Abstract

We have observed significant growth of phase modulation when thermal blooming is compensated by a 241-channel phase-conjugate adaptive-optics system. These modulations, which were not artificially seeded, occurred at a spatial frequency characteristic of the adaptive-optics system and resulted in a corresponding decay of the far-field irradiance. These experiments represent, to our knowledge, the first observations of a spontaneous phase-compensation instability.

© 1991 Optical Society of America

Experimental observation of thermal-blooming phase-compensation instability

Bernadette Johnson and Charles A. Primmerman
Opt. Lett. 14(12) 639-641 (1989)

Pattern formation from thermal-blooming phase-compensation instability

Jonathan F. Schonfeld and Bernadette Johnson
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 9(10) 1800-1802 (1992)

Linearized theory of thermal-blooming phase-compensation instability with realistic adaptive-optics geometry

Jonathan F. Schonfeld
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 9(10) 1803-1812 (1992)

Thermal blooming compensation instabilities

T. J. Karr
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 6(7) 1038-1048 (1989)

Instability in saturated full-field compensation for thermal blooming

Jonathan F. Schonfeld
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 9(10) 1794-1799 (1992)