Performance comparison of the shearing interferometer and Hartmann wavefront sensor

Timothy L. Pennington; Byron M. Welsh; Michael C. Roggemann

doi:10.1117/12.176086

31 May 1994 Performance comparison of the shearing interferometer and Hartmann wavefront sensor

Timothy L. Pennington, Byron M. Welsh, Michael C. Roggemann

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 2201, Adaptive Optics in Astronomy; (1994) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.176086
Event: 1994 Symposium on Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation for the 21st Century, 1994, Kailua, Kona, HI, United States

Abstract

The resolution of optical imaging systems is severely degraded from the diffraction limit by the random effects of the atmosphere. Techniques exist to compensate for the atmospheric turbulence, one of which is adaptive optics. A critical component in the adaptive optics system is the wavefront sensor. Presently, two types of sensors are being used--the Hartmann-Shack Wavefront Sensor and the Shearing Interferometer. Previous studies have compared these two sensors and found them to perform identically for point source beacons. However, to date, no comparison has been performed for an extended beacon and subaperture spacing larger than the correction length of the atmosphere, r_o. This paper examines this problem and compares these two sensors for the above conditions. Results indicate that the sensors have comparable performance when an infinite number of photons are available. However, the photon limited cases indicate superior performance by the Hartmann Sensor.

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Timothy L. Pennington, Byron M. Welsh, and Michael C. Roggemann "Performance comparison of the shearing interferometer and Hartmann wavefront sensor", Proc. SPIE 2201, Adaptive Optics in Astronomy, (31 May 1994); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.176086

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