Production of identical pyramid wavefront sensors for multi-conjugate adaptive optic systems using the LIGA process

Abstract

Pyramid wavefront sensors are the key components of new multiconjugate adaptive optics systems used for wavefront correction of terrestrial telescopes. The sensor consists of a very flat four faces pyramid made in a transparent material that requires an accurate control of the quality of its turned edges, its surfaces and the size of its pyramid tip. Moreover identical copies of these optical elements are needed to fulfil the requirements of the multiconjugate adaptive optics systems. This paper presents the fabrication method of Pyramid wavefront sensors using the LIGA process. Results are described and discussed.