Optical design trade-off study for the AO module of MAVIS

Abstract

MAVIS (MCAO-Assisted Visible Imager and Spectrograph) is an instrument proposed for the VLT Adaptive Optics Facility (AOF), which is currently in the phase-A conceptual design study. It will be the first instrument performing Multi-conjugate adaptive optics at visible wavelengths, enabling a new set of science observations. MAVIS will be installed at the Nasmyth platform of VLT UT-4 taking advantage of the already operational Adaptive Optics Facility that consists of 4 LGS and an adaptive secondary mirror with 1170 actuators. In addition, two post-focal deformable mirrors and 3 Natural Guide Stars (NGS) are foreseen for the tomographic reconstruction and correction of atmospheric turbulence. The MAVIS AO module is intended to feed both an imager and a spectrograph that will take advantage of the increased resolution and depth with respect to current instrumentation. In this paper we present the trade-off study for the optical design of the MAVIS AO module, highlighting the peculiarities of the system and the requirements imposed by AO. We propose a set of possible optical solutions able to provide a compact and efficient implementation of the different subsystems and we compare them in terms of delivered optical quality, overall throughput, encumbrance, ease of alignment and residual distortion.