Hybrid holographic modal wavefront sensing for improved aberration correction.

Abstract

In the present work, we propose a hybrid holographic modal wavefront sensing (HHMWS) technique to improve aberration correction by leveraging the complementary strengths of Zernike polynomials and polar Walsh functions, together with an optimized correction strategy. Zernike-based modal wavefront sensing is effective for correcting low-order aberrations but is less capable of addressing complex aberrations like those caused by atmospheric turbulence. To address such limitations, the proposed technique integrates polar Walsh function-based correction with feedback condition, in a sequential manner, offering reduced cross talk and real-time correction capabilities. Moreover, an experimental setup is designed to implement such a hybrid approach, in order to improve wavefront estimation accuracy, enabling correction of both low- and high-order aberrations, using a single spatial light modulator (SLM) and camera.