Effective coherence length estimation of optical wavefronts

TL;DR

This paper compares two methods for estimating the spatial coherence length of optical wavefronts, crucial for adaptive optics, demonstrating their efficiency through simulations and statistical analysis.

Contribution

It introduces and evaluates two novel methods for coherence length estimation, enhancing adaptive optics design accuracy.

Findings

Both methods effectively estimate coherence length

The Hough peak counting method is computationally efficient

Data mining approach provides robust estimates

Abstract

In adaptive optics, the measurement of spatial coherence length helps in deciding the optimum design parameters of a Shack Hartmann Sensor (SHS). Two methods of estimating the spatial coherence length of optical wavefronts are presented. The first method is based on counting the number of Hough peaks in the wavefront. The second method is based on a simple data mining technique applied on the wavefronts. Optical wavefronts with different properties are simulated and used for statistical analysis. A comparison of the performance of the two methods is presented using Monte Carlo simulations. It is shown that both these methods can become efficient tools in estimating the effective coherence length of optical wavefronts.