Phase-contrast wavefront sensing for adaptive optics

Eric E. Bloemhof; J. Kent Wallace

doi:10.1117/12.560373

12 October 2004 Phase-contrast wavefront sensing for adaptive optics

Eric E. Bloemhof, J. Kent Wallace

Proceedings Volume 5553, Advanced Wavefront Control: Methods, Devices, and Applications II; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.560373
Event: Optical Science and Technology, the SPIE 49th Annual Meeting, 2004, Denver, Colorado, United States

Abstract

Most ground-based adaptive optics systems use one of a small number of wavefront sensor technologies, notably (for relatively high-order systems) the Shack-Hartmann sensor, which provides local measurements of the phase slope (first derivative) at a number of regularly-spaced points across the telescope pupil. The curvature sensor, with response proportional to the second derivative of the phase, is also sometimes used, but has undesirable noise propagation properties during wavefront reconstruction as the number of actuators becomes large. It is interesting to consider the use for astronomical adaptive optics of the "phase contrast" technique, originally developed for microscopy by Zernike to allow convenient viewing of phase objects. In this technique, the wavefront sensor provides a direct measurement of the local value of phase in each subaperture of the pupil. This approach has some obvious disadvantages compared to Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensing, but has some less obvious but substantial advantages as well. Here we evaluate the relative merits in a practical ground-based adaptive optics system.

Citation Download Citation

Eric E. Bloemhof and J. Kent Wallace "Phase-contrast wavefront sensing for adaptive optics", Proc. SPIE 5553, Advanced Wavefront Control: Methods, Devices, and Applications II, (12 October 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.560373

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