# Experimental Verification of Model-Based Wavefront Sensorless Adaptive Optics System for Large Aberrations

## TL;DR

This paper tests a new model-based system for correcting large optical distortions more efficiently than traditional methods.

## Contribution

The paper experimentally validates a model-based wavefront sensorless AO system for improved correction of large aberrations.

## Key findings

- The model-based system maintains consistent convergence speed even with strong turbulence.
- Compared to SPGD, the model-based approach shows better performance in correcting large aberrations.
- The system demonstrates robustness and improved applicability under high turbulence levels.

## Abstract

To address the limitations of conventional wavefront sensorless adaptive optics (AO) systems regarding iteration efficiency and convergence speed, this study conducts an experimental validation of a model-based wavefront sensorless AO approach. A physical experimental platform was established, which consisted of a light source, a Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensor, a deformable mirror (DM), and an imaging detector. Wavefront aberrations under different turbulence levels were employed as correction objects to evaluate the performance of the model-based wavefront sensorless AO system. For comparative analysis, experimental results obtained by using the classical stochastic parallel gradient descent (SPGD) control algorithm are also presented. Under identical software and hardware conditions, the experimental results show that as the turbulence level increases, the SPGD-based wavefront sensorless AO system requires a larger number of iterations and exhibits a slower convergence. In contrast, the model-based wavefront sensorless AO system demonstrates improved applicability and robustness in correcting large aberrations under strong turbulence levels, maintaining an almost constant convergence speed and achieving better correction performance. These findings offer theoretical insights and technical support for the real-time correction potential of large wavefront aberrations.