Open AccessA z ‐invariant Rayleigh beacon wavefront sensor
Author(s) -
Ragazzoni R.,
Tordi M.,
Diolaiti E.,
Kirkman D.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04784.x
Subject(s) - physics , wavefront , wavefront sensor , optics , adaptive optics , exit pupil , rayleigh scattering , cardinal point , telescope , invariant (physics) , pupil , mathematical physics
An innovative concept of wavefront sensing for Rayleigh beacons is introduced along with an example of a possible wavefront sensor. This new approach does not require the gating technique to limit the useful range of the laser source and therefore looks simpler to implement than previous Rayleigh concepts, and may additionally allow more efficient use of the photons emitted by the Rayleigh beacon. Our technique is based upon an optical element in the focal plane area whose section does not change for the conjugation of different ranges from the telescope aperture, hence the name z ‐invariant. The wavefront sensor shown here is an example of this new class. It is a compact pupil‐plane wavefront sensor and as such allows for a layer‐oriented configuration. It is shown that its sensitivity, while higher than usual gating approaches, is far from the possible limits leading us to speculate that other z ‐invariant wavefront sensors can reach much larger efficiencies.