| I present results from a new observational technique for ground-based astronomy called speckle stabilization. This technique is similar to other speckle-based techniques and is capable of producing diffraction-limited images in the optical, but has the added advantage of being able to employ an integral field spectrograph. Performance simulations show that a speckle stabilization system on a 10-meter class telescope should be capable of achieving resolutions as fine as 15 milliarcseconds in the optical. I also show that guide stars can be as faint as 16th magnitude and be located up to 30 arcseconds away. I present the design, fabrication and assembly of a prototype instrument the Stabilized sPeckle Integral Field Spectrograph Proof of Concept (SPIFS-POC) and describe the algorithms and programming necessary to control such a system and discuss optimization efforts. I compare speckle stabilization to other methods, including lucky imaging, and find that in certain circumstances, speckle stabilization is able to match or even outperform lucky imaging by up to a factor of 3 in signal-to-noise. Finally, this dissertation also covers the scientific gains speckle stabilization should be able to achieve. In particular, I address impacts on research in the field of super-massive black holes and demonstrate that the technique will fill an important niche in detecting the kinematic influence of SMBH on their host galaxies, aiding in the detection of the highest and lowest mass SMBH. |
