Patent ID: 7437077
Filing Date: 2008-10-14
Classification: G02B

Abstract:
1. In an optical system having-a wave front sensing (WFS) compensation subsystem employing a Hartmann wavefront sensor, in which a stored reference wavefront is represented as a set of reference spot positions on said Hartmann wavefront sensor and a wavefront correction element is employed to correct the wavefront of an optical signal received by a receiver of the optical system or transmitted from a transmitter of said optical system relative to a second optical signal received from the receiver, a wavefront sensing (WFS) control method for controlling the operation of said WFS compensation subsystem comprising the steps of: setting each said reference spot position on said Hartmann wavefront sensor; setting a subaperture region about each said set reference spot position; producing and capturing a plurality of Hartmann spots within said Hartmann wavefront sensor; estimating a distance that each Hartmann spot is from the reference spot of a corresponding subaperture region; generating drive signals for controlling said wavefront correction element, based on the estimated distances; calculating a performance metric that measures a performance of said optical system based on measurements associated with the optical signal; updating said reference spot positions of said stored reference wavefront; and repeating the WFS control method to optimize the performance metric.