the detection of polarization signals with photometers, very few are mapped in polarization. Such observations are challenging due to the demand for both a stable point spread function (PSF) and a high dynamic range. High dynamic range can be achieved with a coronagraph (assuming high

42 Strehl ratio is achieved), but the stability of the PSF is limited by atmospheric speckle noise. In the case of circumstellar dust disks, the science signal is polarized but the speckles are not, because the latter arise from small angle scattering of unpolarized starlight.

Based on this concept, an imaging polarimeter was developed for the IR camera on the Lick Observatory AO system (IRCAL). The system saw first light in March 2002. The instrument is unique because it is the first dual-channel polarimeter sensitive at K-band due to the LiYF4 Wollaston prism. Because K-band gives maximum Strehl, IRCAL will deliver contrast sensitivities that surpass any other IR imaging polarimeter.

Figure 2.3-4. – Lick AO observations of the reflection nebula R Monoceros with the new IRCAL polarimeter: from left to right: total intensity, Stokes Q, Stokes U, and linear polarization. These data show, for the first time, a dark lane of low polarization associated with a disk-like structure. This technique will enable future ExAO systems to achieve unparalleled sensitivities for the detection of dust disks

2.3.4 High-contrast astronomical observations. Extremely high Strehl and high contrast imaging are the goals of ExAO, and while there are currently no existing systems that deliver the desired performance, much can learned from the existing systems. Therefore, activities are being supported in the ExAO theme to continue a systematic study of the performance of AO at Lick and Keck Observatories to understand how to achieve the highest dynamic range images and spectra with existing systems, while carrying out cutting-edge science observations of targets relevant to the ExAO science case.

In the near term, one way to detect planets or planet-forming protoplanetary disks is to search for them when they are young. The best current AO systems can achieve contrast levels of 105 to 106 at separations of 1 to 2 arc seconds. According to planetary models, a 1 Jupiter-mass planet at an age of 10 million years is quite bright in the near-infrared – a contrast level of only 105. During Year 3, a survey has been made to search for low-mass companions to young stars in the Orion, Taurus and Ophiucus regions, as well as some young field stars associated with the TW Hydra and Beta Pictoris groups. The Ophiucus imaging has revealed two extra-solar planet candidates. One candidate, shown in the image below, has a contrast relative to its primary of 104 at a separation of 1.6". If this object is physically associated with the star, it would be located 224 AU from the star and have a mass in the range of 3-7 Jupiter masses. Finding a

43 planetary companion at such a wide separation from such a young star would represent a major change in our picture of planet formation, but the true nature of these objects must be determined through follow-up imaging and spectroscopy. However, even if these objects are not physically associated with the nearby stars, these observations demonstrate the ability of AO to detect planet-like objects orbiting young stars.

In addition to the searches for planetary objects, high-contrast AO spectroscopic observations of young multiple-star systems in Taurus and Ophiucus have also been performed in year 3. These observations are being used to determine the properties and masses of young low-mass stars and candidate brown dwarfs, and also demonstrate the capabilities of high-order AO, and illustrate some of the deficiencies compared with what may be possible with ExAO in the future.

Figure 2.3-5. – Keck AO observations of a young star in Ophiucus showing a candidate extra-solar planet, which would be located at 224 AU and have a mass of 3-7 Jupiter masses if it were confirmed to be physically associated with the star.

2.3.5 Current AO system performance optimization. Before the next generation of AO systems is built, it is necessary to understand the performance of current systems. AO systems now span a wide range of parameter space – from 36-element curvature systems on small telescopes to 349-actuator systems on 10-m segmented telescopes and 1000-actuator visible-light systems. The first goal of this effort is to evaluate the performance of many AO systems (including vision science systems), both for overall performance and high-contrast imaging. The second goal is to work to improve the performance of key systems that may not have reached their full potential, such as the Keck II AO system and possibly the USAF AEOS system. The third goal is to facilitate the exchange of knowledge among AO system operators, including vision science as well as astronomy.

In order to address the goals of performance evaluation for many AO systems and the exchange of knowledge between AO system operators, a workshop is being organized which will provide a forum to focus on these goals. In addition to this workshop, the main concentration of the effort in this area is focused on the optimization of the Keck AO system. Because the ability of an ExAO system to achieve high contrast ratios scales with the primary telescope aperture as, D4, it is useful to understand the characteristics of the largest telescopes, the Keck Telescopes, to assess their suitability for ExAO.

44 Figure 2.3-6. – Keck primary mirror phase map (left) and Lyot pupil image (right). Bright (red) regions in the Lyot pupil image correspond to areas of phase aberration on the primary mirror that would need to be masked in by a coronagraph in order for an ExAO system on Keck to achieve theoretically predicted contrast ratios.

The effort to optimize the Keck AO system was begun by using the new IR camera for the Keck AO system, (NIRC2) to verify the high-dynamic-range performance. NIRC2 has a pupil- viewing mode; combining this with a focal-plane occulting spot blocking out the core of the PSF creates an image in which the regions that scatter light into the wings of the PSF are highlighted. This Lyot-plane image essentially shows the regions that would need to be masked by a coronagraph – in an ideal telescope, for example, the image would be bright at the edges of the primary mirror; in a non-ideal telescope it will be bright at regions where phase aberrations occur at spatial frequencies that the AO system cannot correct. As predicted by our PSF models, the main source of scattered light are the segment-center dimples on the Keck primary; a secondary source is phase discontinuities at the edges of segments. Further work on optimization of the Keck AO system is underway, including development of a detailed model to analyze the tolerances for various system alignment and calibration procedures, and planning is underway for further experiments to address performance issues. 2.3.6 High-order MEMS development. ExAO systems require deformable mirrors with many actuators. MEMS technology offers the possibility of developing this type of high-order deformable mirror for a cost of about one dollar per actuator, i.e., about three orders of magnitude less expensive than conventional glass deformable mirrors. MEMS are therefore seen as an attractive enabling technology for ExAO systems. In its first two years, the CfAO has pursued a coordinated strategy of MEMS development designed to take advantage of national advances in optical MEMS technology while providing a focus on the characteristics important for CfAO applications in astronomy and vision science.

In CfAO year 3, MEMS deformable mirrors with device architectures that allow scaling to over 10,000 actuators are being investigated. This involves new packaging and electronics integration strategies. In addition, actuator designs that allow scaling to over 10 _m surface motions, and fabrication techniques that allow scaling of device sizes to over 10 cm are being investigated. These investigations are being coordinated with other MEMS projects in the CfAO with an emphasis on vision science applications, as well as other multi-institutional optical MEMS development efforts currently being directed by LLNL. The development activities in this area support not only the ExAO theme, but also the ELT AO and vision AO themes.

Figure 2.3-7. – Prototype 1000-actuator MEMS deformable mirror developed at Boston University (left). Illustration of scalable electronics integration strategy with high-voltage CMOS amplifiers located under each actuator (center). Prototype high-voltage CMOS amplifier developed at LLNL for use with Boston University MEMS DM (right). This new deformable mirror technology could enable ExAO systems with thousands of actuators.

2.3.7 High-resolution wavefront control algorithm development. Technology development is needed to make the ExAO real-time control computations feasible. Current projections of computer processing speed do not keep pace with the needs foreseen for ExAO, so development of fast, but still accurate, algorithms for real-time wavefront reconstruction and control is necessary. In this area, an effort has been supported to investigate efficient algorithms for wavefront reconstruction based on Fast Fourier Transform techniques, for which the number of computations required to reconstruct the wavefront from a standard slope sensor is less than the typical vector-matrix-multiply approach when the number of measurement points is large.

Figure 2.3-8. – Simulation results for residual error from wavefront reconstruction for an ExAO system with ~2200 actuators using both traditional Vector-Matrix-Multiply (VMM) and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) methods. From left to right, the images are of the reconstructed wavefront phase (1490 nm rms), the VMM residual error (70 nm rms), and two versions of the FFT residual error (72 nm rms and 58 nm rms) using different reconstruction geometries. The computational requirements are 50-100 times less for the two FFT methods compared with the VMM method for this number of actuators, making the FFT method a viable choice for ExAO.

Significant progress has been made, particularly in the solution of the boundary problem for reconstruction of phase over an arbitrary aperture, other than a square. Noise propagation performance of FFT reconstructors has also been analyzed through both theory and simulation demonstrating acceptable noise performance for realistic assumptions. Additional work has expanded the treatment of FT reconstructors to deal with realistic Shack-Hartmann sensors and deformable mirrors. This work shows how the FFT reconstructors can be easily modified to deal with WFS gains, system misalignments and deformable mirror behavior. Direct comparison to

46 VMM reconstruction for large systems was simulated demonstrating similar residual error. The net result of this work has been to show that FFT reconstructors are a viable option for ExAO systems. Future work will begin to compare FFT reconstructors with other efficient algorithms to determine the optimal approach for ExAO.

47 2.4 Theme 4 – Compact Vision Science Instrumentation for Clinical and Scientific Use

Faculty - Don Miller, Richard Muller, Austin Roorda, Bernard Sadoulet, David Williams Research Scientists - Abdul Awwal, Julian Christou, Ravi Jonnal, Scot Olivier, Bernando Romero-Borja, Charles Thompson, Karen Thorn, Scott Wilks Postdoctoral Researchers - Li Chen, Stacey Choi, Nathan Doble, Michael Helmbrecht, Peter Kurczynski, Junle Qu, Krishnakumar, Arturo Cisneros, Kerry Highbarger Graduate Students - William Donnelly III, Sina Farsiu, Dan Good, Heidi Hofer, Joy Martin, Siddharth Poonja, Jason Porter, Julia Wilhelmsen, Fan Zhou

Introduction The Vision Theme has had a very productive year with most of the projects meeting their milestones. Progress had been made in three different areas: vision science, instrumentation, and low cost wavefront correctors. These areas are discussed below. 2.4.1 Goals of Theme 4 and Role of CfAO A major goal of the CfAO is to increase the accessibility of adaptive optics to vision science. CfAO funds the technical infrastructure at the nodes where vision AO systems are operating or under development (Houston, Indiana, LLNL, and Rochester) enabling the scientific activity at each node as well as collaborations with scientists outside the Center. CfAO funding for AO technology leverages support for these scientific initiatives from several other sources, such as the DOE, the National Eye Institute, and the Steinbach Foundation. An abbreviated list of scientific projects in year 3 follows: 2.4.2 Angular Tuning of Single Cones Collaboration between University of Houston and University of Rochester Retinal imaging with adaptive optics has allowed the first opportunity to measure directly the angular tuning properties of individual cones in vivo. These measurements show that there is very little disarray in the photoreceptors implying that objective measurements of the optical fiber properties of an ensemble of cones are essentially the same as for a single cone. A paper to be published in the Journal of Vision is currently in press. 2.4.3 The Role of Higher Order Aberrations in Accommodation. Collaboration between Phillip Kruger, SUNY College of Optometry and University of Rochester. The human eye is remarkably good at choosing the correct direction to change focus when the distance of a visual stimulus is either increased or decreased. One previously untested theory has been that monochromatic aberrations provide an error signal to guide accommodation. This theory was tested by observing accommodation when monochromatic aberrations have been removed with adaptive optics. Most subjects can accommodate quickly and accurately even in the absence of monochromatic aberrations.

48 2.4.4 The Topography of the Cone Mosaic in Humans with Known Photopigment Gene Arrays. Collaboration between Jay and Maureen Neitz, Medical College of Wisconsin and the University of Rochester. The Rochester AO system is providing new images of the arrangement of the three kinds of cones in people whose gene arrays have been characterized by the Wisconsin team. Organization of the three classes of cone photoreceptors living human retinas.

YY MD JC

%L = 38% + or - 7% %L = 60% + or - 3% %L = 66% + or - 4%

AP BS

%L = 70% + or - 4% %L = 96.7% + or - 2.3%

%L is %L of total L+M, not out of total cone number (L+M+S). For all subjects, S cones are approximately 5-10 percent of total cone number. Retinal eccentricity is approximately 1 degree for each subject. Fig. 2.4-1

2.4.5 Image Processing for High Resolution Retinal Imaging Julian Christou at UCSC is leading a collaboration with Houston, Indiana, and Rochester to apply blind deconvolution algorithms initially developed for atmospheric imaging problems to AO retinal images. Fig. 2.4 -2 shows that this method is indeed valuable in improving AO retinal images. The most compelling evidence for this comes from determining that the three classes of cones can be distinguished more reliably following deconvolution. This project illustrates the value of collaborative efforts between astronomy and vision science. All vision AO systems for retinal imaging will ultimately benefit from this effort. It is very important that CfAO find ways to accelerate this effort in year 4. Future work will involve attempting to take advantage of the residual wavefront error assessed with the wavefront sensor to improve the deconvolution.

49 Figure 2.4-2: Primate AO retinal images (top) and their blind deconvolution results (bottom) for (left-to-right) 470, 650 and full bleach respectively. The top are the 36 frame average and the MFBD results were obtained by reducing the 36 frames simultaneously.

2.4.6 The Effectiveness of Different Aberrations on Subjective Blur Collaboration between Bausch and Lomb and the University of Rochester. The use of wave front sensing in ophthalmology and optometry to describe the eye’s optical defects is limited by the lack of understanding about how individual aberrations affect visual performance. The Rochester AO system is used to correct the eye’s aberrations and replace them with known amounts of other aberrations, the visual impact of which can be measured. These experiments have resulted in a metric for computing subjective blur from the coefficients of Zernike Polynomials, providing clinicians with a measure of the severity of the wave aberration that is superior to common metrics such as RMS and Strehl ratio. 2.4.7 Clinical Applications of High Resolution Retinal Imaging with Adaptive Optics A major goal of CfAO is to deploy adaptive optics systems in clinical settings so that the utility of AO can be explored for the diagnosis and treatment of eye disease. Three CfAO nodes, Houston, LLNL, and Rochester have made their AO systems available to clinical researchers and projects are ongoing to examine age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and retinitis pigmentosa and well as to better understand the influence of the eye’s optics on visual acuity. Fig. 2.4-3 shows examples of images obtained at the University of

50 Houston illustrating hard exudates and microaneurysms in a patient with diabetic retinopathy that can be visualized especially clearly with adaptive optics.

Fig. 2.4-3

2.4.8 Progress on Vision Science Instrumentation At the inception of CfAO, the only node with a functioning AO system for vision science was the University of Rochester. CfAO funding has lead to a second-generation device at Rochester as well as three new instruments that are now functioning at Houston, Indiana, and UC Davis. The UC Davis device was designed and built at LLNL. The ultimate goal is to incorporate adaptive optics in at least six ophthalmic instruments. CfAO will build prototypes of several of these devices. The prototypes will be inserted in clinical environments where their clinical utility can be evaluated. Once clinical utility has been established, corporate partners will be identified, and a commercialization plan will be developed and implemented.

The University of Rochester has submitted a proposal to NIH for a Bioengineering Research Partnership Grant (BRP) “Adaptive Optics Instrumentation for Advanced Ophthalmic Imaging”, which may significantly leverage CfAO funding. If awarded, six participating institutions will share $2M per year for 5 years, the University of Rochester, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Doheny Eye Institute at USC, the University of Houston, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Schepens Eye Research Institute. 6 devices will be developed that will provide high resolution imaging of neovascularization in age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, photoreceptors in retinal degenerative disease such as retinitis pigmentosa, ganglion cell bodies in glaucoma, individual retinal pigment epithelial cells, and blood flow in the smallest retinal capillaries.

Ophthalmic instruments that could benefit from AO include: 1. Flood-Illuminating Fundus Camera. 2. Confocal Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope.

51 3. Coherence-Gated Fundus Camera. 4. Phoropter/Autorefractor 5. Surgical Microscope or Slit lamp. 6. High Resolution Photocoagulator. 7. Microperimeters 8. Eye trackers

Prototypes of the first four of these instruments have already been constructed with CfAO support. The development of the flood-illuminated fundus camera at Rochester was described in last year’s Annual Report. Progress with each of the three new instruments follows: 2.4.9 First Results with University of Houston’s Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope One the most significant vision theme developments in year three was Houston’s progress in realizing its AOSLO. The significance of this instrument is that it allows retinal imaging in real- time, unlike the Rochester instrument which takes single snapshots. Moreover, it is able to axially section the retina, so that light from other layers of retina than the desired one can be rejected. This valuable capability is illustrated in Fig. 2.4-4, which shows three layers of a section of retina 4.5 degrees superior to the fovea. The sections reveal the surface of the nerve fiber layer, the blood vessel that is passing through the nerve fiber layer and the underlying photoreceptors. The image sequence spans about 300 mm of axial depth in the retina.

Fig 2.4-4 In the left image, the focal plane is at the surface of the nerve fibers. The central image shows a deeper optical section where less nerve fiber structure is seen but the blood vessel is in full view. The right image shows an optical section at the level of the photoreceptors. Scale bar is 100 micrometers. The Houston AOSLO has also produced high resolution movies showing single white blood cells flowing through retinal capillaries, the first time this has ever been visualized in vivo. Houston and Rochester have begun a collaboration to determine how much better image contrast can be achieved with the Houston instrument. They have already found that the Houston instrument is capable of resolving photoreceptors in the eyes of two subjects in which they could not be seen with the Rochester instrument, supporting the view that confocal imaging is an effective complement to AO in retinal imaging. Effort for next year include the refinement and development of post-processing methods to, for example, remove artifacts from the images caused by eye movements during scanning.

52 2.4.10 Indiana University’s Progress on the Coherence-Gated Retinal Camera Despite the significant developments at Houston, there remain many cells in the living retina that go unresolved. A major challenge for CfAO in the future is to push the imaging limits so that cells other than photoreceptors, such as ganglion cells, the retinal output neurons that are damaged by glaucoma, can be imaged in vivo. This will require marrying adaptive optics to other technologies. Coherence gating is a promising example, and the project ongoing at Indiana University by Don Miller may push the envelope of what can be seen in the living retina. Miller’s group has made considerable progress on his Coherence-Gated Retinal Camera equipped with adaptive optics. Coherence gating provides a superior method to confocal scanning as a way to optically section the retina. Exceptional axial resolution can be achieved with spectrally broad sources, complementing the high transverse resolution gained with adaptive optics. In year 3, the AO system was successfully integrated into the coherence-gated camera, and promising results have been obtained in artificial eyes. The project is the most technically challenging instrumentation project in the vision theme. The first images obtained in real eyes are anticipated in year 4. 2.4.11 LLNL Adaptive Optics Phoropter This project at LLNL, in collaboration with the University of Rochester and in partnership with Bausch and Lomb, has developed a portable adaptive optics phoropter suitable for clinical demonstration. This device allows a patient to view a visual acuity chart through adaptive optics. The AO system automatically measures and corrects the aberrations of patient’s eye and provides a prescription for glasses, contact lenses, or a refractive surgical procedure. CfAO provided the original funding for this project, which is now largely supported by a DOE Biomedical Engineering grant, in collaboration with the University of Rochester and Bausch and Lomb, as well as UC Davis and the Army Aeromedical Research Lab. LLNL is evaluating two wavefront corrector options for the portable phoropter: liquid crystal spatial light modulators (LC SLM’s) and micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) deformable mirrors (DM’s). It has deployed an AO phoropter, using LC SLM technology from Hamamatsu, at the UC Davis Medical Center. Experiments have begun on human subjects to assess the limits of human visual acuity. A second AO phoropter, to be deployed by the end of the year, will employ a MEMS DM from Boston Micromachines Corporation, and will use a modified version of a commercially available ophthalmic wavefront sensor from Wavefront Sciences.

Figure 2.4-5: AO system developed at LLNL for ophthalmic application using the Hamamatsu liquid crystal spatial light modulator, deployed at the UC Davis Medical Center for clinical tests of the limits of human visual acuity.

