Patent ID: 8118429

Claim:
A phase diversity wavefront sensor, comprising: an optical system including at least one optical element for receiving a light beam having a diameter greater than about 1.5 mm and comprising one or more aberrations; a diffractive optical element having a diffractive pattern defining a filter function, the diffractive optical element being arranged to produce, in conjunction with the optical system, images from the light beam associated with at least two diffraction orders, the images corresponding to at least two or more sample planes, the one or more aberrations altering a size of the light beam between the sample planes; a detector for detecting the images at a measurement plane and outputting image data corresponding to the detected images, wherein the optical system, diffractive optical element, and detector are arranged to provide telecentric, pupil plane images of the light beam such that real images are formed at the sample planes and the measurement plane; and a processor coupled to the detector and configured to receive the image data, the processor executing a phase retrieval algorithm to measure a wavefront of the light beam based on the images corresponding to the sample planes.