Reconstruction of wavefront distorted by atmospheric turbulence using a Shack-Hartman sensor

Abstract

The reconstruction of a wave front containing random phase distortions of the light field is considered. The reconstruction is performed by a Hartmann method based on the approximation of the wave function by Zernike polynomials using estimates of local slopes. The slope values depend on the algorithms by which they are determined. The number of slopes is proportional to the number of focal spots recorded in the plane of the receiving device, which varies depending not only on the raster dimension, but also on the parameters of turbulence, design features of the receiving devices, as well as being restricted by the orthogonality of Zernike polynomials. Results of numerical experiments are given, which will be taken into account when creating adaptive optics systems for correcting strong turbulent distortions of the optical radiation.

Keywords

• adaptive optics system
• atmospheric turbulence
• phase fluctuations
• lenslet