Analysis of optimal centroid estimation applied to Shack-Hartmann sensing

摘要

The problem of estimating the centroid of an icoherently imaged point with a CCD array is analyzed. An exact analysis is presented that uses the actual short-exposure function at the CCD instead of the traditional Gaussian approximation. The analysis shows that, for Poisson noise, the centroid variance depends on the CCD size and that truncation effects play a significant part in determining the optimum CCD size. The effects of this on a wave-front reconstruction forrmed by a Shack-Hartmann sensor are described.