Method and apparatus for the correction of optical signal wave front distortion within a free-space optical communication system

摘要

A free space optical communication system is disclosed whereby the optics of a receive telescope are manipulated using adaptive optics to compensate for wave front distortion of a light beam transmitted by a transmit telescope. Wave front distortion is manifested at the receive telescope as a deviation from the normal, orthogonal orientation of the wave front of the transmitted light beam relative to its line of travel. This deviation may be detected, for example, by a wave front sensor, such as a Shack-Hartman sensor, which identifies the slope, or beam tilt, of discrete sections of the transmitted beam. The optics of the receive telescope can then be deformed in such a way as to cancel the wave front distortion and correspondingly reduce the resulting distortion of the received signal.