Patent ID: 6587215
Filing Date: 2003-07-01
Classification: G01J

Abstract:
A lateral shearing interferometer wavefront sensor system for correcting phase discrepancies in an optical beam wavefront, said system comprising:a lateral shearing interferometer responsive to an input optical beam to be corrected, said interferometer including a beam splitter that splits the optical beam into a first split beam and a second split beam, said interferometer further including a beam shifter responsive to the first split beam that shifts the position of the first split beam in a shear direction relative to the second split beam, said interferometer further including a beam combiner combining the first and second split beams into a combined beam, said combined beam creating an interference pattern between the first and second split beams; and a deformable mirror including a plurality of actuators, said beam shifter shifting the first beam relative to the second beam twice the distance between a first actuator and a second actuator.