53 2.4.12 Optimization of AO systems for Vision Science. The detailed understanding of the performance of vision AO systems is become increasingly important. All vision nodes in the Center will collaborate in a coordinated effort to optimize AO systems for vision science. A component of this project will be the creation of a document that provides a prescription for AO system construction, alignment, and calibration. The vision nodes will develop, implement and document techniques for quantitative analysis of the behavior of vision science AO systems. This will be done by systematic application of principles used previously in the analysis of AO systems in astronomy. This project will parallel an onging CfAO project to characterize and optimize the performance of the Keck AO system. Coordinating this project between astronomy and vision science is an important Center goal that needs additional effort in the future to make sure that it is successful. 2.4.13 Progress on Low Cost Wave Front Correctors for Vision Science The high cost of conventional deformable mirrors is a fundamental impediment to the widespread availability of AO to vision scientists. Conventional deformable mirrors, such as those made by Xinetics, cost about $1,000 dollars per actuator. With roughly 100 actuators required in a vision AO system, the deformable mirror by itself makes an ophthalmic instrument prohibitively expensive. Moreover, these mirrors are large, greatly increasing the size of ophthalmic instruments. A typical examination room would not be able to accommodate such a large instrument. The development of an inexpensive and compact wave front corrector is a major goal of the CfAO. In a collaboration between LLNL and Rochester, a Boston Micromachines MEMS mirror has been compared with a 97 actuator Xinetics mirror using metrics based on interferometry, wave front sensing, retinal imaging, and vision improvement. The 2nd generation AO system at Rochester served as a test-bed. Except for the limited stroke of the BMC MEMS mirror (+-1 mm), its performance was comparable to the Xinetics mirror. This work, which is published in Optics Letters, is the first time that a MEMS mirror has been used in a closed loop AO system for the eye. We also believe this is the first time that photoreceptor images have been obtained in vivo from an AO system utilizing a mirror other than a Xinetics DM.

Fig. 2.4-6

54 Despite the successful use of this MEMS device for vision science, stroke limitations remain severe. Work by Don Miller at Indiana and Nathan Doble at Rochester indicate that the ideal stroke for the vision science application would be 10-12 _m. Consequently, CfAO is supporting three independent efforts, each with a different strategy and design, to develop low-cost, compact, high-stroke wavefront correctors for vision applications. The development of suitable mirrors for vision science is probably the most significant goal for this theme. Moreover, these mirrors are needed quickly for the next generation of AO systems currently under design at the various vision nodes. These mirrors will be tested initially at the University of Rochester and Lawrence Livermore and made available to all the CfAO vision nodes. Boston Micromachines will modify the design of their mirror to increase the stroke, with the expectation of achieving strokes comparable to current Xinetics technology. Lucent is developing a charged membrane mirror that will be delivered at the end of Year 3 and anticipate still higher strokes. Finally, Iris AO, a company spun off from CfAO by Michael Helmbrecht, a post-doc from BSAC at UC, Berkeley working with Richard Muller, has been contracted to provide very high stroke devices for the vision application within the next 6 months.

The BSAC MEMS Mirror

Fig. 2.4-7

The formation of Iris AO represents an important milestone for CfAO because it evolved directly from the Center and indicates CfAO’s potential to facilitate the commercialization of the AO technology it develops. Iris AO won two prestigious awards for its business plan: the Berkeley Business Plan Competition and the MBA Jungle competition in New York City, netting $75K in start-up capital from these competitions alone. 2.4.14 Summary of Year 4 Research The thrust will be to continue device and system developments that will lead to clinical applications of AO systems for both diagnostic and vision correction purposes.

55 1. The University of Rochester will use its AO layout as a test bed for the MEMS deformable mirrors that are being developed and manufactured with support from the CfAO. This will be done in conjunction with the ongoing vision science research program at Rochester.

2. The University of Houston’s Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope is now operational and will be fine tuned over the coming year to improve its performance and to use it in ground breaking studies of the living human retina.

3. The University of Indiana’s Coherence-Gated Retinal Camera system will undergo testing and evaluation.

4. Three MEMS deformable mirrors are being developed with support from CfAO. These are scheduled for delivery and evaluation in Year 4

5. The links between astronomers and vision scientists will continue with astronomers collaborating in the processing for high resolution retinal images and providing expertise and advice on procedures for optimization of AO systems.

56 3. Education 3.1 Educational Objectives The Education and Human Resources (EHR) program develops and implements innovative programs that focus on three major goals, plus an additional goal related to increasing participation of underrepresented groups, described in section 6. The goals are: 1. Increase the versatility of Center graduate students and postdoctoral researchers through exposure and training in the diverse fields within the CfAO research and education programs. 2. Create a model for involving scientists/engineers in educational efforts, using current research-based approaches that increase the access of underrepresented high school and college students to STEM careers, including STEM education. 3. Increase the level of interest in and knowledge of CfAO science and technology in the broader community, particularly at the high school and college levels.

This is a minor change from Year 2. In Year 3 we identified five major factors associated with success in college science/engineering; namely, coursework, academic support, extracurricular activities, social and financial support. These are applicable to high school students preparing for college and to those already enrolled as college students. It became clear that the crucial element for success was the involvement of scientists/engineers in increasing access to STEM and in targeting students at either the high school or undergraduate level. This is reflected in Goal 2 above, which merges two goals identified in Year Two. 3.2 Performance and Management Indicators We have contracted an external evaluation consultant, Julie Shattuck and Associates, to assist in the development, implementation, and evaluation of EHR projects. The EHR staff will work closely with the evaluation team to identify measurable objectives, design evaluation tools, and develop both formative and summative evaluation plans. Each of the educational goals will be studied as follows:

1. Increase the versatility of Center graduate students and postdoctoral researchers through exposure and training in the diverse fields within the CfAO research and education programs.

The experience of CfAO graduate students and postdoctoral researchers will be monitored through questionnaires, focus groups, and case studies of representative individuals. We will document their involvement in Center activities and identify how the activities have impacted their professional development as scientists/engineers. A major element of this goal is to train graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to use research based educational strategies. Their involvement in other CfAO EHR activities provides a venue for implementing their newly learned skills and the capacity to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching.

2. Create a model for involving scientists/engineers in educational efforts, using current, research-based approaches and that increases the access of underrepresented high school and college students to STEM careers, including STEM education.

57 Several CfAO EHR programs are actively pursuing this goal by providing STEM experiences and mentoring to groups that are historically underrepresented in the sciences. Our primary method for assessing success will be through the monitoring of five participatory elements: Coursework. Do students take courses that support their interests in STEM and prepare them for the next level? Academic Support. Do students utilize the broad range of programs and services that support them in their goal for high academic achievement? Extracurricular Activities. Do students participate in science/engineering/math based programs and other activities that keep their motivation strong and give them the experiences they need to advance and succeed? Social Support. Do students establish a social network that supports their interests and high academic achievement? Do they have a growing network that gives them a sense of belonging in STEM? Financial Support. Do students research and apply for financial aid? Are they knowledgeable about how to increase their chances for scholarships?

We will document the activities of our scientists and engineers related to this goal, and report on any changes in their perceptions of their role in recruiting and retaining underrepresented students.

3. Increase the interest in and knowledge of CfAO science and technology in the broader community, with a focus on high school and college levels.

Our success in accomplishing this goal will be measured through questionnaires, observations, and other evaluation tools designed to determine interest and knowledge in a broad range of activities that we are currently designing. 3.3 Problems Encountered Reaching Education Goals The major problems faced by EHR include: 1) involving all CfAO members in CfAO education projects; 2) for graduate students – achieving a balance between their professional development activities, their research and their advisors’ expectations.

1. We have made significant progress in the participation of CfAO members in CfAO education activities. The difficulty currently being experienced is one of resources. With approximately 120 CfAO members, developing educational projects that involve them all, and that can be managed by EHR staff, has been a challenge. We are confident of reaching our goal of involving all members at a level of at least 5% of their time, but it will take time to accomplish this and maintain high quality educational projects.

2. Graduate students - We have developed a number of professional development activities for CfAO graduate students, including the Professional Development Workshop and Mini-Grants. There is clearly an interest and need for more activities, including career exploration, ethics, development of skills for non-academic settings, and more training in teaching. However, the heavy research workload for graduate students makes it difficult to involve them in activities without negatively impacting their research expectations.

58 3.4 The Center's Internal Educational Activities

3.4.1 Annual Professional Development Conference Activity Name Annual Professional Development Conference Led by Lisa Hunter Intended Audience CfAO graduate students and postdoctoral researchers

Approx Number of 28 plus 18 additional attendees (local teachers, scientists, and Attendees (if appl.) administrators)

Goals: 1) Develop the teaching skills of CfAO graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, to enhance CfAO education and other educational activities. 2) Develop partnerships and collaborations within the scientific, technical and educational community of Hawaii. 3) Build community and cross-disciplinary interactions among CfAO graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. At a broader level, this project conforms to EHR Goal #1, to increase the versatility of Center graduate students and postdoctoral researchers through exposure to and training in the diverse fields within the CfAO research and education programs.

Project Description: In May 2002, the CfAO held its second annual Professional Development Workshop on the island of Maui in Hawaii. Graduate student and postdoctoral attendees represented both astronomy and vision science. Participants visited the observatories on Haleakala; attended a Center-sponsored workshop on inquiry-based teaching; presented non- technical posters to local high school and community college teachers; and attended a community networking session that brought in the local technical and scientific community. The workshop provided an opportunity for participants to develop inter-disciplinary ties and establish contacts for future collaborations. The agenda and other information are available at: http://cfao.ucolick.org/EO/ProjectsComing/EO_conference_2002.shtml.

Approximately half of the attendees were present at the 2001 workshop. Two of them, Tiffany Glassman and Anne Metevier, joined the workshop staff after attending several planning and training sessions. Tiffany also utilized a CfAO Mini-Grant to help EHR and workshop staff review existing instructional material and identify activities that were well suited for an inquiry activity. Four other returning students participated in a panel presentation on how they had put inquiry based teaching into practice since the last workshop. As this workshop evolves we will continue to provide leadership opportunities for returning attendees.

A new element this year was the “Community Networking Session” which brought in the local scientific, technical and educational community to network with workshop participants. Our collaboration with the Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB) facilitated the sponsorship

59 of this session by MEDB, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), and a number of the federal contractors on Maui. Approximately 40 individuals attended the event, learning about CfAO research through poster presentations and informal time with workshop attendees.

Figure 3-1 Dr Barry Kluger-Bell guides a class on the principles of inquiry based teaching.

Outcomes: The documentation and evaluation of the workshop by Julie Shattuck and Associates is available as a supplemental document. Initial participant responses were extremely positive, and follow-up interviews are planned to evaluate how the workshop affected EHR educational activities. Immediate outcomes are: 1. Three participants designed and implemented a four-day orientation for the CfAO undergraduate internship program. The orientation included an inquiry activity to teach optics that was designed at the workshop. Initial response at the internship program was extremely positive, and follow-up evaluation is currently underway. 2. Two participants developed an inquiry experience and then used it to teach high school students in the “Stars, Sight and Science” program in July, 2002. 3. Two participants re-designed a student project for the “Stars, Sight and Science” program. The new project incorporated a strong inquiry component, with students pursuing their own questions, analyzing and interpreting data, and then communicating the results. An oral presentation was given by each of the students who completed the projects, an example can be seen at: http://people.ucsc.edu/~ffatemi/cluster%2010%20homepage.thm.

Comments from several of the participants are presented below: “It really got me thinking about how to do inquiry and what concerns come up in doing it.”

“…synthesis of the inquiry activity, work on inquiry designs, the panel discussions, and observing Barry and Candice facilitate…all had immediate and relevance for my upcoming involvement in planning the internship orientation.”

60 3.4.2 Mini-Grant Project Activity Name Mini-Grant Project Led by Lisa Hunter Intended Audience All CfAO graduate students and postdoctoral researchers Approx Number of 3 in the half of Year 3. Attendees (if appl.)

Goals: 1) This project supports CfAO EHR goal #1, to increase the versatility of Center graduate students and postdoctoral researchers through exposure to and training in the diverse fields within the CfAO research and education programs. 2) To stimulate cross-disciplinary collaborations within the CfAO.

Project Description: The Mini-Grant Project is designed to facilitate exchanges of young researchers between vision science, astronomy and education. Graduate students and postdoctoral researchers are invited to submit one-page proposals outlining a visit to a CfAO site so as to gain experience in a different discipline: for example astronomers visiting vision science sites and vice versa.

Outcomes: In Year 3, three Mini-Grants were completed as follows: 1. Lynne Raschke, astronomy graduate student, University of California, Santa Cruz. Lynne visited a CfAO’s vision science site at the University of Rochester. While in Rochester she participated as a subject in several vision science experiments and worked with vision science graduate student, Jason Porter, to develop content for the CfAO internship orientation. This work was continued at the Professional Development Workshop where additional graduate students were helped modify the instructional material to include inquiry. 2. Peter Kurczynski, postdoctoral researcher, Bell Labs/UC Berkeley Peter Kurczynski’s experience has primarily involved the design and integration of micro- electromechanical systems (MEMS) for adaptive optics applications. The mini-grant provided him the opportunity to attend astronomical observing runs at Kitt Peak and Cerro Tololo as part of the Deep Lens Survey being undertaken by astronomers at Bell Labs. He participated in astronomical data collection and improved his understanding of how instruments are used at the telescope, and how useful scientific information is gained from the data. A report on Peter’s experience is forthcoming. 3. Tiffany Glassman, astronomy graduate student, University of California, Los Angeles. Tiffany worked with Lisa Hunter (CfAO, UCSC), Barry Kluger-Bell (Exploratorium), and Doris Ash (Education Dept., UCSC). The purpose of the project was to develop the activities for the Maui workshop. In particular to develop inquiry-based education exercises that are aligned to the interests of the participants. The participants will also develop an inquiry-based activity that can be used in future CfAO educational projects (e.g. Stars, Sight, and Science or the internship orientation). Quote from Tiffany: “Planning the inquiry activities for the retreat gave me a much better understanding of the process of inquiry, and more importantly, what it takes to prepare for

61 one. I felt I was able to keep the retreat focused on what would be most useful for the graduate student and postdoc participants and I think this really paid off in a more focused and productive retreat.”

3.4.3 Third Annual Summer School on Adaptive Optics Activity Name Third Annual Summer School on Adaptive Optics Led by Andreas Quirrenbach Intended Audience All professionals interested in Adaptive Optics – US graduate students and postdocs are specifically targeted. Approx Number of 100 Attendees (if appl.)

Goal: To disseminate knowledge of Adaptive Optics to US Researchers in particular and researchers in general.

Project Description: The workshop is held at the UCSC campus over a period of six days: August 3 – August 9, 2002. Participants attend both lectures and laboratory sessions. The subject matter is aimed at both Astronomy and Vision Science researchers. The course work is repeated and updated on alternate years. This being the third year the course subject matter being covered is the “Fundamentals of Adaptive Optics.” This updated version of the 2000 summer school includes “hands on” computer labs demonstrating commercially available software for image analysis and enhancement. All travel expenses for CfAO attendees are covered by the Center. The fee for attending the conference plus board and lodging for the six days is $200. Students from underrepresented groups are eligible to apply for a fee waiver through CfAO EHR. Speakers are primarily from the CfAO and include graduate students and postdocs.

3.5 The Center's External Educational Activities

3.5.1 Stars, Sight, and Science Summer Course Activity Name Stars, Sight, and Science Summer Course Led by Lisa Hunter Intended Audience Primarily underrepresented high school students Approx Number of 15 in 2002, all underrepresented minorities Attendees (if appl.)

GOAL: Stars, Sight, and Science, has two major goals: 1) Develop a learning environment where scientists have the opportunity to implement new, research based teaching, mentoring, and assessment strategies; 2) Motivate participants to prepare themselves to pursue an STEM degree (2-year or 4-year) at college.

Project Description:

62 The four-week summer immersion experience includes three coordinated courses on vision science, astronomy, and science communication developed by CfAO: 1. Astronomy Today: Observing the Universe 2. Human Vision: Photons, Proteins, and Perception 3. Science Communication

This program is offered in conjunction with the California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science (COSMOS) program at UCSC. Stars, Sight and Science. In addition through a partnership with the UCSC-based Educational Partnership Center (EPC), it has established partnerships with three local minority-serving high schools—Watsonville High School, Overfelt High School (San Jose), and North Salinas High School. Students from other high schools are accepted if they fit the required academic and demographic profile. Stars, Sight, and Science focuses on middle to high achieving underrepresented6 students, providing them with interdisciplinary, inquiry based experiences, and ongoing support through the Clustered Mentoring Program (submitted as a separate project). Teachers are integrated into instructional activities, mentoring, and long-term program development. The program uses adaptive optics as a starting point to foster an interest in related fields, such as vision science, astronomy, engineering, and advanced instrumentation.

Figure 3-2. Students in the Stars, Sight and Science program have their vision checked with a wavefront sensor.

Student biographies, and other information is available on the student developed web site: http://people.ucsc.edu/~ffatemi/cluster%2010%20homepage.htm

Outcomes: 1. Of the fifteen students from the 2001 program, eight will enroll in college in Fall 2002. 2. Cynthia Mendoza from Watsonville High School was awarded a scholarship of $4,000 to attend UC Santa Cruz. She has been admitted and will be enrolling for her first quarter this

6 Underrepresented groups defined here as Hispanic, African American, Native American, Pacific Islander, women, and persons with disabilities.

63 fall. Cynthia has applied to the Academic Excellence Program, and academic support program for science and engineering majors, and is considering a major in either biology or chemistry. 3. A new inquiry experience has been developed and taught by CfAO members: “Table Top Optics.” In Year Three we will refine the module and develop an learning assessment tool. 3.5.2 Four Year and Community College Internships Activity Name Four Year and Community College Internships Led by Lisa Hunter Intended Audience Undergraduates, from underrepresented groups, with an emphasis on community college students Approx Number of 14 in 2002 (13 from underrepresented groups) Attendees (if appl.)

Goal: Establish a center-based model for the retention and advancement of underrepresented college students, or potential college students, into the scientific or technical workforce, or next educational level.

Project Description: An internship program for community college students was piloted during Year 2, providing summer research experiences for four community college students. In Year 3, the program was expanded to include 14 undergraduates, with a strong focus on community college students.

In addition to the research experiences, students participate in activities that prepare them for future opportunities. They present a 15-minute oral presentation; prepare a poster; write and submit an abstract to present at a conference or symposium; meet with a transfer counselor and develop an academic plan; and prepare a personal statement. Equipped with these tools, they are prepared to apply for scholarships, attend conferences, and apply for additional research experiences.

A new element that was developed and implemented in Year 3 was a 4-day orientation. This was developed by four CfAO graduate students and taught by three of them. The goal is to establish a community among the students; prepare them for the research environment; orient them to the CfAO; and teach them some of the background necessary for a successful experience in the multi-disciplinary environment CfAO provides.

Figure 3.3 Cabrillo College student Arturo Cisneros presents his results of an inquiry at the CfAO Internship Orientation.

Outcomes: 2001 Interns: Carmen Kunz, Cabrillo College, engineering major. Carmen received a full travel award to present a scientific poster at the SACNAS (Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science) conference held in Phoenix, September, 2001. She continues to be excited about engineering and is doing an internship this year at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center through their NSF REU program.

Tami Floyd, Cabrillo College, astronomy major. Tami also received a full travel award to present a poster at the SACNAS conference. She is currently enrolled at Cabrillo College.

Miguel Lizaola, Hartnell College, math major. Miguel received a SACNAS travel award, and prepared a poster, but was unable to attend due to a family emergency. He is taking summer courses and plans to transfer to UC Santa Cruz as a math major.

2002 Interns: As occurred with their predecessors, the fourteen current interns will be giving 15-minute oral presentations (on August 9, 2002). They will also be completing posters to present at undergraduate conferences or symposia, such as the SACNAS conference.

A summary of the demographics of the 2002 interns is below:

Men 4 Women 10

Underrepresented minority 7 Other ethnicity 7

Underrepresented group 13 (women or minority)

65 Not underrepresented 1

Community college 8 4-year institution 6

3.5.3 ALU LIKE Traineeships Activity Name ALU LIKE Traineeships Led by Claire Max and Doug Knight Intended Audience Native Hawaiian Community college students/recent high school graduates Approx Number of 2 annually Attendees (if appl.)

Project Description: The long-term goal of this project is to increase the participation of Native Hawaiians in the technical workforce of Hawaii, especially in the state’s astronomical observatories. To accomplish this, Native Hawaiian trainees are provided internships at LLNL, where they learn optical technician skills. They then work side-by-side with CfAO’s adaptive optics researchers (both astronomy and vision science), participating fully in actual observations and experiments to develop skills in optics and electronics. These mentor relationships and hands-on experiences integrate the educational and research elements of the program. The project also provides intensive follow-up and counseling for past interns to support career and educational development.

A closely related goal is to work toward the development of a new Bachelors Degree program at the University of Hawaii, Hilo campus. This Engineering and Information Technology (EIET) program is being developed by UH Hilo in collaboration with the astronomical observatories on the island of Hawaii, UH Manoa, ALU LIKE, and the CfAO.

Outcomes: All four trainees who have completed the traineeship are currently working in a technical field or pursuing a degree in a science or technology area in Hawaii. 3.6 Summary of Professional Development Activities for Center Students 1. Annual Professional Development Conference – A goal of the Adaptive Optics Center is to “make sparks fly between astronomy and vision science”. An essential element of this is for students from these two disciplines to meet, socialize and establish collaborations. The conference at Maui, Hawaii did much to further this goal. In addition the workshop on inquiry based learning awakened in many of these students a desire to become better teachers. 2. Mini-Grant Project - This project is designed to encourage cross-disciplinary exchanges.

