Andor Technology has appointed Alpao as its value added reseller for the adaptive optics market. Alpao, based in Grenoble, France, is a manufacturer of adaptive optics solutions, especially of extremely sensitive wavefront sensors, for research and industry.
Excellent results obtained with adaptive optics in applications such as astronomy, ophthalmology and microscopy have shown the practical importance of this technique. A key requirement for such systems is the ability to correct variations in the observed optical wavefront rapidly and precisely.
Alpao has recently developed a Shack-Hartmann sensor, using the electron multiplying technology implemented by Andor in its cameras. A wavefront sensor fulfilling the most demanding adaptive optics applications was made possible thanks to the low electronic reading noise (<1e- rms) and the high frame rate (up to 495fps), offered simultaneously by the EMCCD technology from Andor.
The sensitivity of the EMCCD detector also allows the use of these wavefront sensors in applications where the power level is limited for either safety reasons or to avoid destroying observed samples.
