Abstract

We have developed an active optical imaging system capable of correcting optical wave-front errors in real time at frequencies in the kilohertz range. Wave-front errors due to atmospheric turbulence in the propagation path, as well as optical figure aberrations and wave-front errors due to mechanical and thermal changes may be compensated. The system used an ac shearing interferometer, a parallel analog data processor, and a monolithic piezoelectric active mirror arranged in a closed-loop configuration. This compensation system can be applied to apertures of any size; experimental results are shown for a system with 21 correction zones.

© 1977 Optical Society of America

Minimizing atmospheric dispersion effects in compensated imaging

Edward P. Wallner
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 67(3) 407-409 (1977)

Wave-front compensation error due to finite corrector-element size

Richard Hudgin
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 67(3) 393-395 (1977)

Real-time atmospheric compensation by stimulated Brillouin-scattering phase conjugation

Hans Bruesselbach, D. Cris Jones, David A. Rockwell, R. C. Lind, and George Vogel
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 12(8) 1434-1447 (1995)

Optical resolution through a turbulent medium with adaptive phase compensations*

J. Y. Wang
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 67(3) 383-390 (1977)

Correction of atmospheric distortion with an image-sharpening telescope*

A. Buffington, F. S. Crawford, R. A. Muller, A. J. Schwemin, and R. G. Smits
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 67(3) 298-303 (1977)