Breadboard testing of a phase-conjugate engine with an interferometric wave-front sensor and a microelectromechanical systems-based spatial light modulator.

Laboratory breadboard results of a high-speed adaptive-optics system are presented. The wave-front sensor for the adaptive-optics system is based on a quadrature interferometer, which directly measures the turbulence-induced phase aberrations. The spatial light modulator used in the phase-conjugate engine was a microelectromechanical systems-based piston-only correction device with 1024 actuators.

High-speed horizontal-path atmospheric turbulence correction with a large-actuator-number microelectromechanical system spatial light modulator in an interferometric phase-conjugation engine.

Results of atmospheric propagation for a high-speed, large-actuator-number adaptive optics system are presented. The system uses a microelectromechanical system- (MEMS-) based spatial light modulator correction device with 1024 actuators. Tests over a 1.

Electron density characterization by use of a broadband x-ray-compatible wave-front sensor.

The use of a Hartmann wave-front sensor to accurately measure the line-integrated electron density gradients formed in laser-produced and z-pinch plasma experiments is examined. This wave-front sensor may be used with a soft-x-ray laser as well as with incoherent line emission at multikilovolt x-ray energies. This diagnostic is significantly easier to use than interferometery and moiré deflectometry, both of which have been demonstrated with soft-x-ray lasers.