MSCA MOAI

Adaptive optics (AO) together with sodium laser guide stars (LGS) have revolutionized astronomical observations in the last decades.
The new generation of Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) will require and integrate AO-assisted observations to comply with their scientific programs, however, extrapolating the current AO technology to the dimensions of the ELTs encounters technological barriers (large, sensitive, and fast detectors) and fundamental limitations derived from the geometry and properties of LGS (spot elongation and tip-tilt indetermination). Therefore, the aim of the MOAI project is to develop MethOds And Instrumentation for laser guide star wavefront sensing (LGSWFS), in view of the challenges imposed by the future ELTs. The goals of MOAI are :

i) Evaluate the feasibility of LGS tip-tilt correction using the polychromatic laser guide star concept.
ii) Investigate and propose an innovative concept of LGSWFS for ELTs.
iii) Demonstrate a new LGSWFS technology.

The project will be carried out at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM) in strong collaboration with researchers in Europe and North America.

Achieving the objectives of MOAI will considerably extend the capabilities of AO-assisted observations, which will constitute a significant contribution to enable new astrophysical discoveries in the upcoming era of ELTs.

J. Albert, D. Budker, K. Chance, I. E. Gordon, F. Pedreros Bustos, M. Pospelov, S. M. Rochester, H. R. Sadeghpour, “A Precise Photometric Ratio via Laser Excitation of the Sodium Layer I : One-photon Excitation Using 342.78 nm Light », Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 2021
J. Albert, D. Budker, K. Chance, I. E. Gordon, F. Pedreros Bustos, M. Pospelov, S. M. Rochester, H. R. Sadeghpour, “A Precise Photometric Ratio via Laser Excitation of the Sodium Layer II : Two-photon Excitation Using Lasers Detuned from 589.16 nm and 819.71 nm Resonances », Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 2021
A. Akulshin, F. Pedreros Bustos, D. Budker, “Intensity-correlated spiking infrared and ultraviolet emission from sodium vapors », Optics Letters, Vol. 46, Issue 9, pp. 2131-2134, 2021
F. Pedreros Bustos, D. Bonaccini Calia, J. Hellemeier, R. Holzlöhner, S. Rochester and D. Budker, “Frequency chirped continuous-wave sodium laser guide stars : modeling and optimization », JOSA B 37, 4, 2020
F. Pedreros Bustos, D. Bonaccini Calia, D. Budker, M. Centrone, J. Hellemeier, P. Hickson, R. Holzlöhner, and S. Rochester, “Remote sensing of geomagnetic fields and atomic collisions in the mesosphere », Nature Communications 9, 3981, 2018
F. Pedreros Bustos, D. Bonaccini Calia, D. Budker, M. Centrone, J. Hellemeier, P. Hickson, R. Holzlöhner, and S. Rochester, “Polarization-driven spin precession of mesospheric sodium atoms », Optics Letters, 43, 23, 5825-5828, 2018

« This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 893150. »