Laboratory quantification of a plenoptic wavefront sensor with extended objects

ABSTRACT Adaptive optics (AO) is widely used in ground-based telescopes to compensate the effects of atmosphere distortion, and the wavefront sensor is a significant component in the AO systems. The plenoptic wavefront sensor has been proposed as an alternative wavefront sensor adequate for extended objects and wide field of views. In this paper, a experimental bench has been set up to investigate the slope measurement accuracy and closed-loop wavefront correction performance for extended objects. From the experimental results, it has been confirmed that plenoptic wavefront sensor is suitable for extended objects wavefront sensing with proper optical design. The slope measurements have a good linearity and accuracy when observing extended objects. The image quality is significantly improved after closed-loop correction. A method of global tip/tilt measurement using only plenoptic wavefront sensor frame is proposed in this paper, it is also a potential advantage of plenoptic wavefront sensor in extended objects wavefront sensing.