Holography-based wavefront sensing

We describe a modal wavefront sensing technique of using multiplexed holographic optical elements (HOEs). The phase pattern of a set of aberrations is angle multiplexed in a HOE, and the correlated information is obtained with a position sensing detector. The recorded aberration pattern is based on an orthogonal basis set, the Zernike polynomials, and a spherical reference wave. We show that only two recorded holographic patterns for any particular aberration type are sufficient to allow interpolated readout of aberrations to lambda/50. In this paper, we demonstrate the capability of detecting errors between +/- 2 lambda PV for each orthogonal set at rates limited only by the speeds of the detection electronics, which could be up to 1 MHz. We show how we take advantage of the unavoidable intermodal and intramodal cross talks in determining the type, amplitude, and orientation of the wavefront aberrations. (c) 2008 Optical Society of America.