66 3. Third Annual Summer School on Adaptive Optics – Courses are intended to convey the scope and application of adaptive optics to research. This is a professional development course for both astronomers and vision scientists 4. Stars, Sight, and Science Summer Course – The course is designed for under-represented high school students develop interest in science and engineering. It also provides a venue for CfAO graduate students and post docs to apply inquiry based teaching principles learned at the Professional Development Workshop in courses provided to the high school students and sensitizes them to diversity issues. 3.7 Integrating Research and Education All our Center members have agreed to commit 5% of their time to education. Considerable gains have been made in this area, and we continue to focus on involving members in meaningful activities that directly contribute to our educational goals. A few illustrative examples of how we have integrated research and education follow:

· Fourteen undergraduates worked on CfAO related research in the summer of 2002. · Fifteen high school students and one high school teacher participated in Stars, Sight and Science, a course on vision science, astronomy, and optics. A special session on adaptive optics was led by graduate students Jason Porter (Rochester) and Joy Parker (Houston). · Approximately fifteen CfAO members contributed to the instruction of Stars, Sight and Science. · Twenty-eight CfAO graduate students and postdocs developed non-technical posters that could communicate their research to high school science teachers. · Inquiry-based learning was introduced to twenty-eight CfAO graduate students and postdocs in spring 2002. The complexities of inquiry based teaching will continue to be a focus area. · All CfAO retreats, and nearly all CfAO presentations, include an education and human resources component. 3.8 Plans for Year Four

3.8.1 Overview Our plans for Year Four continue the progress made in Year Three, with several new projects to be implemented. A range of activities will be initiated as the Center matures to create an environment that fully integrates research and education. A summary of each program follows: 3.8.2 Annual Professional Development Workshop This project will continue in the same general format, with expanded activities within the Maui community. The Community Networking Session will be further developed to include more career related information for the workshop participants. We will be considering other strategies for including more career exploration activities, along with several other recommendations that were highlighted in the evaluation of the workshop. Our goal for the 2003 workshop is to include an authentic teaching activity with local Maui students to give participants an opportunity to put into practice what they have learned with experts observing and giving immediate feedback.

67 3.8.3 Mini-Grant Project Mini-Grants will continue to be offered and promoted within the Center. We will be creating a listing of opportunities and ideas to encourage more proposals. 3.8.4 Summer School We will continue offering the CfAO Summer School each August. We are currently considering adding a session on ethics to enhance the offerings. We also have added our undergraduate student symposium to the end of the Summer School. 3.8.5 Stars, Sight and Science Stars, Sight and Science will be continued, with more development in the assessment and evaluation of student learning about science and how their perceptions have changed. We will continue the strong link with the Professional Development Workshop, using it to develop instructional activities for Stars, Sight and Science. 3.8.6 Science, Engineering and Technology Training (SETT) Our internships are part of the larger Science, Engineering and Technology Training (SETT) program. In Year 4 we will develop more academic year activities to continue our involvement with students and generate more effective recruiting strategies.

A new element will be added to the SETT program - a week-long short cousre in optics to be taught at Maui Community College (MCC) by CfAO members and MCC faculty. The course will be developed through the new “teaching science for scientists” course (see “New Projects” below), to assure the use of current, research based teaching strategies. The goal is to prepare the students to participate in group laboratory or engineering projects associated with general optics, astronomical imaging or astronomical spectroscopy and to introduce them to the technology and science that is being conducted within the Hawaiian islands. The longer-term goal is to interest them to choose careers associated with optical and astronomical science. A CfAO post doc has volunteered to use his own research as an example and motivator for the students to develop their group project. Following a one-week seminar, he will continue to mentor the students with weekly, or bimonthly meetings, assisting them with their project and introducing them to online resources and the support network available at the CfAO and MCC. 3.8.7 Internships and Educational Programs for Hawaiians We will continue to offer traineeships to Native Hawaiians in collaboration with ALU LIKE and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This project is closely tied to the SETT program and the Annual Professional Development Workshop. Our continued involvement with the Hawaiian community has led us to expand this project to support the growth of CfAO related technology in Hawaiian institutions of higher education, in particular Maui Community College and UH Hilo. We will focus on two objectives related to this expansion: 1) to facilitate interactions between faculty members from Hawaii and CfAO researchers; 2) to assist Maui Community College revise its physics and electronics curriculum to be more aligned with technologies needed by the observatories in Hawaii.

68 3.8.8 Clustered Mentoring Clustered Mentoring supports several CfAO EHR projects. This project is currently in the pilot phase and will be reviewed early in Year Four. 3.8.9 New project: Research and practice in teaching and learning science for researcher scientists. A new graduate level course will be offered through UC Santa Cruz Education Department. Professor Doris Ash will develop and teach a course based on her experience in working with CfAO graduate students and postdoctoral researchers at the Professional Development Workshop. Graduate students will be able to take this course for credit. Post docs and faculty members will be able to audit the course. It will be taught at UCSC through the Education Department, primarily targeting CfAO members at the Santa Cruz node. Other CfAO nodes will receive the course through our videoconferencing facility. The project will also support the development of the new optics short course under development by the CfAO . Doris Ash will provide pedagogical consultation and feedback as the course is designed and implemented at Maui Community College.

69 4. Knowledge Transfer 4.1 Knowledge Transfer Objectives The fundamental objective of our knowledge transfer activities is to enhance the Center’s ability to fulfill its research and education goals as summarized in the CfAO mission statement: “To advance and disseminate the technology of adaptive optics in service to science, health care, industry, and education.” In Year 3, in conjunction with the organizational transition to research and education themes, the CfAO has continued to emphasize knowledge transfer by employing strategies articulated in its mission statement: 1. Increasing the accessibility to AO by the scientific community 2. Coordinating and combining research efforts to take advantage of the synergies afforded by the Center mode of operations 3. Encouraging the interaction of vision scientists and astronomers to promote the emergence of new science and technology 4. Leveraging our efforts through industry partnerships and cross-disciplinary collaboration

In addition, specific objectives for knowledge transfer include: 1. Increasing national competence in AO within the scientific, medical, and industrial communities. 2. Enhancing the cohesiveness of the AO technical community, particularly with respect to system performance characterization and optimization.

Performance and management indicators that measure the success of CfAO partnership activities in meeting our objectives include: 1. The number of CfAO workshops, and professional training activities that involve non-CfAO participants, 2. The level of attendance by non-CfAO personnel at the CfAO summer school, 3. The level of attendance by non-CfAO personnel at CfAO workshops, 4. The number of institutional members of the AO technical community engaged in the exchange of information concerning system performance and optimization. 4.2 Problems An ongoing challenge for the CfAO knowledge transfer area is the exchange of information with industry, both to make known the results of CfAO research to the broadest possible cross section of the industrial community, and to understand how new CfAO research and development might address industrial issues more effectively. In year 3, we have continued to make progress in addressing this issue by initiating the organization of a CfAO Industrial Advisory Board and by holding a highly successful inaugural meeting of this Board during the CfAO Spring Center Retreat in Berkeley last March. Details of the Industrial Advisory Board, including the objectives and organizational structure, are described below. In year 4, we plan to expand this knowledge transfer activity by moving towards the organization of a CfAO Industry Consortium to enable more industry direction and funding for research on adaptive optics leveraged from ongoing CfAO research.

70 4.3 Description of Knowledge Transfer Activities

Knowledge Transfer Activity Industrial Advisory Board Led by Scot Olivier, Kevin O’Brien Participants (add rows as necessary) Organization Name and State 1 Multiple organizations (see below) 2 3 (add rows as necessary)

The CfAO Industrial Advisory Board was organized in year 3 in order to improve industrial relations. The goals of the IAB are to: 1. Enable effective transfer of knowledge developed by CfAO research to industrial community – increase interaction between industrial and CfAO personnel. 2. Provide industrial perspective and advice to CfAO researchers for planning of $4 Million annual NSF funded research and development program. 3. Move towards the organization of an Industry Consortium to enable more industry directed research on adaptive optics leveraged from ongoing CfAO research.

The Industrial Advisory Board includes representatives from companies in a variety of sectors: Aerospace, Ophthalmology, MEMS, Lasers, Communications, etc. Bi-annual meetings coincident with CfAO Spring and Fall center-wide retreats will ensure maximum interaction of CfAO and industrial participants. The inaugural meeting was held during the CfAO Spring Proposals Retreat in March, 2002, at the Berkeley Marina Radisson Hotel, in Berkeley, CA. Over 40 industrial participants from a variety sectors attended a session that included an introduction from Robert Miller, the UCSC Vice Chancellor for Research, and overviews of the CfAO and opportunities for partnerships, along with a display session featuring more than 10 displays by current CfAO industrial partners. Industrial participants provided feedback to Center management via a written questionnaire. The results of this feedback are being used to continue to refine the organization of the IAB.

Knowledge Transfer Activity CfAO summer school Led by Andreas Quirrenbach Participants (add rows as necessary) Organization Name and State 1 Multiple organizations (see below) 2 3 (add rows as necessary)

The CfAO holds an annual week-long summer school on adaptive optics, in Santa Cruz CA. The target audience is graduate students and postdocs, but senior researchers are also welcome to attend. Emphasis is given to topics that are of interest to astronomers and vision scientists alike.

71 The first summer school was held in July 2000, and provided a thorough introduction to adaptive optics for non-experts. The second was held in August 2001, and covered advanced topics such as image processing, mathematical tools for AO, MEMS deformable mirrors, tomographic wavefront sensing, and computer simulations of AO systems. Each of the first two summer schools were attended by 100 participants (the limit of the facilities)

In year 3, we are repeating the cycle of holding “introductory” and “advanced” schools in alternate years, so the summer school to be held this August will provide a thorough introduction to AO for non-experts, including a hands-on computer classes to give attendees “real-life” experiences in confronting and reducing adaptive optics data. The third summer school is also fully subscribed with 100 attendees.

Knowledge Transfer Activity Workshops Led by Multiple leaders (see below) Participants (add rows as necessary) Organization Name and State 1 Multiple organizations (see below) 2 3 (add rows as necessary)

The CfAO sponsors 15 to 20 workshops each year. These range from large formal sessions at international meetings to smaller special-topics discussions, and are described in detail in Section 8.3 of this Report. Highlights in Year 3 included the following workshops:

The third annual CfAO workshop on MEMS deformable mirrors, led by Peter Krulevitch from LLNL, which reviewed the CfAO sponsored research in MEMS and discussed future directions to continue to address the needs of the CfAO scientific themes, was held in Berkeley, CA in February, 2002. This workshop, which has been held for three consecutive years, was attended by 26 participants. In year 4, this workshop will be formalized as part of the new SPIE conference on Micro-opto-electro-mechanical systems (MOEMS) during the SPIE Photonics West Meeting in January, 2003.

A three-day international symposium on "Engineering the Eye" sponsored by the CfAO and led by Professor David Williams, was held in Rochester, NY in June 2002. This symposium brought together over 200 basic scientists, clinical researchers, and engineers who share an interest in marshalling the latest technological developments in ophthalmic optics to improve vision and retinal imaging. Topics presented by over 20 invited international experts included: Innovations in Vision Correction including the control of emmetropization and the customization of contact lenses, intraocular lenses and refractive surgery, and Innovations in Retinal Imaging, including adaptive optics, OCT, fluorescence, and confocal imaging.

A workshop on AO performance analysis and optimization is being organized for the Fall of 2002. The purpose is to “kick-off” CfAO knowledge transfer activities in enhancing the cohesiveness of the AO technical community, particularly with respect to system performance

72 characterization and optimization. This workshop, led by Dr. Bruce Macintosh, will discuss the evaluation of multiple astronomical AO systems (Lick, AEOS, ADONIS, CFHT, Palomar, Gemini, and Keck) along with the vision AO systems at Rochester, Houston, Indiana and UC Davis.

Knowledge Transfer Activity OSA short course in adaptive optics Led by Austin Roorda Participants (add rows as necessary) Organization Name and State 1 Multiple organizations (see below) 2 3 (add rows as necessary)

A short course in adaptive optics was organized as part of the 3rd International Congress on Wavefront Sensing and Aberration-Free Refractive Correction held in Interlaken, Switzerland, in February 2002. This Congress is the world's premier interactive forum devoted to ocular wavefront sensing and aberration-free refractive correction. The state-of-the-art of this field is presented from a historical, scientific, clinical and corporate perspective in an interactive environment. This course had over 50 participants from scientific, clinical and corporate institutions and was taught by a number of world leaders in the area, including many CfAO members.

In addition to the short course, Austin Roorda also organized and moderated a technical session during the full Congress entitled “Adaptive Optics for Ophthalmic Applications”, which featured a number of talks by CfAO members.

Knowledge Transfer Activity AO test-bed for vision Led by David Williams Participants (add rows as necessary) Organization Name and State 1 Multiple organizations (see below) 2 3 (add rows as necessary)

A key goal of the Vision Science Theme is to make AO broadly accessible to the scientific and medical community. This has been done at the CfAO node in Rochester by making its AO system available to at least 6 different research groups in university, government or corporate laboratories. The specific scientific projects were largely supported by other funds such as a gift from the Steinbach Foundation, a grant from DOE, and a grant from NEI. CfAO funding supported the infrastructure at Rochester to continue to provide AO technology for many lines of research. In year 3, the projects supported by the Rochester test-bed infrastructure included:

73 1. Genetic Basis for Individual Differences in the Trichromatic Cone Mosaic Collaboration with Jay and Maureen Neitz, Joe Carroll, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaulkee, Wisconsin. 2. Comparison of Houston AOSLO with Rochester’s AO Retinal Camera Collaboration with Austin Roorda, University of Houston. 3. Angular Tuning of Single Cones Collaboration with Austin Roorda, University of Houston 4. The Effectiveness of Different Aberrations on Subjective Blur Collaboration with Ian Cox, Bausch and Lomb, Inc., Rochester, NY. 5. Role of Higher Order Aberrations in Accommodation Collaboration with P. B. Kruger, Schnurmacher Institute for Vision Research, State College of Optometry, State University of New York 6. Specifications for a Wavefront Corrector in a Commercial Ophthalmic Instrument equipped with AO Collaboration with Don Miller, Indiana University. 7. Clinical Applications of High Resolution Retinal Imaging with Adaptive Optics Collaboration with Luca Brigatti. M.D. and Donald Grover, M.D., University of Rochester 4.4 Other Knowledge Transfer Activities The CfAO web site, managed by Julian Christou at UC Santa Cruz, continues to be an important vehicle for knowledge transfer to the outside community. Information is available about the CfAO at this web site, including research projects, education and human resources activities, membership, meetings, publications, distributed software, and employment opportunities.

The CfAO periodically publishes a Newsletter that is broadly distributed to inform both internal institutions and external organizations about the highlights of the CfAO activities and upcoming events.

The CfAO continues to play a leading role in the publication of scientific and technical articles on adaptive optics. A list of publications is maintained on the CfAO web site.

CfAO members continue to play a leadership role in professional societies concerned with adaptive optics, particularly OSA and SPIE. In year 3, CfAO members were on several organizing committees for national professional conferences on adaptive optics. In addition CfAO overview presentations were made at the Adaptive Optics Technical Working Group Meeting during the SPIE Annual Meeting in Seattle, WA, in July, 2002, and at the symposium on MEMS commercialization during the SPIE conference on MOEMS and Microfabrication in San Francisco, CA, in February, 2002.

In connection with the EHR Professional Development Conference, a Community Networking Session was held in collaboration with the Maui Economic Development Board, which was cosponsored by local industrial organization in Maui. This session provided an opportunity for CfAO grad-students and post-docs to present information on CfAO research to both educational and industrial communities in Maui.

4.5 Knowledge Transfer Activities - Future Plans Principal new knowledge transfer activities planned for CfAO year 4 include:

74 1. Begin the organization of a CfAO Industrial Consortium to enable more industry directed research on adaptive optics leveraged from ongoing CfAO research. 2. Build on the efforts to enhance the cohesiveness of the AO technical community, particularly with respect to system performance characterization and optimization, focusing in year 4 on the preparation of a handbook on the characterization and optimization of AO for vision applications. 3. Develop a connection with the new NSF Center for BioPhotonics at UC Davis in an area of mutual technical and scientific interest, most likely in the application of adaptive optics to (1) confocal microscopy for in vitro biological research and (2) in vivo endoscopic imaging.

75 5. Partnerships 5.1 Partnership Objectives The fundamental objective of our partnership activities is to enhance the Center’s ability to fulfill its research and education goals. The CfAO is pursuing this objective through strategies articulated as part of its mission statement. 4. Leveraging our efforts through industry partnerships and cross-disciplinary collaborations 5. Encouraging the interaction of vision scientists and astronomers to promote the emergence of new science and technology

In addition, specific objectives for partnerships include: 3. Stimulating further investment by government and industry sources in AO research and development 4. Catalyzing the commercialization of AO technologies leading to technological advancements relevant to CfAO research objectives and enabling broader use of AO.

Performance and management indicators that measure the success of CfAO partnership activities in meeting our objectives include: 4. The number of partner institutions engaged in active collaboration with the Center, 5. The number and scope of CfAO projects involving cross-disciplinary collaborations, 6. The number and amount of additional investment by government and industry sources in AO research and development, 7. The number and scope of AO commercialization activities in which the CfAO plays a role, 8. The number of institutional members of the AO technical community engaged in the exchange of information concerning system performance and optimization. 5.2 Problems An ongoing challenge for the CfAO partnership activities is the development of new industrial partnerships, particularly in areas involving highly competitive commercial markets, such as ophthalmic instrumentation. In year 2, we performed an assessment of the CfAO IP policy to determine if this was a potential obstacle to industrial partnership. After examining and reaffirming the Center’s policy for IP, in the current year 3, we have not experienced any difficulties in industrial partnering related to this policy. However, developing new industrial partnerships remains a challenge.

In part, to address this issue, we instituted a new knowledge transfer mechanism, an Industrial Advisory Board, described in Sections 4.2 and 4.3, to broaden interaction with the industrial sector. One of the outcomes of this knowledge transfer activity is the increased potential for developing additional industrial partnerships. The second stage of this plan will be to form an Industry Consortium, which will further enhance partnership opportunities by coupling industrial organizations even more strongly to CfAO research and development activities through direct funding by industry. Already, the interactions facilitated by the Industrial Advisory Board have resulted in the beginnings of a new partnership with Lockheed Martin Corporation in the area of simulation of complex adaptive optics systems.

76 5.3 Description of Partnership Activities

Partnership Activity Vision Science Led by David Williams Participants Name of List Shared Use of Resources Organization Resources (if any) 1 Multiple AO vision test-bed organizations

As part of the key Vision Science Theme goal to make AO broadly accessible to the scientific and medical community, the University of Rochester has established partnerships with Bausch and Lomb, the Medical College of Wisconsin, and the Schnurmacher Institute for Vision Research, State College of Optometry, State University of New York, along with ongoing collaborations with CfAO member institutions: the University of Houston, Indiana University and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The specific projects are listed in Section 4.3, and more details are given in the Vision Science Theme research narrative.

The University of Rochester has also submitted a new proposal to NIH for a Bioengineering Research Partnership Grant (BRP) that would leverage CfAO activities, particularly the combination of adaptive optics and confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy demonstrated during year 3 at the University of Houston. If awarded, the 6 partner institutions will share $10M over 5 years, the University of Rochester, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the University of Houston, the University of California at Berkeley, the Doheny Eye Institute at USC, and the Schepens Eye Research Institute at Harvard University. This new partnership will further develop and assess the value of adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopes for clinical vision research and patient care by studying neovascularization in age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, photoreceptors in retinal degenerative disease such as retinitis pigmentosa, ganglion cell bodies in glaucoma, individual retinal pigment epithelial cells, and blood flow in the smallest retinal capilliaries.

The University of Rochester has also led an effort, in collaboration with LLNL and in partnership with Boston Micromachines Corp. (BMC), to successfully test a BMC MEMS deformable mirror in the Rochester vision test-bed. Further details of this activity are described in the Vision Science Theme research narrative.

