Starting from a simple model of the phase screen behavior we have developed an expression for the PSF of a telescope using an adaptive optics system. From this model it is easy to obtain the system gain as a function of the residual phase variance and the correlation length. This procedure can be applicable even if there are relevant error sources involved in the compensation process, using experimental estimates of the phase variance. Finally, as a consequence of the influence of the system gain over the integration time, we obtain an integration time for direct exoplanet detection similar to that previously estimated in other references, but applicable in more realistic conditions, though some effort is still required to obtain a complete analysis.
Acknowledgements
This work has been supported by the Dirección General de Ensenanza Superior e Investigación Científica under project: PB97-0355.
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