Open AccessExperimental validation of LIFT for estimation of low-order modes in low-flux wavefront sensing
Author(s) -
Cédric Plantet,
Serge Meimon,
Jean-Marc Conan,
Thierry Fusco
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.21.016337
Subject(s) - optics , wavefront , wavefront sensor , adaptive optics , monochromatic color , physics , tilt (camera) , focus (optics) , image plane , phase retrieval , computer science , artificial intelligence , mathematics , fourier transform , geometry , quantum mechanics , image (mathematics)
Laser Tomographic and Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics systems rely on natural guide stars to sense low order aberrations (tip/tilt and focus). LIFT is a novel focal plane wavefront sensor (WFS), performing a maximum likelihood phase retrieval on a single image, with better sensitivity than a 2 × 2 Hartmann-Shack WFS. Its performance for the estimation of tip/tilt and focus is similar to a pyramid WFS without modulation, but with a simpler set-up. We present here the LIFT concept and associated data processing, as well as experimental results. We validate the estimation of tip/tilt and focus, with monochromatic and large bandwidth light, and verify the low noise sensitivity predicted by theory.