77 Partnership Activity Vision science Led by Scot Olivier Participants Name of Organization List Shared Use of Resources Resources (if any) 1 The UC Davis Test new inexpensive wavefront Department of corrector technology suitable for Ophthalmology commercial ophthalmic instrumentation 2 Multiple DOE Develop and test prototype clinical national laboratories ophthalmic instruments using MEMS and multiple medical adaptive optics research centers 3

LLNL has continued to partner with the UC Davis Department of Ophthalmology, supported by both CfAO and internal LLNL funding, to assess the limits of human visual acuity using liquid crystal (LC) spatial light modulator (SLM) wavefront corrector technology. In year 3, this system has been deployed at the UC Davis Medical Center, and clinical trials are beginning.

Based on activities sponsored by CfAO, a collaborative team led by LLNL was awarded ~$2.7M, through the DOE Biomedical Engineering Program. Over a 2 year period, this team will develop and test clinical ophthalmic instruments using MEMS adaptive optics to improve (1) the diagnosis and treatment of the diseases that cause blindness and (2) techniques for vision correction in the general population. These ophthalmic instruments will provide enhancements to the functional capabilities of several instruments currently used routinely by optometrists, ophthalmologists and retinal surgeons. Diseases addressed by these new instruments and the newly enabled clinical protocols include the main causes of blindness in the U.S.: macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and retinitis pigmentosa.

The team for this Biomedical Engineering project includes multiple DOE national laboratories (LLNL, SNL) and multiple medical research centers (UC Davis, University of Rochester, UC Berkeley, University of Southern California) along with the Army Aeromedical Research Lab, and industrial partners (Bausch & Lomb and Wavefront Sciences). During the course of this project, in CfAO year 3, the team is first constructing prototype clinical ophthalmic instrumentation using MEMS adaptive optics. Second, in CfAO year 4, the team will develop and implement procedures for clinical high-resolution retinal imaging and vision correction. Third, in CfAO year 4, the team will evaluate the effectiveness of high-resolution retinal imaging for specific diagnostic protocols for diseases that cause blindness, for specific methodologies to measure the efficacy of new treatments for these diseases. Fourth, in CfAO year 4, the team will evaluate visual performance obtained with adaptive optics for a wide range of subjects in the general population and compare to performance obtained with new vision correction techniques and technologies (laser refractive eye surgery, custom contact lenses). Finally, in CfAO year 4, the team will investigate potential new applications of real-time, in-situ, molecular-scale, ocular imaging, including diagnosis of cancer and other diseases. Additional support by Bausch and Lomb will be used to leverage these activities to support evaluation of the clinical utility of the

78 version of this instrumentation that supports the vision correction functionality, and determine the suitability of this instrumentation for commercialization.

Also based on activities sponsored by CfAO, UC Davis is preparing a new proposal to NIH for a Bioengineering Research Partnership Grant (BRP) that would leverage CfAO activities, particularly the combination of adaptive optics and optical coherence tomography (OCT) being demonstrated during year 3 at Indiana University, and the use of LC SLM wavefront corrector technology for precise correction of aberrations in the human eye. This BRP seeks to develop and demonstrate the clinical utility of the combination of precision AO and OCT, which should enable high-resolution imagery of the living retina with extremely high contrast ratios since scattering in both the lateral and axial directions will be minimized through the use of these techniques. Achieving the highest possible contrast ratios in three-dimensional retinal images is important for the accurate visualization of many clinically important structures in the retina that have intrinsically low scattering cross sections. If awarded, the partner institutions will share a budget of up to $10M over 5 years: UC Davis, LLNL, Indiana University and Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc. (formerly Zeiss Humphrey Systems).

Partnership Activity Micro-electro-mechanical systems Led by Scot Olivier Participants Name of Organization List Shared Use of Resources (if any) Resources 1 A national consortium, organized by the CfAO, to develop MEMS deformable mirror technology for adaptive optics for vision science and astronomy 2 A national consortium to develop and test MEMS spatial light modulators, scalable to 1k ´ 1k pixels, for holographic wavefront correction suitable for application to laser communications and high-resolution imaging.

The CfAO supports a coordinated national consortium of universities (UC Berkeley, Boston University, UC Davis, Stanford University), national laboratories (LLNL, SNL, AFRL, JPL) and industrial partners (Lucent, Boston Micromachines, JDS Uniphase, Intellite) to develop MEMS deformable mirror technology for adaptive optics suitable for application to vision science and astronomy. In year 3, much of the emphasis of the MEMS development program is on the production of a MEMS device suitable for application to a commercially viable clinical ophthalmic instrument. The MEMS groups are therefore now actively interacting with the vision science groups, especially the University of Rochester, in order to understand the requirements for ophthalmic wavefront correction, and to demonstrate the first devices. More details of the MEMS developments specifically related to Vision Science Theme are given in the research narrative. Additional details of MEMS development activities specifically related to the Extreme Adaptive Optics Theme are also given in the research narrative.

79 A particularly important outcome of the MEMS development activities, supported by CfAO and directed towards vision science applications, is the formation of a spin-off company, Iris AO, by Michael Helmbrecht, a post-doc from BSAC at UC, Berkeley working with Richard Muller. The formation of Iris AO represents an important milestone for CfAO because it evolved directly from the Center and indicates CfAO’s potential to facilitate the commercialization of the AO technology it develops. Iris AO won two prestigious awards for its business plan: the Berkeley Business Plan Competition and the MBA Jungle competition in New York City, netting $75K in start-up capital from these competitions alone. In year 3, the CfAO was able to use Director’s Reserve funds to accelerate the process of partnering with Iris AO by providing them with a contract, which will extend into year 4, to produce MEMS mirrors suitable for the next generation of prototype clinical ophthalmic adaptive optics instruments.

Based on activities sponsored by CfAO, a collaborative team led by LLNL was selected for support, at the level of ~$9.5M, through the DARPA Coherent Communications, Imaging and Targeting Program. This team is developing powerful new capabilities for secure free-space communication links and aberration-free, 3-dimensional, imaging and targeting at very long ranges. Innovative concepts and integration of micro-electromechanical-systems (MEMS) spatial light modulators, along with photonics and high-speed electronics will provide affordable and high value systems for use well into the 21st century. Phase-I of this program is being executed by a team consisting of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Phase-I lead), academic institutions (Boston University, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Georgia Institute of Technology), MEMS/photonics companies (Boston Micromachines, Lucent, MicroAssembly Technologies) and U.S. aerospace companies (Ball Aerospace, Boeing, Harris, HRL Laboratories, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, TRW and the Aerospace Corporation). The primary role of the aerospace companies is as potential users and competitors for Phase-II, which will be led by industry. HRL Laboratories and TRW are also contributing to Phase-I hardware development and applications/systems modeling. Phase-I funding is over a two-year period. In year 3, 1000-actuator MEMS spatial light modulators have been developed and are being tested. In year 4, new MEMS devices with integrated electronics will be developed and a field experiment demonstrating atmospheric correction will be performed.

Partnership Activity Lasers Led by 1. Edward Kibblewhite; 2. Deanna Pennington Participants Name of Organization List Shared Use of Resources Resources (if any) 1 Lite Cycles, Coherent Technologies, The AFRL at Kirtland Air Force Base, LightWave Electronics. 2 European Southern Observatory Hampton University, Ionas, IRE Poulus Group, TuiOptics, Fibercore and the IPHT fiber institute in Jena, Germany.

80 Lite Cycles has been working with the University of Chicago to produce improved solid state laser heads for a sum-frequency laser being developed at Chicago based on a design originally from MIT Lincoln Labs. Coherent is working on a contract from Gemini to develop another approach for an improved laser head for this type of laser. AFRL is working with Lightwave Electronics on another laser head variation for this laser concept.

LLNL also has a project within the CfAO to study fiber lasers. Complementary aspects of this work have been supported by internal funding at LLNL An international collaboration has been established with the European Southern Observatory to jointly pursue this research. This has resulted in the provision of equipment and manpower by ESO to complete the research. A collaboration has been established with Hampton University, a historically black university, to support a minority graduate student to develop fiber Bragg gratings for the project. Significant industrial contacts have been established to produce the new custom technology components required for this research, namely Ionas, IRE Poulus Group, TuiOptics, Fibercore and the IPHT fiber institute in Jena, Germany. 5.4 Other Partnership Activities In the area of design of AO systems for giant segmented telescopes, CfAO previously cosponsored a working group with NOAO to produce a national AO technology development roadmap. In addition, many CfAO institutions have been active in working on design concepts for AO systems on giant segmented telescopes as part of the California Extremely Large Telescope (CELT) project sponsored jointly by the University of California and CalTech. In year 3, the CELT conceptual design was completed and a successful review was held. Support for the next design phase of this project is now being actively pursued. This work is now being coordinated directly with the CfAO Theme on AO for Extremely Large Telescopes.

The CfAO is also proposing a new collaboration in partnership with the Air Force Maui Optical Station to be supported by the AFOSR. The research areas identified are (i) deconvolution and super-resolution, (ii) atmospheric simulations, (iii) fast wavefront reconstruction algorithms, (iv) improvements to the AEOS adaptive optics performance, and (v) application to wavefront control using micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Additional components of this partnership that incorporate education and human resources activities, in connection with Maui Community College and the Maui Economic Development Board, are also being developed, and more details are described in the EHR narrative.

A partnership between LLNL and a new start-up company, AOptix, is being explored in the area of AO for high-speed wireless laser communications. AOptix has participated on the CfAO Industrial Advisory Board, and Malcom Northcott, from AOptix, accepted membership of the CfAO Program Advisory Committee. 5.5 Partnership Activities - Future Plans 1. Leverage opportunities provided by the new Industrial Advisory Board and the planned formation of an Industrial Consortium to develop new industrial partnerships, such as those beginning with Lockheed Martin and AOptix.

81 2. Subject in part to the outcomes of the two new NIH Bioengineering Research Partnership Grant proposals, continue to extend our leveraged partnership activities in the area of the development and assessment of prototype clinical ophthalmic instrumentation. 3. Continue to drive the development of MEMS for vision science and astronomical applications through partnerships coordinated within the framework of our national MEMS consortium. 4. Develop a new partnership with the Air Force Maui Optical Station that combines technical research and development with education and human resource development. 5. Focus on design concepts for AO systems on giant segmented telescopes in partnership with the CELT project.

82 6. Diversity 6.1 Diversity Objectives The CfAO is committed to increasing the participation and advancement of underrepresented groups and institutions in all Center activities. Our major goal is to build a Center community that promotes and models diversity through vigorous recruiting, retention and training activities. 6.2 Performance and management indicators We have established four objectives that measure our progress toward accomplishing this goal:

1) Participate, as a Center, in the activities of minority and women serving organizations. 2) Establish partnerships with minority serving institutions based on common research and technology interests. 3) Increase the participation of underrepresented groups in all Center activities (educational activities, research, external scientific community). 4) Members participating in mentoring programs will gain an increased understanding of barriers faced by underrepresented groups, and the experiences/supports that contribute positively to student retention in STEM. 6.3 Problems Recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups into STEM fields has been a long-term, national challenge. We have established programs and activities concentrating on partnerships to produce long-term results. At the local high school level, we are focusing on the local community, which is predominantly Hispanic. A major challenge that we have faced has been attracting Hispanic males, a fact noted by other similar programs and supported by data on achievement gaps. Assistance from teachers and local community members has significantly improved our recruitment of hispanic males, and we will continue to use these sources of assistance and any others that can be of help.

At the postdoctoral level, we have found it difficult to find women, particularly U.S. citizens. We are increasing our efforts to engage women in our Center events, such as our annual summer school and most recently the “Engineering the Eye” workshop in Rochester by providing travel and registration support. We hope to have a longer term impact on this situation by increasing our efforts in Year three and four to attract more women into graduate school. Accompanied by several of our undergraduate interns, we have plans to attend the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) conference this fall, as a recruitment effort at the graduate and postdoctoral level.

The formation of long-term, authentic partnerships has been an ongoing challenge. We have spent a significant amount of effort in developing partnerships in Hawaii, to increase the participation of Native Hawaiians in our research and more generally in STEM fields. Our most significant progress has been to couple our technical and educational efforts, so that educational partnerships are based on common interests and have relevance to the individuals involved. Significant progress has been made in Year 3.

83 6.4 Center Contributions to developing US Human Resources Annual Professional Development Conference (see complete description in Section 3.3) The 2002 conference was held in Maui from May 14th to May 19th. Again inquiry based teaching/learning was the main theme of the conference. This conference was marked by the great degree of interest and participation of the Maui community. Attendees included representatives from the US Airforce Observatory, the Maui Community College, high school science teachers. In addition the Maui Economic Development Board, the Air Force, and several federal contractors provided some financial support towards the conference expenses. This conference has significantly strengthened our developing partnerships in Maui.

CfAO Faculty Fellows Program A visiting faculty member from a Minority Serving Institution, Hampton College, is being financially supported in 2003 at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory by the CfAO. Funds are also available for the faculty member to have an undergraduate student join him and share in the research experience.

SACNAS Conference (Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.) The CfAO continues its involvement in the SACNAS organization. Our involvement last year included a scientific symposium on adaptive optics, a CfAO sponsored booth, three undergraduate poster presenters, and participation as judges for the poster competition. The CfAO sponsored attendance by seven Center members and three students at the conference, which was held in Phoenix in September, 2002.

Figure 6.1 Professor Austin Roorda speaks to a participant at the SACNAS conference

Graduate Student Diversity Forum In April, we staffed a recruiting booth at this event, which brought approximately 1,000 high achieving underrepresented minority students to UC Santa Cruz to explore graduate school opportunities. Six CfAO members staffed the booth, generating a list of interested students who will be invited to visit the CfAO this fall as they begin the graduate school application process.

New Graduate Student Fellowship

84 The CfAO offers a fellowship to incoming underrepresented graduate students at CfAO nodes. Our goal is to attract underrepresented graduate students into the field of adaptive optics and establish connections within our scientific community. In Year Three, this fellowship was awarded to a first year graduate student enrolled in a CfAO institution for summer salary, rather than a new graduate student. Joseph Lorenzo Hall, a Hispanic graduate student at UCB, will work with CfAO member James Graham to explore his interest in CfAO research and hopefully become a future member of the Center.

Summer School The CfAO Summer School provides an opportunity for graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and occasionally advanced undergraduates to learn about Center research and technology. We promoted this event at the SACNAS conference and the Graduate Student Diversity Forum. In 2001, we were not able to attract any underrepresented minority students or postdocs to the Summer School. In 2002, we have three underrepresented minority students enrolled (all Hispanic graduate students). One of these students received a fee waiver in order to attend. We have made efforts to recruit more women to this event, and EHR is covering the full costs of a female student who is considering CfAO institutions for graduate school. We will continue to expand our recruitment efforts to increase the participation of underrepresented groups in the Summer School, and ultimately we hope into our graduate and postdoctoral positions.

Stars, Sight and Science Stars, Sight and Science is a residential science program that serves underrepresented high school students. This project increases motivation through inquiry based, project oriented approaches. Students are encouraged to take more science and math courses, participate in related extracurricular activities, and in some cases continue their involvement through the SETT program (below).

Science, Engineering and Technology Training (SETT) This project provides internships for undergraduate students, with an emphasis on underrepresented community college students. Students are placed at CfAO sites to complete an independent research project and become part of the research team for the summer. We focus on women and underrepresented minority students; however, we accept a few students who have other educational disadvantages, such as low income, or first generation college attendees.

Clustered Mentoring Project The Clustered Mentoring Project is incorporated into several educational projects at the high school and college level. CfAO members participating in this project will be sensitized to the barriers faced by underrepresented students and the experiences and support structure that helps keep students committed to their education. Mentoring will be a theme at all CfAO events, with members sharing their successes and challenges with their peers. 6.5 Plans We will continue our current efforts and will expand our recruiting efforts in Year Four. We are considering new mechanisms for attracting underrepresented graduate students into the Center, including travel awards for potential graduate students to attend the Annual Professional

85 Development Workshop in Hawaii. We will also increase our recruiting efforts towards minority and women serving institutions to increase participation in our internship, the CfAO Summer School, and other Center events. 6.6 Diversity Impacts 1. Participate as a Center, in the activities of minority and women serving organizations. In Year Three, the CfAO participated in the following: SACNAS Conference Graduate Student Diversity Forum Women in Technology/Maui Economic Development Board

2. Established partnerships with minority serving institutions (MSI’s) based on common research and technology interests. In the case of Maui the long term impact would be to increase the technological workforce in the native Hawaiian population. The CfAO has developed the following partnerships: Maui Community College (MSI) Watsonville High (85% Hispanic) Hartnell College (MSI)

3. Increased the participation of underrepresented groups in all Center activities (educational activities, research, external scientific community). Stars, Sight and Science 15 of 15 underrepresented minority Science, Engineering and Technology Training (internship) 13 of 14 underrepresented (7 underrepresented minority; 10 women) ALU LIKE 2 Native Hawaiian Trainees CfAO graduate student recruitment Funded one underrepresented minority student for summer salary Annual Professional Development Workshop 4 of 26 students, postdocs and research scientists from underrepresented minority groups (up from 1 out of 26 in 2001) Summer School Increased participation of underrepresented minority students from zero to three in 2002.

4. Members participating in mentoring programs will gain an increased understanding of barriers faced by underrepresented groups, and the experiences/supports that contribute positively to their retention in STEM. At the 2001 Fall Retreat Leticia Marquez-Magana (Associate Professor of Biology at San Francisco State and 2001 recipient of the 2001 AAAS Mentoring award) led a session entitled “Modern Dynamic Mentoring.” She discussed strategies for mentoring at the high school through graduate level, and some of the barriers that prevent effective mentoring.

86 In Year Four we will develop evaluation tools to assess changing attitudes or perceptions regarding diversity within our community of scientists and engineers.

87 7. Management 7.1 Center Organization The Year 3 Organizational chart schematically depicting the management structure is shown in Appendix B.

The Director is the Chief Scientist, with overall responsibility for the Center activities and prime responsibility for the research conducted within the Center. The daily operational functions are the responsibility of the Managing Director, who also has overall fiscal responsibility for budgets and oversight of educational and industrial outreach activities – including intellectual property. The internal governing body of the Center is: The Executive Committee, which consists of: Jerry Nelson - Director Christopher Le Maistre - Managing Director Lisa Hunter - Associate Director E & HR (Theme 1) Claire Max - Theme 2 Leader Scot Olivier - Theme 3 Leader David Williams - Theme 4 Leader Andrea Ghez - Associate Director Astronomy Science Richard Dekaney - Associate Director Multi conjugate Adaptive Optics Austin Roorda - Associate Director Vision Science Andreas Quirrenbach - AO Dissemination to the Scientific Community

Within the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), the Director reports to an Oversight Committee chaired by the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research. (See Section 7.5)

The External Advisory Board (EAB) has representatives from the fields of Astronomy, Vision Science, Adaptive Optics, and Education. They provide overall advice on the research and policies of the Center. The EAB reports to the UCSC Associate Vice Chancellor for Research. (See Section 7.5)

The Program Advisory Committee (PAC) provides advice and insights into the research being pursued, both within and outside of the CfAO. The PAC reports to the Director of the CfAO. (See Section 7.5)

Themes The Center has organized its Education Outreach and Research into Themes. This approach has 1. Encouraged greater collaboration between researchers. 2. Identified lasting Center monuments or achievements. 3. Developed a road map with milestones to help ensure success. 4. Fostered interactions between astronomers and vision scientists. 5. Increased understanding of the Center’s educational and human resources goals on the part of all researchers and expanded opportunities to share in the achievement of these goals.

88 A description of the four themes follows:

Theme 1: Education And Human Resources (EHR) The Education and Human Resources program is structured so as to integrate CfAO research within its activities.

The four goals of CfAO’s Education activities are to:

1. Increase the versatility of Center graduate students and postdoctoral researchers through exposure and training in the diverse fields within the CfAO research and education programs. 2. Increase the number of underrepresented students from partner high schools who are prepared and motivated to pursue an SMET degree in college (2-year or 4-year). 3. Establish a center-based model for the retention and advancement of under-represented college students, or potential college students, into the scientific or technical workforce, or next educational level. 4. Increase the interest in and knowledge of CfAO science and technology in the broader community, with a focus on high school and college levels.

Theme 2: AO for Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) The highest recommendation of the National Academy of Sciences’ Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee (2001) was the design and construction of a ground-based 30-m telescope, equipped with adaptive optics (a giant segmented mirror telescope, or GSMT). Developing an adequate adaptive optics system for this telescope will be extremely challenging and will require developments in most technical areas of adaptive optics. Making a major contribution towards achieving this national priority is a natural and suitable objective for the CfAO. The benefits of multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) include widening the diffraction-limited field of view and achieving near-complete sky coverage with laser beacons (by overcoming the cone effect). While the ultimate implementation of a MCAO system for a 30-m telescope will require both time and resources far beyond the scope of the CfAO, we believe that we can develop the crucial concepts and components needed for its successful implementation.

