Using Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors and Zernike coefficients for beam characterisation: numerical procedures.

摘要

When using Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors (SH) and Zernike coefficients (Zs) in applications where the position of the measurement and the point of interest are far apart, as it is common practice in ophthalmic optics, problems in the interpretation of the values of the Zs arise, related to how the shape of the wavefront propagates along the beam. One typical example is pupil conjugation where an auxiliary lens is added to match the size of the area of the interest of the beam with the size of the entrance pupil of the SH used for measurements. In the present work, we address this problem in the framework of a numerical scheme for modeling the beam propagation. We calculate the wavefronts with exact ray tracing plus the fitting of the impacts so as to match a rectangular grid. This procedure allows the subsequent calculation of the Zs or, similarly, the pupil function at an arbitrary plane perpendicular to the optical axis. All the numerical methods and procedures have been implemented in MATLAB code and can be illustrated by running the MATLAB script for the setup configuration that is being considered. Several examples are presented to illustrate the previous ideas and to show the real capabilities of our procedures. They will help to clarify the issues actually found in practical setups for beam manipulation, often encountered in ophthalmic optics.