Two conceptual designs have been proposed for a multi-reference wavefront sensor (WFS). For both designs, incoming
probing beams from reference sources pass through off-axis optical components positioned just before the sensing
plane. This optical configuration separates the beams and allows independent wavefront sensing on a single detector.
This feature reduces the size and complexity of the WFS system. An experimental setup has been completed on an
optical bench to demonstrate the usability of the two designs. Their advantages and drawback are discussed here. We
conclude that both designs are suitable for multi-reference wavefront sensing with a single detector.
The Applied Optics group at the National University of Ireland, Galway, is engaged in research into various aspects of
the application of adaptive optics to both ocular and atmospheric wavefront correction. A large number of commercially available deformable mirrors have been selected by the group for AO experiments, and these mirrors have been carefully characterised to determine their suitability for these tasks. In this paper we describe the approach we have used in characterising deformable mirrors and present results for several MEMs mirrors, including membrane mirrors from AgilOptics and Flexible Optical BV, a segmented micromirror from IrisAO and a 140-actuator mirror from Boston micromachines.
A performance comparison is made using a number of commercially available Deformable Mirrors(DM) in fitting
both ocular and atmospheric wavefronts. Least squares phase fitting simulations are performed for five mirrors
using experimentally obtained mirror influence functions. The DMs used cover a range of DM technologies with
varying size and cost. The phase fitting performance of these mirrors is found to be a function of influence
function shape, actuator density and available mirror stroke.
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