A z-invariant Rayleigh beacon wavefront sensor

Citation
R. Ragazzoni et al., A z-invariant Rayleigh beacon wavefront sensor, M NOT R AST, 327(3), 2001, pp. 949-954
Citations number
23
Categorie Soggetti
Space Sciences
Journal title
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
ISSN journal
00358711 → ACNP
Volume
327
Issue
3
Year of publication
2001
Pages
949 - 954
Database
ISI
SICI code
0035-8711(20011101)327:3<949:AZRBWS>2.0.ZU;2-1
Abstract
An innovative concept of wavefront sensing for Rayleigh beacons is introduc ed along with an example of a possible wavefront sensor. This new approach does not require the gating technique to limit the useful range of the lase r source and therefore looks simpler to implement than previous Rayleigh co ncepts, and may additionally allow more efficient use of the photons emitte d by the Rayleigh beacon. Our technique is based upon an optical element in the focal plane area whose section does not change for the conjugation of different ranges from the telescope aperture, hence the name z-invariant. T he wavefront sensor shown here is an example of this new class. It is a com pact pupil-plane wavefront sensor and as such allows for a layer-oriented c onfiguration. It is shown that its sensitivity, while higher than usual gat ing approaches, is far from the possible limits leading us to speculate tha t other z-invariant wavefront sensors can reach much larger efficiencies.