Development and Simulation of a Wide-Field Tomographic Wavefront Sensor for Use with an Extended Scene

Abstract

While initially developed to improve the resolution of astronomical observations, adaptive optics (AO) is a field that is expanding to new applications. Astronomical telescopes continue to push the field in new and interesting ways with concentrated efforts to increase the correction quality and the field of view over which the correction applies. Advances such as Multi-object AO, Multi-conjugate AO, and Ground Layer AO have allowed breakthroughs in the image quality of ground-based telescopes with field of view wider than the isoplanatic patch. As the technology continues to mature, new areas of application continue to be discovered. This work aims to apply common techniques which have been developed for astronomy to applications which image an extended scene through a turbulent medium. In this dissertation, I have developed the theory and methodology for a new wide-field wavefront sensor focused on measuring and correcting extended scenes. This wavefront sensor utilizes a software-based correction which can be customized to the atmosphere at hand by locating, measuring, and reconstructing a variable number of significant turbulence layers. The methodology is implemented in a simulation to assess the theoretical performance of a benchtop hardware implementation. Quality metrics are investigated and the improvement over correction along a single line of sight is given. This wavefront sensor allows the methodology developed for astronomical applications to be applied to imaging of extended objects and offers a level of flexibility not found in similar adaptive optics systems.