Direct wavefront sensing from extended objects: a general sensor

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel wavefront sensor capable of accurately sensing wavefronts from extended objects by eliminating object-induced phase distortions, transforming the problem into a conventional point source scenario.

Contribution

A new general wavefront sensor design and algorithm that effectively handle extended objects, verified through simulations and experiments.

Findings

Feasibility demonstrated via numerical simulations.

High accuracy confirmed through experimental validation.

Transforms extended object wavefront sensing into a point source problem.

Abstract

Wavefront sensing from an extended object is a challenging task since the phase to be sensed is disturbed by the phase generated from the structure of the extended object. To address this problem, a general wavefront sensor was proposed. The hardware of the sensor consists of a field lens, a collimating lens, a lenslet array, and a camera. The idea for its algorithm is to eliminate the phase caused by the extended object and reconstruct the point spread function through each lenslet. As a result, the scenario of wavefront sensing from an extended object has been converted to the conventional one from a point source. Numerical simulations and experiments both verify the feasibility and the accuracy of the proposed sensor.