Theme 3: Extreme Adaptive Optics (eXAO): Enabling Ultra-High-Contrast Astronomical Observations The eXAO theme is scientifically driven by the need to achieve high-contrast imaging and spectroscopic capabilities to enhance the detection and characterization of extra-solar planetary systems and their precursor disk material. By improving image quality, eXAO systems enable the detection of faint objects close to bright sources that would otherwise overwhelm them. This is accomplished both by increasing the peak intensity of point-source images and by removing light scattered by the atmosphere and the telescope optics into the “seeing disk”. This combination of effects can dramatically improve the achievable contrast ratio for astronomical observations.

89 instruments, such as coronagraphs, optimized for high-contrast observations. Additional crucial activities include the development of new simulation capabilities for eXAO systems and instruments, along with better characterization of the performance existing high-order AO systems, and the development of new technologies in high-order wavefront correction devices, such as MEMS deformable mirrors, and in wavefront control system algorithms and architectures. Ongoing scientific utilization of high-contrast observational capabilities and development of data processing techniques optimized for high-contrast observations are also critical activities for this theme. This theme is likely to share many cross-cutting issues with Theme 2.

Site Coordinators The Center has 11 geographically dispersed Centers and to facilitate interactions between researchers, and business offices, site coordinators have been appointed. In addition to members of the Executive committee, the following provide liaison functions at their sites. Dr. Gary Chanan University of California, Irvine Dr. James Graham University of California, Berkeley Dr. James Larkin University of California, Los Angeles Dr. Edward Kibblewhite University of Chicago Dr. Donald Miller Indiana University. 7.2 Performance and Management Indicators The geographical dispersion of Center sites has been noted. Seven are in California and the remaining four are in Rochester, NY; Houston, Texas; Chicago, Illinois and Bloomington, Indiana. The Center is actively working on improving information flow between the sites, using the recently installed video-conferencing equipment. (See Section 7.4)

In Year 3, Principal Investigators were required to forward quarterly reports to their Theme Leaders. The reports were reviewed and evaluated against the milestones that researchers had identified in their project proposals.

Project evaluation also occurs during the annual proposal review process, where previous progress against milestones is an important criterion for continuation of a project’s funding. The Proposal Review Committee (PRC) consisting of the Executive Committee reviews all proposals and recommends funding levels to the Director.

Prior to reviewing, the proposals for Year 4 were sent to both internal and external mail reviewers. All members of the PRC were provided with copies of the reviews and in depth discussions were subsequently held. Recommendation for Year 4 funding were reached by vote.

90 Those projects which the PRC considered “on the edge” were set aside for discussion with the Program Advisory Committee and their recommendation.

The Education and Human Resources Theme in addition to internal review have utilized external consultants to evaluate its programs. 7.3 Problems 4. The science/technology balance continues to be debated within the Center. Under the theme organization technology has gained precedence but there is sensitivity towards this issue and a desire to maintain a good level of science within the Center. 5. The CfAO is still in the process of establishing itself as the recognized leader in the field of Adaptive Optics both at a national and international level. While recognition is growing it is still not at the optimal level. 7.4 Management and Communication Systems The Center’s management of research and its EHR programs has been described above. Because the eleven sites constituting the Center are geographically widespread, the Center has invested heavily in video-conferencing facilities at each site. At UC Santa Cruz, the CfAO is now housed in its new building. A video-conferencing room is an important an integral part of the building. In addition to the Executive Committee meeting bi-weekly via video-conference, the Center Director and his staff has monthly meetings with our Technical Coordinator and other officers at the National Science Foundation. Professor Claire Max taught a graduate course “Astronomy 289C – Adaptive Optics” in the Spring of 2002. The course was taught on the Santa Cruz campus and broadcast live via our video facility to graduate students and post docs at all the CfAO sites. the two sites with the highest attendance being UCLA and Indiana University. A weekly video conference seminar series for graduate student participation is currently under development. 7.5 Center’s Internal and External Advisory Committees

Internal Oversight Committee – University of California Santa Cruz

Name Affiliation 1 Burney Le Bouef Associate Vice Chancellor, Research 2 David Kliger Dean Natural Sciences 3 Steve Kang Dean School of Engineering 4 Joseph Miller Director UCO/Lick Observatory 5 Joyce Justus Chair, Department of Education

The Committee meets at least once a year. In addition, the Center Director meets regularly with the Director of the UCO/Lick Observatory, who conveys concerns or issues to the Oversight Committee as needed.

External Committees

91 The Center has two external committees: The Program Advisory Committee and The External Advisory Board The Program Advisory Committee Name Affiliation 1 Dr. James Belectic W. M. Keck Observatory, HI 2 Dr. Mark Colavita Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA 3 Dr. Stanley Klein (Chair) University of California, Berkeley, CA 4 Dr. Steven Vogt University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 5 Dr. Malcolm Northcott* AOPTIX Technologies, Campbell, CA 6 Dr. Fiona Goodchild* University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 7 Dr. Joyce Justus University of California, Santa Cruz, CA * Dr. Anneila Sargent and Dr. Francisco Hernandez retired from the PAC in 2002 and were replaced by Dr. Malcolm Northcott and Dr. Fiona Goodchild.

The External Advisory Board Name Affiliation 1 Dr. Christopher Dainty (Chair) Imperial College, London, UK 2 Dr. Pablo Artal Universidad de Murcia, Spain 3 Dr. Robert Byer * Stanford University, CA 4 Dr. Thomas Cornsweet * Visual Pathways Inc, Prescott, AZ 5 Dr. Robert Kirschner Harvard-Smithsonian, CfA, Cambridge. MA 6 Dr. Matthew Mountain Gemini Observatory, Hilo, HI 7 Dr. Allan Wirth Adaptive Optics Associates, .Cambridge MA 8 Dr. Harold MacAlister Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 9 Dr. Maria Santos Wallace Readers Digest Fund, NY, NY. 10 Dr. Sidney Wolff National Optical Astronomy Observatories, Tucson, AZ 11 Dr. Robert Fugate Air Force Research Labs, Albuquerque, NM 12 Dr. David R. Burgess * Boston College, Boston, MA. Dr. Goery Delacote and Dr. Thomas Jeys retired from the EAB in 2002 and Drs. Byers, Cornsweet and Burgess became new members. 7.6 The Center’s Strategic Plan As outlined in the 2001 Annual Report the Center developed a Mission and Goals which remain unchanged in 2002. Mission: To advance and disseminate the technology of adaptive optics in service to science, health care, industry, and education. Goal: To lead the revolution in AO, by developing and demonstrating the technology, creating major improvements in AO systems, and catalyzing advances nationwide within the next decade. Strategies: CfAO will pursue its purpose and achieve its goal by: 1. Demonstrating the power of AO by doing forefront science.

92 2. Increasing the accessibility of AO to the scientific community. 3. Developing and deploying highly capable AO systems and laser beacons. 4. Coordinating and combining research efforts to take advantage of the synergies afforded by the Center mode of operations. 5. Integrating education with our research. 6. Building a Center community that is supportive of diversity through vigorous recruiting, retention, and training activities. 7. Encouraging the interaction of vision scientists and astronomers to promote the emergence of new science and technology. 8. Leveraging our efforts through industry partnerships and cross-disciplinary collaborations.

The Center has developed a Strategic Plan based on this Mission Statement. The Plan lays out the four Themes described in Section 7.1.1. Each Theme has developed a road map with short and long term milestones.

93 8. Center-wide Output and Issues 8.1 Center Publications Peer Reviewed Publications 1. Chanan G. A., Wavefront curvature sensing on highly segmented telescopes, Applied Optics (submitted), 2002. 2. Duchene, G., Ghez, A. M., McCabe, C. 2002 ``Resolved Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of the Mysterious Pre-Main Sequence Binary System T Tau S," ApJ, 568, 771 3. Els S.G., M.F. Sterzik, F. Marchis, E. Pantin, M. Endl, M. Kurster, 2001. A second substellar companion in the Gliese 86 system. A brown dwarf in an extrasolar planetary system. Astron. and Astrophys. Letters, 370, L1-L4. 4. Gezari, S., Ghez, A.M., Becklin, E.E., Larkin, J., McLean, I.S., Morris, M. 2002, ``Adaptive Optics Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of the SgrA* Cluster, ApJ, submitted 5. .Gibbard S. G, Roe, H.; de Pater, I.; Macintosh, B.; Gavel, D.; Max, C. E.; Baines, K. H.; Ghez, A., "High-Resolution Infrared Imaging of Neptune from the Keck Telescope", Icarus, Volume 156, Issue 1, pp. 1-15 (2002). 6. Hammel H.B., K. Rages, G. W. Lockwood, E. Karkoschka, and I. de Pater, 2001. New measurements of the winds of Uranus. Icarus}, 153 229-235. 7. Hofer H., L. Chen, G. Y. Yoon, B. Singer, Y. Yamauchi, and D. R. Williams, (2001) "Improvement in Retinal Image Quality with Dynamic Correction of the Eye's Aberrations." Optics Express 8, 631-643. 8. Kalas P., Graham, J. R., Beckwith, S. V. W., Jewitt, D. C., and Lloyd, J. P. 2002, ``Discovery of Reflection Nebulosity around Five Vega-like Stars'', ApJ, 567, 999 9. Koehler R., "Multiplicity of X-Ray Selected T Tauri Stars in Chamaeleon." Astron. J. 122, 3325 10. Koehler R. & Petr-Gotzens, M.G. (2002)" Close Binaries in the eta Cha Cluster" Astron. J., submitted 11. Le Louarn M., "Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics with laser guide stars: performance in the infrared and visible," MNRAS, 2002, in press. 12. Liu M. C., Fischer, D. A., Graham, J. R., Lloyd, J. P. Marcy, G. W., and Butler, R. P. 2002, ``Crossing the Brown Dwarf Desert Using Adaptive Optics: A Very Close L-Dwarf Companion to the Nearby Solar Analog HR 7672'', ApJ, 571, 519 13. Lloyd J. P., Oppenheimer, B, R, and Graham, J. R., 2002 ``The Potential of Differential Astrometric Interferometry from the High Antarctic Plateau'', PASA, 19, 318 14. Miller D., X. Hong and L. N. Thibos, "Requirements for segmented spatial light modulators for diffraction-limited imaging through aberrated eyes," (submitted to Optics Express). 15. Olivier S. S, P. Wizinowich and D. S. Acton, "Stellar companions to stars with planets," 2002, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal. 16. Patience, J, White, R., Ghez, A., McCabe, C., McLean, I, Larkin, J., Prato, L, Kim, S., Lloyd, J., Liu, M., Graham, J., Macintosh, B., Gavel, D., Max, C., Bauman, B, Olivier, S., 2002 "Stellar companions to stars with planets", AJ in press 17. Patience J., R. J. White, A.M. Ghez, C. McCabe, I.S. Mclean, J. Larkin, L. Prato, S.S. Kim, J.R. Graham, M.C. Liu, J.P. Lloyd, B.A. Macintosh, D.T. Gavel, C.E. Max, B.J. Bauman, S.S. Olivier, P.Wizinowich, And D.S. Acton 2002 ``Stellar Companions to Stars with Planets," Apr, submitted

94 18. Patience J., R. J. White, A.M. Ghez, I.S. McLean, C. McCabe, J. Larkin, L. Prato, S. S. Kim, J.P. Lloyd, J. R. Graham, M.C. Liu, B. A. Macintosh, D. T. Gavel, C. E. Max, B. J. Bauman, S. S. Roe, D.T. Gavel, C.E. Max. I. de Pater, S.G. Gibbard, B.A. Macintosh, and K.H. Baines, 2001. Near-Infrared Observations of Neptune's Tropospheric Cloud Layer with the Lick Observatory Adaptive Optics System. Astron. J., 122, 1636-1643 19. Poyneer, L.A. , D.T. Gavel and J.M. Brase, "Fast wavefront reconstruction in large adaptive optics systems using the Fourier transform", J. Opt. Soc. Amer. (A) in press, 2002. 20. Quirrenbach A., ,Roberts, J.E., Fidkowski, K., de Vries, W., & van Breugel, W. (2001). "Keck adaptive optics observations of the radio galaxy 3C294: a merging system at z = 1.786?" Astrophys. J. 556, 108-112 21. Roe H. G., I. de Pater, B. A. Macintosh, S. G. Gibbard, C. E. Max, and C. P. McKay, 2002. Titan's Atmosphere in Late Southern Spring Observed with Adaptive Optics on the W. M. Keck II 10-Meter Telescope, Icarus Note 157, 254-258. 22. Roe H. G ., 2002. Implications of Atmospheric Differential Refraction for Adaptive Optics Observations. PASP 114, 450-461. 23. Roe Henry G., de Pater, Imke; Macintosh, Bruce A.; Gibbard, Seran G.; Max, Claire E.; McKay, Chris P., "NOTE: Titan's Atmosphere in Late Southern Spring Observed with Adaptive Optics on the W. M. Keck II 10-Meter Telescope", Icarus, Volume 157, Issue 1, pp. 254-258 (2002). 24. Roorda A., Romero-Borja, F., Donnelly III, W.J., Queener, H., Hebert, T.J., Campbell, M.C.W. "Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy" Opt. Express 10(9) 405-412 (2002). 25. Roorda A., Williams, D.R. “Optical Fiber Properties of Individual Human Cones” Journal of Vision (in press). 26. Srinivasan U., M. A. Helmbrecht, C. Rembe, R. S. Muller and R. T. Howe, "Fluidic Self- Assembly of Micromirrors onto Microactuators Using Capillary Forces," Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, Vol. 8, No. 1, Jan 2002. 27. Steinbring E., Crampton, D., & Hutchings, J.B., 2002, Radio Galaxies at z = 1.1 to 3.8: Adaptive-Optics Imaging and Archival Hubble Space Telescope Data, ApJ, 569, 611 28. Steinbring E., S.M Faber, S. Hinkley, S., B.A. Macintosh, D. Gavel, E.L. Gates, J.C. Christou, M. LeLouarn, L.M. Raschke, S.A. Severson, F. Rigaut, D. Crampton, J.P. Lloyd, and J.R. Graham, "Determining the Adaptive Optics Off-Axis Point-Spread Function. I: A Semi-Empirical Method for Use in Natural-Guide-Star Observations," PASP, submitted. 29. Tanner, A., Ghez, A., Morris, M., Becklin, E., Cotera, A., Ressler, M., Werner, M, \& Wizinowich, P. 2002, ``Spatially Resolved Observations of the Galactic Center Source, IRS 21," ApJ, 575, in press

Publications 1. Nelson J., et al The California Extremely Large Telescope: Conceptual Design for a Thirty- Meter Telescope, (Chapter 9: Adaptive Optics), June 2002

Conference Proceedings 1. Bauman, Brian J.; Gavel, Donald T.; Flath, Laurence M.; Hurd, Randall L.; Max, Claire E.; Olivier, Scot S., "Proposed multiconjugate adaptive optics experiment at Lick Observatory", Proc. SPIE Vol. 4494, p. 81-88, February 2002.

95 2. Bauman, Brian J.; Gavel, Donald T.; Waltjen, Kenneth E.; Freeze, Gary J.; Hurd, Randall L.; Gates, Elinor L.; Max, Claire E.; Olivier, Scot S.; Pennington, Deanna M., "Update on optical design of adaptive optics system at Lick Observatory", Proc. SPIE Vol. 4494, p. 19- 29, February 2002. 3. Bogdanovic, T.; Ge, J.; Max, C. E.; Brandt, N. W, "Near-IR Imaging and Spectroscopy of NGC 6240 with Adaptive Optics", American Astronomical Society meeting, January 2002. 4. Chanan, G. Wavefront curvature sensing on highly segmented telescopes, G. A. , SPIE vol. 4840 (in preparation), 2002. 5. Chanan, G. A. ,M. Schoeck, D. Le Mignant, P. L. Wizinowich, Atmospheric turbulence analysis with the Keck adaptive optics systems, SPIE vol. 4839 (in preparation), 2002. 6. Chen, L., Yoon, G.Y., Singer, B., Doble, N., Hofer, H., Porter, J., and Williams, D.R. Adaptive optical system design and optimization for the human eye. OPTO Northeast and Imaging, SPIE Meeting, Rochester, NY, 2001. 7. Doble, N., Yoon, G.Y., Chen, L., Wilks, S., Thompson, C., Olivier, S., and Williams, D.R. The use of MEMS and liquid crystal technology for adaptive optics in the human eye. OPTO Northeast and Imaging, SPIE Meeting, Rochester, NY, 2001. 8. Gavel, D.T., "Adaptive Optics Control Strategies for Extremely Large Telescopes", Proceedings of the SPIE, 4494, July, 2001. 9. Gavel, D. T., Max, C. E., Olivier, S. S., Bauman, B. J., Pennington, D. M., Macintosh, B. A., Patience, J., Brown, C. G., Danforth, P. M., Hurd, R. L., Gates, E. L., Severson, S. A., and Lloyd, J. P.,"Science with laser guide stars at Lick Observatory" 2002, SPIE, 4494, 336. 10. Gavel, Donald T.; Max, Claire E.; Olivier, Scot S.; Bauman, Brian J.; Pennington, Deanna M.; Macintosh, Bruce A.; Patience, Jennifer; Brown, Curtis G.; Danforth, Pamela M.; Hurd, Randall L.; Gates, Elinor L.; Severson, Scott A.; Lloyd, James P., "Science with laser guide stars at Lick Observatory", Proc. SPIE Vol. 4494, p. 336-342, February 2002. 11. Gibbard, S. G.; Macintosh, B. A.; Max, C. E.; de Pater, I.; Roe, H. G.; Marchis, F., 2002. "2- micron Adaptive Optics Images of Titan from the W.M. Keck Telescope." American Astronomical Society Meeting 199, #63.07 12. Gibbard, S. G.; Macintosh, B. A.; Max, C. E.; de Pater, I.; Roe, H. G.; Marchis, F., "2-micron Adaptive Optics Images of Titan from the W.M. Keck Telescope", American Astronomical Society meeting, January 2002. 13. Gibbard, S. G.; Macintosh, B. A.; Max, C. E.; de Pater, I.; Roe, H. G.; Marchis, F., 2002. "2- micron Adaptive Optics Images of Titan from the W.M. Keck Telescope." American Astronomical Society Meeting 199, #63.07 14. Glassman, T. M., & Larkin, J. E., "Morphologies of Distant Galaxies at the Diffraction Limit of the Keck Telescope", AAS Conference, 12/2001, 199, 0707G 15. Kalas, P., Graham, J. R., Beckwith, S. V. W., Jewitt, D. C., Lloyd, J. P. 2001, ``Testing the Vega-Phenomenon: New reflection nebulosities around debris-disk stars'', BAAS, 199, 66.06 16. Koehler, R. (2002) Multiplicity of T Tauri Stars in Different Star Forming Regions. In: Modes of Star Formation and the Origin of Field Populations, eds. E. K. Grebel & W. Brandner, ASP Conference Series, in press 17. Koehler, R. (2001) A Speckle/AO Survey for Binaries in the eta Cha Cluster. In: Young Stars Near Earth: Progress and Prospects, eds. R. Jayawardhana & T. Greene, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 244, p. 277 18. Lai, O. (CFHT), J. Kuhn, F. Marchis (CfAO/ University of California-Berkeley), "Beyond Conventional Adaptive Optics", proceeding of the conference held in Venice, on May 7-10,

