Patent ID: 7460245
Filing Date: 2008-12-02
Classification: G01B,G01J,G02B,G03F

Abstract:
1. A wavefront interferometry system comprising: a wavefront interferometer that during operation combines a reference beam from a reference object and a return measurement beam from a measurement object to generate a combined beam; a detector system for receiving the combined beam and generating therefrom an array of interference signals; and a processor system programmed to process the array of interference signals and to compute therefrom a first array of phase measurements for a first time and a second array of phase measurements for a second time, to compute a difference of the first and second arrays of phase measurements to determine an array of rates of phase changes, and from the array of rates of phase changes to compute an array of atmospheric turbulence effect values which is a measure of atmospheric turbulence effects in the wavefront interferometer.