The Focal-plane Actualized Shifted Technique Realized for a Shack Hartmann Wavefront Sensor (fastrSHWFS)

TL;DR

This paper introduces fastrSHWFS, a modified Shack Hartmann Wavefront Sensor that uses a phase mask to significantly reduce detector readout time, aiming to improve adaptive optics for exoplanet imaging.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel phase mask design for SHWFS that redistributes spots to decrease readout time, enhancing AO system performance.

Findings

Potential to reduce readout time by up to 30x

Preliminary laboratory tests validate the concept

Supports improved AO lag reduction for exoplanet imaging

Abstract

Astronomical adaptive optics (AO) is a critical approach to enable ground-based diffraction-limited imaging and high contrast science, with the potential to enable habitable exoplanet imaging on future extremely large telescopes. However, AO systems must improve significantly to enable habitable exoplanet imaging. Time lag between the end of an exposure and end of deformable mirror commands being applied in an AO loop is now the dominant error term in many extreme AO systems (e.g., Poyneer et al. 2016), and within that lag component detector read time is becoming non-negligible (e.g., Cetre et al. 2018). This term will decrease as faster detector readout capabilities are developed by vendors. In complement, we have developed a modified Shack Hartmann Wavefront Sensor (SHWFS) to address this problem called the Focal-plane Actualized Shifted Technique Realized for a SHWFS (fastrSHWFS). The novelty of this design is to replace the usual lenslet array with a bespoke pupil-plane phase mask that redistributes the spot pattern on the detector into a rectangular array with a custom aspect ratio (in an extreme case, if the detector size can accommodate it, the array can be a single line). We present the fastrSHWFS concept and preliminary laboratory tests. For some detectors and AO systems, the fastrSHWFS technique can decrease the read time per frame compared to a regular SHWFS by up to 30x, supporting the goal of reduced AO lag needed to eventually enable habitable exoplanet imaging.