Phase unwrapping algorithm based on phase diversity wavefront reconstruction and virtual Hartmann-Shack technology.

Phase unwrapping (PU) algorithms play a crucial role in various phase measurement techniques. Traditional algorithms cannot work well in strong noise environments, which makes it very difficult to obtain the accurate absolute phase from the noisy wrapped phase. In this Letter, we introduce a novel, to the best of our knowledge, phase unwrapping algorithm named PD-VHS.

Ocular aberration measurement with and without an aperture stop using a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor.

Pupil size is an important parameter since it governs the magnitude of ocular aberrations. The pupil size of a human eye has significant individual differences and varies with light level and accommodation. In order to accurately measure ocular aberrations under different pupil sizes using a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (SHWFS), two types of relationship matrices and were proposed, which corresponded to wavefront reconstruction with and without an aperture stop, respectively.

Enhanced-resolution Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensing for extended objects.

Adaptive optics systems for large-aperture solar telescopes, especially multiconjugate adaptive optics systems, suffer from a fundamental trade-off between wavefront sampling rate and sub-aperture resolution. We introduce an enhanced-resolution Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensing method that decouples sub-aperture resolution from the desired wavefront sampling rate. We experimentally verified the validity of this method.

Full-Stokes Retrieving and Configuration Optimization in a Time-Integration Imaging Polarimeter.

A time-integration imaging polarimeter with continuous rotating retarder is presented, and its full-Stokes retrieving and configuration optimization are also demonstrated. The mathematical expression between the full-Stokes vector and the time-integration light intensities is derived. As a result, the state of polarization of incident light can be retrieved by only one matrix calculation.

Polarization imaging based on time-integration by a continuous rotating polarizer.

Polarimeter by rotating polarizer is one of the well-known and classic division of time polarimeter (DoTP). It is generally acknowledged that this kind of polarimeter is time consuming for each measurement although it has simple, accurate and compact performances. In this paper we present a time-integration polarimeter by using a continuous rotating polarizer.

Compact single-shot radial shearing interferometer with random phase shift.

We propose a compact phase-shifting radial shearing interferometer based on a pixelated micro-retarder array (MRA). The MRA is made of a thin birefringence plate, and is composed of identical units that have pixels of four different thicknesses. We demonstrate that pixelated phase delay between two shearing beams can be introduced by applying the fast axis of birefringence plate in the horizontal or vertical orientation.

[The Aberration Corrected Grating Spectrometer Based on Adaptive Optics].

To study the thermodynamics properties of the solar atmosphere with different height distribution, the imaging grating spectrometer with excellent image quality is one of the important tools to achieve this goal. However, the atmosphere turbulence can not be avoided for the imaging grating spectrometer installed in the ground-based solar telescope, and the imaging properties of the grating spectrometer will influenced by the wavefront aberration generalized by the atmosphere turbulence and the wavefront aberration generalized by the optical system adjusting errors and the optical element manufacturing errors. The atmospheric turbulence can be effectively compensated by the Adaptive Optics.

Heat-stop structure design with high cooling efficiency for large ground-based solar telescope.

A heat-stop is one of the most important thermal control devices for a large ground-based solar telescope. For controlling the internal seeing effect, the temperature difference between the heat-stop and the ambient environment needs to be reduced, and a heat-stop with high cooling efficiency is required. In this paper, a novel design concept for the heat-stop, in which a multichannel loop cooling system is utilized to obtain higher cooling efficiency, is proposed.

Quantitative evaluation on internal seeing induced by heat-stop of solar telescope.

heat-stop is one of the essential thermal control devices of solar telescope. The internal seeing induced by its temperature rise will degrade the imaging quality significantly. For quantitative evaluation on internal seeing, an integrated analysis method based on computational fluid dynamics and geometric optics is proposed in this paper.

Experimental study of a modified phase diversity with a diffraction grating.

The measurement ability of the conventional Phase diversity wavefront sensor (C-PD WFS) is limited by the accuracy and dynamic range of CCD cameras. In this letter, a modified Phase diversity wavefront sensor based on a diffraction grating (G-PD WFS) is proposed. We build a corresponding experimental setup to compare the measurement accuracy of the G-PD WFS and the C-GPDWFS under the same experimental conditions.

Modal wavefront reconstruction for radial shearing interferometer with lateral shear.

In a radial shearing interferometer, a portion of the test beam is magnified and used as the reference for the tested wavefront. However, the reference portion is always off center (lateral shear), which complicates the wavefront reconstruction. A modal method for solving this problem is presented here.

A single-shot common-path phase-stepping radial shearing interferometer for wavefront measurements.

A single-shot common-path phase-stepping radial shearing interferometer (RSI) is proposed for wavefront measurements. In the proposed RSI, three quarter-wave plates are used as phase shifters to produce four spatially separated phase-stepping fringe patterns that are recorded simultaneously by a single CCD camera. The proposed RSI can measure the wavefront under test in real-time, and it is also insensitive to environmental vibration due to its common-path structure.