Abstract

One common adaptive optics arrangement consists of a reference point source which produces a wave front that passes through an aberrating media and is returned back through the aberrating media by an adaptive optical system,¹ Ideally this system produces the phase conjugate of the aberrated wave front and returns the wave front perfectly focused back at the reference source, Most phase conjugate adaptive optics depend on flexible reflective surfaces or one of several techniques closely related to real-time holography such as four-wave mixing.² It has been pointed out by as early as 1978 by Orlov et al.³ that it is possible, in certain circumstances, to correct nonspecific time-varying distortions in a return wave arrangement using a retroreflective array to obtain an approximate conjugate described in most literature as a pseudo-conjugate.^4,5

© 1984 Optical Society of America