Performance of the neural network-based prediction model in closed-loop adaptive optics

Abstract

Adaptive optics (AO) technology is an effective means to compensate for atmospheric turbulence, but the inherent delay error of an AO system will cause the compensation phase of the deformable mirror (DM) to lag behind the actual distortion, which limits the correction performance of the AO technology. Therefore, the feed-forward prediction of atmospheric turbulence has important research value and application significance to offset the inherent time delay and improve the correction bandwidth of the AO system. However, most prediction algorithms are limited to an open-loop system, and the deployment and the application in the actual AO system are rarely reported, so its correction performance improvement has not been verified in practice. We report, to our knowledge, the first successful test of a deep learning-based spatiotemporal prediction model in an actual 3 km laser atmospheric transport AO system and compare it with the traditional closed-loop control methods, demonstrating that the AO system with the prediction model has higher correction performance.