Proceedings Article | 12 October 2004
Proc. SPIE. 5553, Advanced Wavefront Control: Methods, Devices, and Applications II
KEYWORDS: Point spread functions, Mirrors, Beam splitters, Imaging systems, Wavefronts, Adaptive optics, Control systems, Iris, Liquid crystals, Charge-coupled devices
As advanced wavefront control components and systems are developed, they must be tested. This paper describes the methodology and hardware used in the laboratory at FGAN-FOM, The Research Institute for Optronics and Pattern Recognition in Germany, to evaluate components and systems to be used for wavefront control. The test bed described is unique in two ways: (1) it uses a Hamamatsu parallel aligned liquid crystal phase modulator as a pupil plane phase screen to generate degraded input wavefronts for testing the wavefront control systems, and (2) it may be used to evaluate a variety of wavefront sensor, corrector, and control elements without changing the layout or realigning the optical components that comprise the basic test bed. For example, once the test bed is assembled and aligned, a desired wavefront sensor, with its matching telecentric pupil-imaging lens pair, is simply inserted at the end of the beam train, aligned with the test bed output beam, calibrated, and tested. Similarly, a desired wavefront corrector is inserted at the appropriate pupil plane, aligned, and tested. The paper also presents typical test results.