96 2001, Eds. Roberto Ragazzoni, Norbert Hubin and Simone Esposito, to be published by European Southern Observatory 19. Le Mignant, D. , D. Acton, P. J. Stomski, Jr., P. L. Wizinowich, M. Schoeck, J. Gathright, R. W. Cohen, "Routine" operations of the two Keck AO systems, SPIE vol. 4839 (in preparation), 2002. High order curvature Adaptive Optics revisited. (proceeding) 20. Lloyd, James P.; Graham, James R.; Kalas, Paul; Oppenheimer, Ben R.; Sivaramakrishnan, Anand; Makidon, Russell B.; Macintosh, Bruce A.; Max, Claire E.; Baudoz, Pierre; Kuhn, Jeff R.; Potter, Dan, "Astronomical coronagraphy with high-order adaptive optics systems", Proc. SPIE Vol. 4490, p. 290-297, December 2001. 21. Lloyd, J. P., Graham, J. R., Kalas, P., Oppenheimer, B. R., Sivaramakrishnan, A., Makidon, R. B., Macintosh, B. A., Max, Claire E., Baudoz, P., Kuhn, J. R., Potter, D. 2001, ``Astronomical coronagraphy with high-order adaptive optics systems'' Proc SPIE. 4490, 290 22. Macintosh, B., Olivier, S., Bauman, B., Brase, J., Carr, E., Carrano, C., Gavel, D., Max, C., Patience, J., "Practical high-order adaptive optics systems for extrasolar planet searches", 2002, Proc. SPIE 4494, 60 23. Macintosh, B., Zuckerman, B., Kaisler, D., Becklin, E., Lowrance, P., Webb, R., Weinberger, A., Schneider, G., Christou, J., "Keck adaptive optics imaging of TWA5 and 6", 2001, ASP conference series 244, R. Jaywaharda, ed., pg 309 24. Macintosh, Bruce A.; Olivier, Scot S.; Bauman, Brian J.; Brase, James M.; Carr, Emily; Carrano, Carmen J.; Gavel, Donald T.; Max, Claire E.; Patience, Jennifer, "Practical high- order adaptive optics systems for extrasolar planet searches", Proc. SPIE Vol. 4494, p. 60-68, February 2002. 25. Marchis, F. , J. Berthier, H. Boenhardt, O. Hainaut, A. Delsanti, I. de Pater, C. Dumas, D. Gavel, 2002. IAU Circular No 7807, January 2002. Circular IAU 1999 TC36 26. Marchis, F., I. de Pater, R. Prange, H. Roe, T. Fusco, D. Le Mignant, B. Macintosh, and S. Acton, 2001. "Volcanic Activity Observed from the Ground with the ADONIS and Keck AO Systems." Conference: Jupiter: Planet, satellites and magnetosphere. Boulder, CO, June 25- 30, 2001. 27. Marchis, F.; de Pater, I.; Fusco, T.; Davies, A.; Roe, H.; Le Mignant, D.; Macintosh, B.; Prangé, R. 2001. "A Strong Volcanic Outburst on Io as Observed with the Keck AO System." American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #33, #17.02 28. Martin, S. C.; de Pater, I.; Roe, H.; Macintosh, B.; Gibbard, S.; Max, C. E. 2001. "The Orphology and Motions of Storm Features on Neptune on Minute and Hour Timescale. American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #33, #22.05 29. Martin, S. C.; de Pater, I.; Roe, H.; Macintosh, B.; Gibbard, S.; Max, C. E., "The Morphology and Motions of storm features on Neptune on minute and hour timescales", American Astronomical Society Division of Planetary Sciences meeting, published 11/2001. 30. Max, C. E.; Whysong, D.; Antonucci, R.; Canalizo, G.; Macintosh, B. A.; Stockton, A., "Adaptive optics observations of the core of Cygnus A", American Astronomical Society meeting, January 2002. 31. Morris, S., Kobulnicky, C., Baldry, I., Steinbring, E., Barton, E., & Sharples, R., October 2001, "Galaxy Formation: The Masses of Galaxies at z=2", in The Science Case for the Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics System on the Gemini South Telescope, eds. Francois Rigaut and Jean-Rene Roy, Gemini Observatory

97 32. Olivier S. S., "Advanced Adaptive Optics Technology Development," Conference Paper, Proceedings of the SPIE, Adaptive Optics Systems and Technology II,San Diego, USA, July 30, 2001 33. Olivier, S. S., Wavefront Corrector Technologies for Ophthalmic Adaptive Optics, Invited Talk, 3rd International Congress of Wavefront Sensing and Aberration-Free Refractive Correction, Interlaken, Switzerland, February 16, 2002 34. Patience, Jennifer; Macintosh, Bruce A.; Max, Claire E., "High-resolution imaging with AEOS", Proc. SPIE Vol. 4490, p. 178-186, December 2001. 35. Olivier, S. S., A High Resolution Adaptive Optics System for Vision Science, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Annual Meeting, Ft. Lauderdale, USA, May 6, 2002 36. Patience, J., Macintosh, B. A., and Max, C. E. "A High Resolution Imaging Survey of A Stars with AEOS" 2002, AMOS Technical Conference Proceedings, 340. 37. Patience, J., Macintosh, B. A., and Max, C. E., "High-resolution Imaging with AEOS" 2002, SPIE, 4490, 178. 38. Patience, J.; Macintosh, B. A.; Max, C. E., "A High Resolution Imaging Survey of A Stars with AEOS", American Astronomical Society meeting, January 2002. 39. Pennington, D. M. , "Laser guided adaptive optics for high-resolution astronomy", Invited Paper, Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, May 20, 2002, Long Beach, CA. 40. Pennington, D. , C. Brown, P. Danforth, H. Jones, C. Max, J. Chin, H. Lewis, D. Medeiros, C. Nance, P. Stomski, P. Wizinowich, "Current Performance and Status of the Keck Observatory Guide Star Laser System", SPIE Conference on Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, August, 2002, Waikaloa, HI 41. Pennington, D. , W. Hackenberg, R. Beach, D. Bonaccini, A. Drobshoff, C. Ebbers, Z. Liao, S. Payne, L. Taylor, "Compact fiber laser approach to generating 589 nm laser guide stars", SPIE Conference on Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, August, 2002, Waikaloa, HI 42. Pennington, D. SPIE conference 4839: Adaptive Optical System Technologies II, August 22- 28, 2002, Kona, HI. Session 14: Reconstructors and Optimization II 43. Poyneer L. A,. "Advanced Techniques for Fourier Transform Wavefront Reconstruction", Submitted SPIE 4839: Adaptive Optical System Technologies II. 44. Quirrenbach, A., Larkin, J.E., Krabbe, A., Barczys, M., LaFreniere D. (2002). Integral-field spectroscopy at the resolution limit of large telescopes: the science program of OSIRIS at Keck. In SPIE Proc. 4841, in press--these meeting abstracts were all done with funding from the CFAO. 45. Romero-Borja, F., Roorda, A., Hebert, T.J., Sundaram, R. “Axial Resolution for Optical Slicing of Live Tissue with the Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope” to be presented at the Optical Society of America Annual Meeting, October 2002. 46. Roorda, A., Romero-Borja, F., Donnelly, W.J., Hebert, T.J., Queener, H. "Dynamic Imaging of Microscopic Retinal features with the Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope" Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. Suppl. 43: ARVO Abstract (2002) 47. Roorda, A., Romero-Borja, F., Donnelly, W.J., Hebert, T.J., Queener, H. "Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope" 3rd International Congress on Wavefront Sensing and Aberration-free Refractive Surgery, Interlaken, Switzerland, February 16, 2002. 48. Schoeck, M. ,S. Djorgovski, G. A. Chanan, J. E. Nelson,CELT site testing program, SPIE, vol. 4840 (in preparation), 2002.

98 49. Sivaramakrishnan, A., Makidon, R. B., Lloyd, J. P., Oppenheimer, B. R., Graham, J. R., Kalas, P. G., Macintosh, B. A., Max, C. E., Baudoz, P., Kuhn, J., Potter, D. 2001, ``Limits on Lyot coronagraphy with AEOS adaptive optics telescope'', BAAS, 198, 770 50. Thompson C. A., Vision Performance Testing with the Lawrence Livermore Adaptive Optics System, 3rd International Congress of Wavefront Sensing and Aberration-Free Refractive Correction, Interlaken, Switzerland, February 16, 2002 51. Wilks, S. C., Thompson, C. A., Olivier, S. S., Bauman, B. J., Flath, L., Silva, D., Sawvel, R., Barnes, T., Werner, J. S., "A Test-bed for Vision Science Based on Adaptive Optics," , Conference Paper, Proceedings of the SPIE, Adaptive Optics Systems and Technology II, San Diego, USA, July 30, 2001 52. Yoon, GY., Hofer, H., Chen, L., Singer, B., Porter, J., Yamauchi, Y., Doble, N., Williams, D. Dynamic correction of the eye's aberration with the Rochester 2nd generation adaptive optics system [ARVO Abstract]. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci.;42(4). Abstract nr 545, 2001.

Other 1. Hornstein S.D., A.M. Ghez, A.M Tanner, S. Gezari, M. Morris, M., E.E. Beckline, P. Wizinowich 2002, ``Short Term Variability of Sagittarius A* in the Near-Infrared" BAAS 2. Lloyd, J. P., Liu, M. C., Fischer, D., Graham, J. R., Marcy, G. W. 2001, ``Lick Adaptive Optics Companion Search around Nearby Solar-type Stars'' BAAS, 199, 03.05 3. Lloyd, J. P., Liu, M. C., Fischer, D., Graham, J. R., Marcy, G. W. 2001, ``Lick Adaptive Optics Companion Search around Nearby Solar-type Stars'' BAAS, 199, 03.05 8.2 Conference Presentations 1. Brown, M.E., J.L.Margot, I. de Pater and H. Roe, 2001. "Discovery of a satellite around 87 Sylvia", IAU Circular 7588. 2. Christou, J.C., Roorda, A., Williams, D.R. “Deconvolution of Adaptive Optics Retinal Images” 3rd International Congress on Wavefront Sensing and Aberration-free Refractive Surgery, Interlaken, Switzerland, February 16, 2002. 3. de Pater, I., F. Marchis, H. Roe, B. Macintosh, S. Acton and D. Le Mignant, 2001. Discovery of extreme outburst on Io. IAU Circular 7588. 4. Doble, Yoon, Chen, Williams, Bierden, Wilks, Thompson, Carr, Olivier. The Use of a MEMS Mirror for Adaptive Optics in the Human Eye, Presentation at the CfAO Summer School, Santa Cruz August 4-10 2001. 5. Doble, Yoon, Chen, Williams, Bierden, Wilks, Thompson, Carr, Olivier. A MEMS mirror for adaptive optics in the human eye, OSA Annual Meeting, Long Beach, CA, October 2001. 6. Doble, Yoon, Chen, Williams, Bierden, Wilks, Thompson, Carr, Olivier. A MEMS Mirror for Adaptive Optics in the Human Eye, CfAO Retreat, Monterey, California, December 10- 12, 2001. 7. Gavel, D.T., "Technology Challenges for Adaptive Optics on Extremely Large Telescopes", Beyond Conventional Adaptive Optics Meeting, Venice, Italy, May, 2001 8. Hebert, T.J., Roorda, A., Romero-Borja, F., “3-D Restoration of Axial Resolution in Confocal Images from an Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope” to be presented at the Optical Society of America Annual Meeting, October 2002. 9. Helmbrecht, M. A. , R.S. Muller, "Micromirror Arrays for Adaptive Optics," Poster presentation at the Center for Visual Science's 23rd Symposium, Engineering the Eye, June 13-15, 2002, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York.

99 10. Hunter, L., Involving Scientists in CfAO Education, Center for Adaptive Optics, UC Santa Cruz, CA, June 21, 2002. 11. Hunter, L., Networking Community Session, Maui, HI, May 15, 2002 12. Hunter, L., Education at the Center for Adaptive Optics: Opportunities for Collaboration, Maui High Performance Computing Center, Maui, HI, January 14, 2002. 13. Hunter, L., Education at the Center for Adaptive Optics: Opportunities for Collaboration, Maui Community College, Maui, HI, January 14, 2002. 14. Hunter, L., Education at the Center for Adaptive Optics: Using Inquiry to integrate research and education at the Center for Adaptive Optics, IBM, December 14, 2001. 15. Hunter, L., Education at the Center for Adaptive Optics: Opportunities for Collaboration, Center for Informal Learning and Schools, UC Santa Cruz, CA November 29, 2001 16. Hunter, L., CfAO High School Partnerships: Current Efforts and Future Directions, Educational Partnership Center, UC Santa Cruz, CA November 9, 2001. 17. Hunter, L., Educational Projects within the Center for Adaptive Optics: How do we decide what to implement?, Cornell University, NY August 20, 2001 18. Kobulnicky, C., Morris, S., Baldry, I., Steinbring, E., & Koo D., October 2001, Chemical Evolution of Galaxy Disks, in The Science Case for the Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics System on the Gemini South Telescope, eds. Francois Rigaut and Jean-Rene Roy, Gemini Observatory 19. Kurczynski, P. et al. "MEMS and Adaptive Optics," I-PRIME Industrial-Academic Partnership Workshop, Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis MN, May 28 2002. 20. Mast, Chanan, Nelson, Noe the Alignment of the CELT Optics 16-27 Sept 2002 NATO Summer school on Optics in Astrophysics gave series of lectures on astronomical optics and telescope design 21. Miller, Donald T. “Coherence gating and adaptive optics for the eye,” 23rd Symposium of the Center for Visual Science: Engineering the Eye, Rochester, NY, June 13-15, 2002 (invited). 22. Miller, Donald T. , Junle Qu, Ravi S. Jonnal, and Huawei Zhao, “Optical coherence tomography for an adaptive optics retina camera,” 19th Congress of the International Commission for Optics: Optics for the Quality of Life, Firenze, Italy, August 25-30, 2002. (2-page paper accepted for oral presentation). 23. Miller, Donald T. and Huawei Zhao, “Performance of continuous-plate wavefront correctors in an adaptive optics system for the human eye,” VII International Conference on Optics within the Life Sciences, Luzern, Switzerland, September 1-5, 2002. (paper accepted) 24. Miller, Donald T. , Junle Qu, Ravi S. Jonnal, and Karen Thorn, “Coherence Gating and Adaptive Optics in the Eye,” SPIE’s Photonics West 2003, San Jose, CA, January 25-31, 2003. (submitted) 25. Nelson, J., CfAO presentation for fund raiser (Nancy Burucki) 1 Nov 2001 26. Nelson, J. The future of Adaptive Optics, Presentation to NASA HQ OSS, Washington DC 16 Dec 2001 27. Nelson, J. presentation to Ed Penhoet (Moore Foundation) on AO and CfAO UCSC, 2 Jan 2002 28. Nelson, J. organized CELT workshop, presentations, Caltech, Pasadena 18,19 Jan 2002 29. Nelson, J. presentation on astronomical needs for AO, MEMS workshop, Berkeley 11 Feb 2002 30. Nelson, J. Giant Telescopes, presentation to OSA, Rochester NY 12 Mar 2002

100 31. Nelson, J. Adaptive Optics, presentation to physics dept Univ Rochester, Rochester, NY 13 Mar 2002 32. Nelson, J. presentation on CELT and AO to CA legislators and friends of UC at UC day, Sacramento 18 Mar 2002 33. Nelson, J. Spot elongation, presentation at Laser beacon workshop, Berkeley 21 Mar 2002 34. Nelson, J. Adaptive Optics and ground based telescopes, conference on Optical/UV space telescopes, Chicago 5 Apr 2002 35. Nelson, J. Presentation on CELT and AO to CELT Review Committee (Oakland) 1 May 2002 36. Nelson, J. Presentation on CELT and segment fabrication (workshop on segment fabrication at NOAO in Tucson) 30 May 2002 37. Nelson, J. Presentation to UC Regents on Adaptive Optics (at LLNL) 12 June 2002 38. Nelson, J. Giant Telescopes and Adaptive Optics, presentation at closing ceremonies of Summer Science Program, Ojai, CA 10 Aug 2002 39. Nelson, J. SPIE meeting on Astronomy, Hawaii, . 22-28 Aug 2002 40. Nelson, Foy, Le Louarn, Shockwaves of Miras seen with AO of Keck 2 Progress on the California Extremely Large Telescope 41. Nelson, J. Lectures on Optics: NATO Summer School on Astronomical Optics, Sept 2002 42. Nelson, J. Talk to Observatory directors on Giant telescopes, 9 Oct 2002 43. Nelson, J. talk on Giant telescopes and AO, Center for Astrophysics, Boston Oct 2002 44. Nelson, J. talk on AO, Optical Society of America, Boston Oct 2002 45. Olivier, S. S., Advanced Adaptive Optics Technology Development, International Symposium on Optical Science and Technology, Adaptive Optics Systems and Technology II,San Diego, USA, July 30, 2001 46. Olivier, S. S., MEMS for Adaptive Optics Invited Talk, Stanford Photonics Research Center Annual Meeting, Stanford, USA, September 15, 2001 47. Olivier, S. S., Commercial Opportunities for MEMS Adaptive Optics, Invited Panel Discussion, MOEMS and Miniaturized Systems II, San Francisco, USA, October 23, 2001 48. Olivier, S. S., Alternative Wavefront Correctors For Adaptive Optics, Invited Talk, Center for Visual Science Symposium, Engineering the Eye, Rochester, USA, June 15, 2002 49. Pennington, D. M. "Laser guided adaptive optics for high-resolution astronomy", Invited Speaker at Press Luncheon, Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, May 20, 2002, Long Beach, CA. 50. Qu, Junle , Ravi S. Jonnal, Huawei Zhao, and Donald T. Miller, “Coherence gated camera with adaptive optics for imaging the human retina,” 2002 Optical Society of America Annual Meeting, Orlando, Florida, September 29 – October 3, 2002. (submitted) 51. Qu, Junle , Ravi S. Jonnal, and Donald T. Miller, “Ultrafast Parallel Coherence Gating for an Adaptive Optics Retina Camera,” SPIE’s Photonics West 2003, San Jose, CA, January 25- 31, 2003. (submitted) 52. Venkateswaran, K, Poonja, S., Queener, H. Roorda, A. "Simultaneous Aberration Compensation and Imaging in the Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope" Engineering the Eye, 23rd Symposium of the Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, June, 2002

101 8.3 Dissemination Activities - Year3 CfAO-Sponsored Workshops 1. December 7 2001, ExAO Design Workshop in Berkeley - laid out the key technical issues for a next-generation planet-finding ExAO system. 2. December 8-10 2001, CfAO Fall Science and Education Retreat held at the Asilomar in Monterey CA. 85 attendees. All Center researchers presented papers on their research. 3. February 11 2002, MEMs Workshop in Berkeley, 26 people attended. All CfAO MEMS projects discussed in depth. 4. February 27 2002, ExAO Design Workshop II, Eighteen attendees – Discussions held on both science and technology associated with AO. 5. February 2002, MCAO Analysis and Simulation Workshop at Caltech 6. March 05-06 2002, External Advisory Board Meeting 7. March 21 2002, Laser Workshop in Berkeley, 8. March 22-23 2002, Spring Year 4 Proposals Retreat in Berkeley. Eighty researchers and forty industry representatives attended. Approximately twelve companies had display booths. 9. May 13 2002, AO and Biology Workshop 10. May 15-18 2002, Education and Science Workshop in Maui This graduate student and postdoc workshop, held in Maui, Hawaii, had 40 participants from both our vision science and astronomy communities. Attendees visited the US Airforce observatory, presented two poster sessions, and attended a workshop on Inquiry Based Learning. The workshop was notable for the large degree of participation by the Maui community. 11. May 28 – 29 2002 Program Review Committee. In depth review of all proposed research programs for Year 4. 12. May 31 2002, Program Advisory Committee Meeting 13. June 13-15 2002, "Engineering the Eye" Symposium sponsored by the CfAO at the University of Rochester NY. 14. June 21 2002, Dedication of the CfAO and Celebration with NSF Director Rita Colwell 15. June 24-07/20 2002, COSMOS 16. August 03-09 2002, Summer School on AO – 100 participants have registered. 17. October 26-28 2002, NSF Research Center Educators Workshop 8.4 Awards Recipient Reason for Award Award Name and Contributor Date Max, Claire Research on laser guide stars Election to the American Academy 4/20/02 of Arts and Sciences Williams, Achievements in Vision Science Tillyer Award in Optical Science. David Optical Society of America Helmbrecht, Best Poster Presentation Best Poster Presentation, Spring 3/12/02 Michael 2002 BSAC IAB Meeting Helmbrecht, Best Technology from U.C. Honorable Mention (4th place) 4/13/02 Michael Berkeley Technology Design Contest Helmbrecht, MBA Jungle Business-Plan First Prize, Business Plan 4/2/02 Michael Competition Competition, New York City, NY Campbell, M Doble, Nathan

102 Koehler, Rainer For his outstanding work on the Sonderpreis in Astrophysik fuer 5/16/02 frequency of double stars in star Nachwuchswissenschaftler aus forming regions Berlin und Brandenburg 2002

Lloyd, James Graduate education scholarship Fullbright Fellowship 1/11/01 Roorda, Austin Best Poster at 3rd International Best Poster Award 2/17/02 Congress on Wavefront Sensing 8.5 Graduating M.S. and Ph.D. students List M.S. and Ph.D. students who graduated during the reporting period, with placements. Include the number of years taken since entering graduate school to complete the Ph.D. List postdoctoral associates who left the STC during the reporting period, with placements.

