Deformable mirrors development program at ESO

Abstract

Several E-ELT instruments have identified the need for post focal deformable mirrors but with the increasing size of the telescopes the requirements for the deformable mirrors become more demanding. A simple scaling up of existing technologies from few hundred actuators to thousands of actuators will not be feasible or sufficient to satisfy the future needs of ESO. To bridge the gap between available deformable mirrors and the future needs for the E-ELT, ESO started a development program for deformable mirror technologies. The requirements and the path to develop Deformable mirrors for post focal adaptive optics systems for the E-ELT is described. A summary of the design and current status of the activities carried out by the project partners is presented.