Detection of phase singularities with a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor

摘要

While adaptive optical systems are able to remove moderate wavefrontdistortions in scintillated optical beams, phase singularities that appear instrongly scintillated beams can severely degrade the performance of such anadaptive optical system. Therefore, the detection of these phase singularitiesis an important aspect of strong scintillation adaptive optics. We investigatethe detection of phase singularities with the aid of a Shack-Hartmann wavefrontsensor and show that, in spite of some systematical deficiencies inherent tothe Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor, it can be used for the reliable detectionof phase singularities, irrespective of their morphologies. We provide fullanalytical results, together with numerical simulations of the detectionprocess.