Student Name Degree(s) Years to Degree Placement 1 Helmbrecht, Michael Ph.D. 7 President “start-up” company Iris AO Inc and interviewing for a faculty position in optometry at UCB 2 Donnelly III, William MS 3 Ph.D. student at UHCO 3 Lloyd, James Ph.D. 6 Millikan Fellowship, Caltech 4 Le Louarn, Miska Postdoc European Southern Observatory 8.6 Patents and Licensing etc. List, to the extent known, the general outputs of knowledge transfer activities since the last reporting period. Include:

Patent Name Number Application Receipt Date Date (leave empty if pending) 1 Method and Apparatus for Using 60/316,173 8/30/01 Adaptive Optics in a Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope. A. Roorda 2 "Synthetic Guide Star Generation," S. #IL-10737 4/ 2001 A. Payne, R. H. Page, C. A. Ebbers, and R. J. Beach 3 Method and Apparatus for the 020321D1 3/28/02 Correction of Optical Signal Wave Front Distortion using Fluid Pres-sure Adaptive Optics. B. Sadolet 4 A PZT unimorph based, high stroke CIT.PAU.1 6/12/02 MEMS deformable mirror with 4.PCT continuous membrane and method of making the same. E. H. Yang

Name of Start-Up Company Year Main Receipt Date

103 Product Iris AO (formerly Adaptic Systems) 2002 Deformable mirrors and AO-equipped ophthalmic instruments

Note: No Licenses to date. 8.7 Other Knowledge Transfer Activities

104 8.10 Media Publicity received by the Center

8.10.1 Dr. Rita Colwell (Director of NSF) visited to UCSC Dr. Rita Colwell (Director of NSF) visited UC Santa Cruz on June 23rd 2002 for the dedication of the new Center for Adaptive Optics Building. The following are reports from some of the press coverage that resulted.

Headline: "UCSC plans to dedicate adaptive optics center" June 19, 2002: Santa Cruz Sentinel

Investment in optical science pays off at UC Santa Cruz By JONDI GUMZ Sentinel staff writer (posted June 23rd 2002)

SANTA CRUZ - Three years ago, UC Santa Cruz was one of 280 applicants vying for a prestigious federal grant to oversee a new science and technology research center. Today, the Center for Adaptive Optics is in full swing, and already paying dividends with cutting-edge work in astronomy, vision science and education. "It's a great return on our investment," said Rita Colwell, who runs the National Science Foundation, which is providing the center with $20 million over five years. Colwell, a microbiologist who has been showered with honorary degrees, was on campus Friday to dedicate the center and learn about the research under way. About 275 people came to hear her speak. Colwell wants more outreach to elementary, middle and high school students, especially girls and minorities, encouraging them to pursue science. In 1998, her first year at the federal agency, she started a program to pay graduate students a stipend to spend 20 hours a week in classrooms. The program is now up to $50 million and 1,000 students. She's been successful in obtaining financial support from the White House and Congress. The agency's budget is $4.8 billion this year. UCSC astronomy professor Jerry Nelson oversees the new optics center, which has 27 partners, including companies like Lockheed Martin and Bausch and Lomb. He conceded with a smile that most people have no idea what adaptive optics is. But there were oohs and aahs as he demonstrated how the right combination of mirrors can bring something that's blurry into focus. Nelson's latest project is to build a telescope with a mirror the size of a baseball field. "We've been driven to build larger and larger telescopes so we can learn about the distant universe," said Andrea Ghez, an award-winning professor of physics and astronomy at UCLA and a researcher affiliated with the new optics center. Ghez explained how adaptive optics helped her answer the question of whether there is a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy. The answer is yes. But what the audience enjoyed most was her video clip showing a moon revolving around Jupiter. The same technology used by Ghez and Nelson is being applied to vision research. Austin Roorda, another researcher affiliated with the new optics center, wowed the audience with a movie showing blood flowing through the capillaries of his retina. An assistant professor of optics at the University of Houston, Roorda is working on smaller-scale diagnostic equipment for eye specialists. "We really want to bring the cost down," he said. "Optometrists never want to pay more than $100,000."

111 Santa Cruz Mayor Christopher Krohn, who wears glasses, found the subject intriguing, as did Dr. Scott Daly, a local optometrist. Daly said he knew of one new instrument that can produce a digital image of the whole retina, giving doctors a permanent record of the patient's condition. The downside, he said, is that the machine costs $150,000, "and the detail isn't as good as we'd like." Besides funding research, the new optics center also is committed to inspiring students, especially women and minorities, to become tomorrow's scientists. Lisa Hunter, who earned a master's degree in chemistry at UCSC, oversees those efforts. She has developed a summer science program for high school students, an internship program for 18 undergraduates and a conference to get 35 graduate and postdoctoral students thinking about education. The conference, which took place last year in Hawaii, raised eyebrows because scientists were convinced researchers weren't interested in education. But Anne Metevier, a doctoral candidate in astronomy at UCSC and one of the participants, said she learned a lot. "You can't just sent your students off exploring arbitrary questions," she said. Such programs are valuable because of the stigma graduate students attach to teaching, explained Philip Choi, 28, who earned his Ph.D. in astronomy from UCSC this year. "You dedicate 90 percent of your time to research, and teaching is just for the paycheck," he said. "If you're interested in teaching, they question your commitment to research." Choi made up his mind to study astronomy when he was a student at Wesleyan University and got a part-time job at the campus observatory. He said Colwell's idea to send graduate students in science into high school classrooms was brilliant. "That's where the problems are," he said. "Attack the problem at an early age." Contact Jondi Gumz at jgumz Posted on Sat, Jun. 22, 2002

New technology helps scientists see clearly By Ken McLaughlin San Jose Mercury News

Adaptive optics. ``To most people who aren't involved in it, the words mean absolutely nothing,'' said Jerry Nelson, director of the Center for Adaptive Optics at the University of California-Santa Cruz. But to Nelson and other scientists, adaptive optics potentially means sharper vision for those with poor eyesight and a clearer vision of the universe for astronomers. The UC-Santa Cruz center was established in 1999 with a grant from the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va., whose director on Friday came to pay tribute to the center and attend the dedication ceremonies of its new 4,000-square-foot building on the campus' Science Hill. Rita Colwell, the foundation's director since 1998, said the center has fostered ``a striking convergence'' of two groups of scientists who rarely talked to each other before -- those who study the sky and those who study the eye. Essentially, adaptive optics is the development of technology that takes the twinkle out of starlight. It uses superflexible mirrors and high-speed computers to remove the distorting effect of the Earth's atmosphere. That allows astronomers to see things as clearly from the ground as they can from space.

112 When the Keck II Telescope atop Hawaii's Mauna Kea began using adaptive optics in 1999, the effect was as dramatic as ``someone who has had 20/150 vision all his life getting fitted with glasses and seeing the world with 20/20 eyes for the first time,'' said Frederic Chaffee, director of the W.M. Keck Observatory. ``It's a whole new universe out there.'' Austin Roorda, a member of the center's executive committee, is working with adaptive optics to develop affordable new instruments that ophthalmologists and optometrists can use to see the interior of the eye with such high resolution that they will be able to watch individual blood cells move through tiny blood vessels in the retina. That will make it easier for doctors to assess the effectiveness of experimental treatments for such retinal diseases as macular degeneration, the country's leading cause of blindness. Roorda, an assistant professor of optics at the University of Houston's College of Optometry, said the technology already has made it possible to do more precise laser surgery to improve vision or eliminate the need for eyeglasses -- an increasingly common procedure. ------Contact Ken McLaughlin at [email protected] or (831) 423-3115.

Santa Cruz Sentinel – editorial Page - Posted June 24th 2002 THUMBS UP: To UC Santa Cruz for its new Center for Adaptive Optics, which was officially dedicated Friday as yet another step forward in science and technology for the university. The center will allow scientists to work on improving the resolution of images by reducing the amount of distortion. This will be vital technology for images received from telescopes and in eye surgery.

July 4, 2002: U.P.I. wire service Headline: "Technology for the Eyes"

Radio and Television Live in the Community Program, KZSC, will broadcast the presentations made by speakers at the CfAO Building dedication. The speakers included Dr. Rita Colwell, Dr. Jerry Nelson, Dr. Andrea Ghez, Dr. Austin Roorda, Lisa Hunter and Ann Metevier.

June 21, 2002: KSBW TV Interviews: Jerry Nelson and Rita Colwell

Additional coverage from the Colwell Visit may be coming. Reporters for Astronomy magazine and U.S. News and World Report were at the event. Also, UCSC received a request for video from Medstar Television, which is working on a story about vision science applications. 8.10.2 Laser Guide Star “First Light” at Keck Observatory Laser Guide Star “First Light” at Keck Observatory – Two Center Researchers on team. Selection from the thirteen articles reporting this event. Jan. 5, 2002: Associated Press Headline: “Virtual Star”

Jan. 6, 2002: Los Angeles Times

113 News brief

Jan. 10, 2002: Independent Headline: “Virtual star the way for heavenly studies”

Jan. 2002: Nature Headline: "Hawaiian Laser Puts a New Star in the Sky"

Jan. 14, 2002: Aviation Week & Space Technology Headline: “Laser created "star" sharpens view of deep space objects”

Jan. 18, 2002: Science Magazine Headline: “A star is born”

Jan. 28, 2002: Los Angeles Times Headline: “Stars untwinkled —Earth's atmosphere makes for a dancing distorted image and that's a problem for astronomers. Enter the art of adaptive optics”

March 2002: Laser Focus World Headline: “Keck laser guide star improves seeing in Hawaii”

March 2002: Discover Magazine Headline: “Twisted mirrors sharpen the view — Technology banishes blurry pictures from astronomers' photo albums”

April 2002: Popular Mechanics Headline: “Laser vision”

TV and Radio re. Keck “first light”

Jan. 6, 2002: KGO Radio

June 6, 2002: KOVR-TV

July 12, 2002: KPIX-TV 8.10.3 Keck AO images and movie of Io Keck AO images and movie of Io: Center Researchers, de Pater and Marchis June 3 2002, Press release on Io: the Movie file 15959. see: http://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/news/io.html

June 7, 2002: Nature News Service Headline: "Keck Keeps Eye on Io"

June 7, 2002: Daily Californian (UC Berkeley Student Paper) Headline: "Telescope Images Bring Jupiter's Volcanic Moon into Focus"

114 June 6, 2002: MSNBC Headline: Cosmic Log: New Images of Io

June 3, 2002: Space Daily Headline: "Jovian Dreams: Io Surface Captured in Full Motion"

June 5, 2002: SpaceRef Headline: “Io Captured in Full Motion”

June 13, 2002: North Hawaii News Headline: "Io's Volcanic Surface Captured in Full Motion" 8.10.4 General Articles and Coverage of AO: October 23 2000 I. de Pater, Press release on “Near infrared images of Neptune” taken by Keck II shows best detail yet of icy planet's atmosphere, - File 15441 (Plus associated DPS Press conference)

February 2002: Sky and Telescope Cover story: "Age of the Behemoths: New Telescopes, New Technologies"

March 2002: Business 2.0 “Future Boy: Seeing the Light” http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,37508,FF.html (Link between astronomical AO and vision science AO)

Graham, J. Press release at Washington AAS meeting describing the Adaptive optics observations of L-Dwarf companion to HR 7672.

Graham, J. Press release at Washington AAS meeting describing Lick AO observations of debris disks.

T Glassman and J. Larkin, Press release at Washington AAS meeting “UCLA Astronomers observe Distant Galaxies more clearly than ever; Study sheds light on what galaxies were like 5 Billion years ago.”

R. Muller, (IrisAO Inc. wins new business competition) http://haas.berkeley.edu/groups/pubs/news/articles/bplan_competition_winners_announced_0 42502.html

Muller, R. Brief clip on Channel 7 ABC News for the Berkeley Business-Plan Competition win

Muller, R. http://www.mbajungle.com/businessplan/index.cfm

Muller, R. http://pacific.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2002/04/22/daily70.html

115 Max, C. Pacific Business News, March 1 2002: Feature article describing Alu-Like interns and our program

Max, C. Certificate ceremony at office of Senator Daniel Inouye, Prince Kuhio Federal Building, Honolulu – Alu-Like Interns

Olivier, S. Television Interview, KOVR, CBS affiliate, Sacramento, USA, June 6, 2002

Olivier, S. Television Interview, KPIX, CBS affiliate, San Francisco, USA, July 7, 2002

D. Pennington, LGS/AO laser projects profiled in two different CBS affiliate news broadcasts. Fiber lasers for LGS/AO project mentioned in LA Times article and Laser Focus World article. Several trade articles are in press, and others are planned. Opto & Laser Europe is preparing a feature article. PI was asked to submit a review paper (peer-reviewed) on the subject to the Journal of Applied Physics B.

Roorda, A. "Adaptive Optics yield higher ophthalmoscope resolutions" Biophotonics International June 2002 8.10.5 CfAO World Wide Web site: http://cfao.ucolick.org/

116 9. Indirect/Other Impacts

117 10. Budgets

118 Appendix A: Biographical information for new faculty member

University of California – Santa Cruz (UCSA) Dr. Claire Max has been a Principal Investigator with the Center for Adaptive Optics since its inception. However, she recently accepted a 60% faculty position at UCSC

Brief Biography: Claire Ellen Max, Professor/Astronomer at UC Santa Cruz Hired November 1, 2001

Dr. Claire Max was hired as a Professor/Astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz on November 1, 2001. She holds a joint appointment between UC Santa Cruz (60% time) and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (40% time).

Max graduated from Radcliffe College (A.B.) and Princeton University (Ph.D.) in Astrophysical Sciences. She was a postdoc in the Physics Department at UC Berkeley, from which she went to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). At LLNL she did research in laser- plasma interactions, computer simulation of astrophysical plasmas, and adaptive optics. Max was the founding director of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at LLNL, and later served as the Director of University Relations at the Laboratory. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Max’s current research interests include adaptive optics and laser guide stars, and their use for studies of the Solar System and active galactic nuclei. Max was Principal Investigator for the adaptive optics system at Lick Observatory, for the laser guide star systems at both Lick and Keck Observatories, and for the wavefront controller subsystem of the Keck adaptive optics project. Within the CfAO she serves as Associate Director for Theme 2: Adaptive Optics for Extremely Large Telescopes.

In the spring of 2002 Max taught one of the only graduate courses in adaptive optics in the US. The course used the CfAO’s new videoconferencing facilities. In addition to about a dozen students and postdocs who attended in person in the CfAO’s videoconference room, four UCLA astronomy students and three Indiana University optometry students and postdocs attended the class via video link. This first CfAO experiment in formal distance-learning was a definite success.

119 Appendix B: Organization Chart, Center for Adaptive Optics (Year 4)

UCSC Oversight Committee External Advisory Board Director Program Advisory Committee Managing Director

Associate Associate Associate Associate Associate Directors for Director, for Director, Director, Director, Theme 1 Theme II Theme III for Theme IV External

Project Leaders Site Coordinators and Business Offices

120 Appendix C: Summary Minutes of Advisory Board Meetings

Report of the Program Advisory Committee Center for Adaptive Optics (CfAO)

The Program Advisory Committee met on May 31, 2002 with members of the CfAO executive committee. This report summarizes the PAC conclusions. Present were:

PAC: James Beletic (via videoconferencing), Mark Colavita, Fiona Goodchild, Stanley Klein, Malcolm Northcott, Steve Vogt,

CfAO: Jerry Nelson, Chris Le Maistre, Andrea Ghez (via videoconferencing), Lisa Hunter, Claire Max, Scot Olivier, Austin Roorda (via videoconferencing), David Williams

General Comments We met in the new CfAO building and were delighted by how nice it looked. The preparations for the meeting were fine. We were able to look at all proposals before the meeting either on the web site or by having a paper version sent to us. Before we met we were also able to view the reviewer commentaries (used by the Program Review Committee that met a few days before our PAC meeting). Some of the commentaries arrived just a day or two before the PAC meeting. It would be nice to get them sooner.

The PAC meeting began with Jerry Nelson providing an overview of the past year's activities. That was followed by presentations by Lisa Hunter (Theme 1), Claire Max (Theme 2), Scott Olivier (Theme 3), and David Williams (Theme 4). A number of examples were provided showing that CfAO funding is generating much exciting AO activity in both astronomy and vision science as well as scientific education. One of the tasks of the PAC was to make suggestions for trimming $320K from the proposed budgets. During the presentations and for about two hours following the presentations the full group discussed marginal proposals to balance the budget. Following that discussion the PAC met privately for about two hours to discuss recommendations. The present recommendations were developed during that meeting and also during several rounds of e-mailings among PAC members. Our report is delivered in two parts: (i) General responses and recommendations, and (ii) A confidential section with specific advice on funding particular proposals.

General responses and recommendations The four-theme organization seems to be working well and the PAC supports its continuation. We were pleased to see that a number of proposals included a multiyear projection of activities and costs. That was helpful and we suggest that all future proposals include a section describing the long-range plan as well as the one year plan. We were also pleased to see increasing amounts of cross-talk among individual investigators.

121 The next half year is special because of the forthcoming NSF five year renewal. It would be good to notify investigators that they should start thinking about preparing a special Year 3 final report that would provide information for the five year renewal.

Planning should be devoted to developing relationships with companies and granting agencies to continue funding beyond the Center’s NSF funding period. Contact Fiona Goodchild about how this works at her Center. It can take several years to establish the proper contacts so it is good to start early. Continued funding for Theme 1 (Education) might be especially difficult to find, so the search for alternate funding sources should begin soon.

We approve of the Center's priority on support of diversity throughout the Center's programs.

Recommendations specific to Themes. Theme 1: Education and Human Resources The PAC questioned the value of intensive mentoring of underrepresented students in their senior year of high school when they are focused on other matters. We recommend focusing mentoring at the junior college level. A more productive way to reach the high school population would be to get high school science teachers involved with CfAO. This could be done by broad invitations to CfAO workshops and summer schools. To increase the attractiveness of this suggestion CfAO should consider providing funding and/or other incentives (i.e. career advancement credit, travel grants). In addition, individual high school teachers should be included in proposals such as the Hands-On AO Teaching Demonstrators for Vision and Astronomy where high schools are a targeted population.

The educational activity in Hawaii is exciting. In future years we recommend that the CfAO actively promote proposals that originate from the Hawaiian colleges and community colleges. This would help develop a permanent infrastructure in Hawaii connected to AO related science.

In connection with the proposals for broadening the training of graduate students it would be useful to contact Prof. Bruce Rosenblum, of the UCSC physics department. He has been deeply involved with this topic and could be helpful.

Theme 2: Extremely large telescopes The PAC was pleased with the collaborative proposal at the heart of the AO planning for extremely large telescopes. The group workshop at Caltech in Feb. 2002 was productive in analyzing the critical problems and in working out a plan to investigate solutions to these problems. A joint proposal resulted from that workshop. We encourage continuation of this approach.

Theme 2 differs from the other themes in that it is not building physical monuments, it is building bricks and tools for monument building. The CfAO budget is an order of magnitude too small to build AO hardware for a 30 m telescope. For this reason Theme 2 accomplishments will be more difficult to demonstrate than those of the other themes. CfAO should develop a plan by which its accomplishments in this area can be demonstrated.

122 The development of an improved sodium laser is critically important for multi-conjugate AO. The Center's budget is too small to fully fund the development of a laser, but CfAO should maintain significant involvement in developing proposals to other agencies, such as the NSF/Air Force proposal that was discussed.

Theme 3: Extreme AO The management plan of CoDR (conceptual design review) and PDR (preliminary design review) with go-no go decision points seems appropriate for this project.

Greater attention needs to be given to finding a US observatory that will become the home for the Extreme AO system, something that is far from clear at this point. The two primary large telescope possibilities, the Keck and Gemini observatories, need to have their communities sold on this theme. James Beletic will facilitate this process for Keck. A facilitator should be found for Gemini or other large U.S. based telescopes.

Theme 4. Vision science We congratulate the Center and its Theme 4 members for developing partnerships with industry and other agencies. We are pleased that CfAO preliminary funding for the 'phoroptor' project enabled this project to be spun off to DOE funding.

It appears that there are already significant ‘monuments’ coming from this theme.

Sincerely, James Beletic Mark Colavita Fiona Goodchild Stanley Klein Malcolm Northcott Steve Vogt,

123 Report of the External Advisory Board May 2002

Executive Summary The External Advisory Board of the Center for Adaptive Optics met in Santa Cruz on March 5th and 6th 2002 to review the progress and performance of the Center and its activities.

In the opinion of the External Advisory Board the CfAO is thriving, and is an excellent example of the advantages of NSF’s Science and Technology Center concept. The comments herein are given from a constructive point of view, with the intention of making the Center even better.

The management of the Center has stabilized following the new strategic plan developed in 2001. Excellent progress has been made in establishing effective management tools for guiding the Center. The leaders of the Center are to be congratulated on the positive way they have responded to earlier criticisms. The remaining principal management issue is to ensure that all partners in the Center, particularly those outside the UC Santa Cruz/LLNL circle, contribute effectively to the management process.

