Open AccessLight-efficient, quantum-limited interferometric wavefront estimation by virtual mode sensing
Author(s) -
Marcel A. Lauterbach,
Markus Rückel,
Winfried Denk
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.14.003700
Subject(s) - zernike polynomials , optics , interferometry , wavefront , wavefront sensor , physics , deformable mirror , modal , adaptive optics , photon , pixel , photon counting , materials science , polymer chemistry
We describe and analyze an interferometer-based virtual modal wavefront sensor (VMWS) that can be configured to measure, for example, Zernike coefficients directly. This sensor is particularly light efficient because the determination of each modal coefficient benefits from all the available photons. Numerical simulations show that the VMWS outperforms state-of-the-art phase unwrapping at low light levels. Including up to Zernike mode 21, aberrations can be determined with a precision of about 0.17 rad (lambda/37) using low resolution (65 x 65 pixels) images and only about 400 photons total.