A Status Report on the Thirty Meter Telescope Adaptive Optics Program

We provide an update on the recent development of the adaptive optics (AO) systems for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) since mid-2011. The first light AO facility for TMT consists of the Narrow Field Infra-Red AO System (NFIRAOS) and the associated Laser Guide Star Facility (LGSF). This order 60 × 60 laser guide star (LGS) multi-conjugate AO (MCAO) architecture will provide uniform, diffraction-limited performance in the J, H and K bands over 17–30 arcsec diameter fields with 50 per cent sky coverage at the galactic pole, as is required to support TMT science cases. The NFIRAOS and LGSF subsystems completed successful preliminary and conceptual design reviews, respectively, in the latter part of 2011. We also report on progress in AO component prototyping, control algorithm development, and system performance analysis, and conclude with an outline of some possible future AO systems for TMT.