The strongest Themes of the Center are in Education and Vision Science. The Education theme, led by Lisa Hunter, is focusing more on undergraduate and graduate initiatives, including for example those at Maui Community College, than on K-12 activities. The Center Management may wish to consider whether the budget fixed for education at the outset is still appropriate.

Outstanding progress has been made in the Vision Science Theme. A coherent program of instrument development and scientific investigation is under way, with a well defined roadmap. Of particular note this year has been the operation of a confocal laser scanning ophthalmoscope with adaptive optics by the group led by Roorda in Houston. The EAB is firmly convinced that the Center’s activities lead the world in this area.

Excellent progress has also been made in the two Astronomy Themes, AO for Extremely Large Telescopes and eXtreme AO. The Center Management is aware that it has to define its role clearly, and in some areas (MEMS, Lasers) we believe it is doing so. However a recurrent criticism by the EAB is that the Center is not developing enough links with the other (US and European) activities in these two Themes. A second recurrent criticism is that roadmaps with timelines and metrics for these two areas have not been sufficiently well defined. More detailed roadmaps will be essential if the Center, and others, are to judge their progress.

The strong cross-disciplinary research in MEMS mirrors is a good example of the Center working at its best. The very active participation of engineering faculty and students in this activity is particularly commendable.

The EAB noted that the new building for the Center is Santa Cruz was completed and about to be occupied. The EAB supports the current effort by the Center to add laboratory areas so that

124 experimental work could be incorporated in the Center’s activities in Santa Cruz. The EAB also strongly supports the increasing effort by the Center to involve industry in its programs.

Pablo Artal (University of Murcia, Spain) Matt Mountain (Gemini Observatory, by telecon) David Burgess (Boston College) Maria Santos (Wallace Reader’s Digest Fund) Bob Byer (Stanford University) Allan Wirth (Adaptive Optics Associates, Inc) Tom Cornsweet (Visual Pathways Inc) Sidney Wolff (NOAO) Chris Dainty (Imperial College, London) (Chair)

Report 1 Introduction The third annual meeting of the External Advisory Board (EAB) was held on March 5th and 6th in Santa Cruz. The presentations by the CfAO focused largely on the four Themes of the Center, in contrast to 2001 when management issues were the main topic of discussion.

The following presentations were made on Day 1:

· Director’s Report (Jerry Nelson, UCSC) · Theme 1 (Lisa Hunter, UCSC) · Theme 2 (Claire Max, UCSC) · Theme 3 (Scot Olivier, LLNL) · Theme 4 (David Williams, Rochester)

The EAB were provided with hardcopies of the presentations during the day. In addition, some members of the External Advisory Board gave presentations either on their own work or on possible future directions for the Center.

On Day 2, an open discussion on recruiting under-represented students into science and engineering was held, as well as a general discussion of the Center’s research. The EAB meeting concluded with a site visit to the new building for the Center (occupied shortly afterwards, in April 2002). 2 Mission The mission statement states that the purpose of the Center is “to advance and disseminate the technology of adaptive optics in service to science, health care, industry and education”, with the goal “to lead the revolution in AO, by developing and demonstrating the technology, creating major improvements in AO systems, and catalyzing the advances nationwide with the next decade”.

The Center is moving towards accomplishing its mission statement. Industry is engaged, in a peripheral role, in the astronomy theme and more centrally in the vision science theme, but clearly there are many other possibilities with industry to be explored. The

125 EAB welcomed the news that an Industry Meeting was scheduled for late March, with a view to possibly forming an Industrial Advisory Board: we strongly support such a move.

The EAB believes that the Center has not yet achieved its goal to “lead the revolution in AO”. As regards the education and vision science themes, this claim is reasonable, but the Center has not taken a leading role in astronomical adaptive optics. We urge the Center management to make the Center more inclusive in the astronomy themes, involving more of the partners at institutions other than UCSC and LLNL, and reaching out to other leading players in the US and internationally.

The Center has run many workshops on educational and scientific issues, as well as an Annual Summer School in Adaptive Optics: these worthwhile activities have been well attended. The EAB feels this aspect of the Center’s activities could be opened to wider participation and this would help define their leadership role.

A major achievement of the Center has been to lead and catalyze the development of MEMS deformable mirrors, an activity that has involved Lucent Technologies, UC Berkeley and Boston Micromachines Corporation. 3 Management Issues During the past year, the management of the Center has stabilized, and this is a welcome development. The internal review process, which in 2001 had already occurred by the time of the EAB meeting, was to be held after the EAB meeting in 2002, to allow EAB input to the process. The EAB feels that the Center has now found an effective internal review process for proposals.

The remaining area where further refinement is required is the full involvement of the partners of the Center in the Management of the program. The presentations to the EAB were largely given by Santa Cruz or LLNL members (with the exception of the Vision Science Theme) and in 2003 the EAB would prefer to see more representatives from the partner institutions, particularly those involved in the astronomy themes. 4 Thematic Issues 4.1 Theme 1: Education and Human Resources Significant progress has been made in the past year in the EHR Program at CfAO. This program is now well established and provides focused activities which brings together all units within the Center. Leadership has been exercised in the past year to streamline activities and to gain visibility and credibility in the center. Critical decisions have been made early in the year resulting in the scaling back of K-12 activities, increased visibility of undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral student programs and partnership with Maui Community College as it emerges into a four year institution. These activities and decisions have been sound, have resulted in significant and positive results over the past year and set the stage for continued success over the next few years. Certain challenges remain which can be successfully addressed over the next year.

126 Certain specific activities over the past year highlight the increasingly focused effort in EHR. The Program has worked hard to increase the visibility of CfAO activities and programs to a diverse undergraduate population. Exhibiting and presenting a scientific symposium at the annual SACNAS meeting, successfully obtaining NSF REU support for 18 undergraduate summer interns, and the poster presentation at the AAAS annual meeting are all excellent activities, should be continued and should result in increased diversity in participation in student programs in the CfAO. Two activities stand out this year and should be the core of future programs. First, the graduate student/postdoctoral retreat which focused on learning how to implement inquiry based approaches in teaching was novel and highly successful. It provided an off site (and away from mentor) site for these students to develop professionally. This workshop was very successful and is important in the development of future scientists and educators in the area. The extensive evaluation of this workshop can be continued in successive workshops leading to the core of a publication. The second outreach activity, which is noted as being especially novel and unique, is the partnership with the Maui community and especially with the University of Hawaii which is expanding Maui Community College into a four year college. The large enrollment of Native Hawaiian students at this college is of particular significance. The potential for extensive partnerships between CfAO and the Native Serving College is significant. One other programmatic activity appears to have been equally successful and that is the partnership with the UCSC Education Department.

It should be obvious that the past year has been an excellent one for the EHR Program. The current EHR leadership is sound, engages in appropriate consultation with the other Theme leaders, and is well regarded professionally. Communication between all Theme leaders continues to be an important ingredient to success in EHR activities. The EHR Program is to be commended for its innovative efforts in engaging graduate students and undergraduate students in center activities. This is a significant challenge due to the diversity of locations and universities in which they are enrolled.

The EHR Program should: continue to focus on undergraduate and graduate student initiatives; publish the outcome of the workshops and exhibiting at conferences; continue to involve other Theme leaders in EHR decision making; participate as an exhibitor at the ABRCMS annual conference (in addition to the SACNAS meeting) since it attracts large numbers of students from HBCUs; and should diversify its offerings at the graduate student/postdoctoral student workshop in the future with the inclusion of various professional development activities.

Certain real challenges face the EHR Program at CfAO. One challenge is the accounting of the committed 5% effort by CfAO participants. It is very important and a success that this commitment has been made. Some more specific way of monitoring effort and participation needs to be developed. Because this is such a modest commitment, it will be important for the Director, the Associate Director and all Theme leaders to publicly endorse and buy-into EHR efforts. EHR responsibilities need to be fully integrated into the planning of all Themes and should not be left to the EHR Program alone. Again, Theme and Director leadership is essential to this integration. A final challenge is the budget. It has been stated that a decision was made early on to provide a flat 15% of the

127 Center budget to ERH. Little indication was made of the opportunity to modify this amount. Since the EHR leadership has changed since the budget decision was made and there is clear success in this area, it is recommended that the Director entertain a request for a budget modification, if needed, to accurately support EHR activities.

4.2 Theme 2 : Adaptive Optics for Extremely Large Telescopes The next major initiative in ground-based optical and infrared astronomy is likely to be the construction of a telescope with an aperture of 30 m or greater. AO is essential for such extremely large telescopes (ELTs), but the challenges are substantial. The actuators will number in the thousands; multiple deformable mirrors conjugate to each turbulent layer are required to enlarge the field of view; multiple laser guide stars will be needed; new and very efficient algorithms will have to be developed for calculating the wavefront corrections.

Theme 2 has come a long way since its inception last year and it is instructive to comment directly on the Center’s own assessment given in their presentation:

Key areas:

–Analysis and simulation –“ got our act together this year, have very good plan for next year”

The center is pursuing a reasonably coherent approach being led by Caltech. This is a particularly daunting challenge given that the computing requirements for a “full-up” MCAO system scale by between the 2nd and 4th power of the telescope diameter, while the simulation requirements scale as the 6th power of the diameter of the telescope using conventional matrix techniques (that is a 4000-fold increase in computing power required to simulate a 30-m telescope compared to an 8-m telescope). The Center recognizes that on top of producing a “user friendly simulator” considerable algorithm development will be required if this endeavor is to be successful. We recommend that the Center to talk to other groups both within the US and in Europe where there are already similar activities underway since this may help “boot-strap” some of the Center’s efforts in these areas.

The EAB noted that the presentation of this sub-theme contained no quantifiable goals for the coming year, and a program plan of these activities would help the EAB assess if these considerable computational challenges have been understood, and whether adequate resources have been made available to this activity for it to succeed.

–Laser development – “good progress, but must continue to partner with others on a national scale (high cost & risk)”

The Center is working effectively to broaden the range of laser technologies under development and is partnering with other AO groups to consolidate risks and costs across the entire sodium laser development field.

The EAB was concerned that no program plan was presented to show how the Center intended to pursue the various technologies, how the Center intended to exploit synergies

128 across its various collaborations, how strategic decisions will be taken or what the anticipated costs might be over the life of the Center and whether such resources would be available to actually achieve the breakthroughs in laser technologies required to enable MCAO systems on 30-m telescopes. Both the NSF LIGO laser development program and the Gemini laser development program provide quantitative models that can be used as a basis for such estimates.

–Laser guide star astro experience – “under way”

This is an area where the CfAO has a clear leadership role. The Lick sodium laser AO system and the laser AO system about to come on-line at Keck are impressive examples of how such systems can be made to work and can deliver front-ranked science. The EAB strongly encourages the CfAO to continue to exploit these unique facilities, exploring the scientific opportunities, the technical limitations, and the operational paradigms required to operate laser guide star AO systems on operational telescopes.

“Leadership role in MEMS, design of AO systems for ELTs, using lasers for astronomy”

The CfAO has correctly, in the view of the EAB, identified MEMs, AO design systems, and lasers as the appropriate enabling technologies for the next generation of 30- to 100- m ground-based telescopes. The Center is showing a strong interest and developing leadership in most of these areas. However, once again for any of these activities to be successful, clear objectives need to be defined and a realistic assessment made of the resources required to achieve the necessary breakthroughs in any of these technologies. The EAB cannot really give sensible advice to the Director on “long term and short term strategies for CfAO” [Directors presentation on the Role of the EAB] in these areas without some assessment of the feasibility (rather than the desirability) of any of these programs, which in turn requires some kind of program plan which matches an expected resource timeline to possible decision points or milestones.

“Strong ties with national and international communities in laser development”

The EAB commends the Center’s role in developing these ties, and encourages the Center to take a real leadership role in coordinating these resources (particularly in the US) since it is only the adaptive optics community who needs the sodium laser technology developments to succeed, and it will only be through extensive coordination that “critical mass” funding can be brought together to solve this “laser technology problem.”

In looking at the entirety of Theme 2, the EAB agrees with the Center that the resources required to develop a technically feasible and cost effective approach to AO systems for ELTs exceed what is available within the CfAO. What the Center can do is play a leadership role by: 1) following up on an earlier initiative with NOAO to forge a consensus within the US community on a roadmap for the AO development program and advocating this roadmap to funding agencies, opinion makers in the astronomical community, etc; 2) tracking the work going on in Europe so that the work in the US minimizes duplication and takes maximum advantage of limited resources; 3) working

129 with AO groups in the US but outside CfAO to optimize the overall investment strategy, taking advantage the expertise in the various groups; 4) identifying those areas where CfAO members can make unique contributions to the overall community effort; and 5) seeking to leverage the CfAO contribution with resources, both financial and intellectual, drawn from outside the Center. If the CELT project goes forward, it will surely provide significant resources for AO development. In this case, we agree with the CfAO plan to distinguish clearly between the CELT and CfAO programs, with CfAO exploring generally applicable principles and critically evaluating the options that should guide the development of AO systems, with the one for CELT being only one specific realization of an AO system.

4.3 Theme 3 : Extreme Adaptive Optics Extreme Adaptive Optics (eXAO) is a cover-phrase for AO systems that provide very precise wavefront correction with the goal of achieving high contrast sensitivity. The strongest scientific application of eXAO is to the detection and characterization of planets and other faint companions around nearby stars.

The eXAO theme has six components: system design, design of instruments to be fed by the eXAO system, the development of the science case and the image processing packages, simulations of performance, analysis and optimization of current AO systems, and technology development. The long-term goal is to build, demonstrate, and make available to observers eXAO systems and instrumentation.

This theme identified several challenges in its presentation, which provides a structure for the EAB commentary. eXAO challenges [as presented by the Center]· Do we have a compelling science case for an eXAO system? The EAB agrees with the Center that eXAO is particularly well suited to searching for planets around nearby stars, a subject of interest to NASA. Building a system for the Keck telescope that would be made openly available to the community through the NASA allocation of time would provide an important new capability that is not currently being planned for other large US telescopes.

· If so, what version of eXAO system is required for the science? The EAB was impressed with how much progress had been made since last year in understanding the detailed requirements through the use of a first order error budget and preliminary systems modeling of a realizable eXAO system, targeted at specific science problems. The proposed “strawman design” looks like a viable concept, although there are (well understood) technology challenges in implementing such a system in front of the Keck AO system.

Given the large number of tasks that are prerequisites for deploying a functional eXAO system, it is unclear to the EAB just what can be accomplished within the funding available to this theme within the CfAO and what additional outside resources will be required. Since eXAO is one area where the CfAO can make a unique contribution to US

130 astronomy and on a relatively short (less than a decade) time scale, it is particularly important to develop a road map and project plan for this effort. This project plan would answer many of the open questions about eXAO which were brought up in the Theme 3 presentation:

· What progress can be made on the eXAO them for $0.5M per year? · Is there a compelling argument for significantly more CfAO funding for eXAO (or less)? · How can we best leverage other resources, facilities (e.g. AEOS)? · What is the plan for transition from year 3 to years 4,5,6, 7….? · Are some year 3 projects planning to end this year or next?

Without a well-developed project plan it is difficult for the EAB to offer any real advice to the Director on these questions posed to the EAB in the presentation.

· Can we effectively work more collaboratively on the eXAO theme? The EAB suggests that the answer to this question is “yes” and recommends that the leaders of the eXAO project within the CfAO make contact with the AURA “GSMT” and ESO groups working on the same problem in order to determine what level of cooperation and sharing of ideas would be mutually beneficial.

· What should we really do on eXAO? The EAB would reiterate the point that the strawman design does offer a unique capability to astronomy and offers many synergies to other parts of the Center’s activities (MEMs technologies, high order algorithms, etc.), so if a detailed project plan can be developed and resources identified, this would be an outstanding capability for the CfAO to produce, and it would be a world-recognized “legacy system” of the Center’s activities.

· Are we ready to do a preliminary eXAO system design? It is the EAB’s opinion that enough work has been done to establish a credible case to proceed to a full conceptual design of the “strawman design” presented. The challenge for the Center’s management is to determine if it has the planning to decide whether it has the resources to complete such a design activity.

4.4 Theme 4: Compact Vision Science Instrumentation The AO activity in Vision Science is a strong component of the CfAO activities and is providing the Center with high profile scientific results. The research in ophthalmic AO performed by the partners in the Center is the most successful of its kind in the world. In addition, this theme is quite successful in obtaining additional funds from sources other than the Center.

In the past year, the Rochester group completed a closed-loop (low bandwidth) AO system for the eye that uses a 97 element Xinetics mirror, and performed experiments to study the impact of different aberration modes in vision. They also performed preliminary experiments on the effect of diffraction-limited spots in the perceived color.

131 In collaboration with LLNL, they tested different corrector devices for the eye, and in particular have tested a MEMS mirror provided by Boston Micromachines Corporation.

The University of Houston group has built an AO confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope (cSLO). They have demonstrated some very promising results where individual photoreceptors were clearly visible. One of the advantages of the AO-assisted cSLO is that it provides video rate dynamic images, as well as improved depth resolution (“optical sectioning”). The potential for this device is considerable.

The Indiana group is still working in incorporating AO to an optical coherence tomography (OCT) fundus camera. Although this is a difficult project, if it finally works, the possibilities for the eye of such a device will very important. One important feature of the OCT camera is its depth resolution, which is a few tens of microns for a superluminescent diode light source. The LLNL Group has started the construction of a phoropter based on adaptive optics. All the vision science groups are collaborating with the Santa Cruz node (Astronomy) to apply deconvolution techniques to improve the retinal images.

The vision science strand is the main driver in the short term for MEMS deformable mirrors and a significant activity has been started with Boston Micromachines, Berkeley and Lucent Technologies. The group's association with other Center members, and particularly with Livermore Labs, has been and continues to be fruitful. Their short and long term plans seem to be well thought out and their goals are ones that can be expected to be reached. The vision science partners are proposing, together with the Sheppens Eye Institute and Doheny Eye Institute, a Bioengineering Research Partnership to The National Eye Institute in the area of AO for Advanced Ophthalmic Imaging. The EAB welcomes this initiative and advises the participants to also include industry at the early stages of this project, to ensure commercial success for the instrumentation.

The participants in Vision Science strand are to be congratulated on their progress to date, and are urged to continue seeking out new groups, both national and international, who bring complimentary expertise and applications to this exciting field. 5 Other Recommendations 5.1 Global Links The CfAO is urged to increase its international activities and profile, particularly in Themes 2 and 3 (Astronomy) where there is considerable expertise at The European Southern Observatory and the international Gemini Observatory in Hawaii.

5.2 Communications The CfAO is urged to continue its consideration of internet-based video conferencing to assist communications within the Center.

5.3 Publications The publications of the Center appear to be a compendium of the publications of the individual Principal Investigators at each node, rather than be joint publications that

132 demonstrate the added-value of working in “Center-mode”. On of the EAB members pointed out that in European Union funded Networks, the only publications that were given credit by the funding agency were joint ones, as these showed that the Network was really being successful. The CfAO should strive to increase the number of joint publications, as this could be used as a quantitative measure of its performance by NSF.

5.4 Funding for Astronomers Who are Center Participants The EAB was concerned with the perception (perhaps real) by Center members in applying for NSF Research Grants for non-center research activities that they were being discriminated against in the peer review process, because it was assumed Center individuals “already had research money through the Center.” The EAB asks the NSF to comment on this, or alternatively support the Center Director’s efforts to increase the astronomical research component of the Center’s activities.

5.5 Industrial Interactions The EAB welcomes that increasing role of industry in the Center’s activities and urges that the rate of industrial involvement be accelerated. It is important for the Center to be able to demonstrate that its activities are benefiting industry, and the benefits already provided should be enumerated in the proposal to NSF to extend the life of the Center beyond 2004.

133 Appendix D: Additional Media Materials

The following have been forwarded to NSF under separate cover:

1) CfAO Newsletter: Describes research and education activities of the Center. The latest issue covers research in both astronomy and vision with articles on Rayleigh Guide stars and MEMS mirrors for vision science instrumentation.

2) Center for Adaptive Optics - This is an Introduction brochureto the Center that was recently updated.

134 Appendix D

“Stars, Sight, and Science” Program Summer 2003

Stars, Sight and Science students were exposed to inquiry based learning and report on “ray tracing through a lens system”. The four-week summer immersion experience included three coordinated courses on vision science, astronomy, and science communication developed by CfAO: The summer session is offered in conjunction with the California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science (COSMOS) program at UCSC

135