A method for determining the complex amplitude of the electromagnetic field associated with a scene, comprising a) capturing a plurality of images of the scene by means of a photographic camera, the images being focused in planes of focus arranged at different distances, wherein the camera comprises a lens of focal length F and a sensor arranged at a certain distance from the lens in its image space, taking at least one image pair from the plurality of images and determining the accumulated wavefront to the conjugate plane in the object space corresponding to the intermediate plane with respect to the planes of focus of the two images of the pair.

An infrared wave front phase analyzer that can be used for measuring the wave front phase of laser diode (LD) beam to provide a quality characterization specification for the LD chips that are intended for use in optical sub-assemblies (OSAs), which has applications in optical transceiver manufacturing and fiber optic communications. An optical system mimics the OSA and includes optical elements to collect and collimate the LD output beam and to focus the collimated beam through a focus, which could otherwise be into the end of an optical fiber, before re-collimating the laser beam for evaluation by a wave front sensor. This imaging process measures a wave front of the output beam, yielding a quality specification of the LD for screening out the out-of-spec LDs in advance of their assembly within TOSA/BOSA manufacturing to lower production costs.

A wavefront sensor includes a splitting element configured to split an incident light beam into a plurality of light beams, an image sensor configured to receive the plurality of light beams, and a processing unit configured to calculate a wavefront of the incident light beam based on an intensity distribution of the plurality of light beams received by the image sensor. The splitting element is either in direct contact with the image sensor or in contact with the image sensor via a plate glass. In the calculation of the wavefront, the processing unit corrects a relative positional deviation between the splitting element and the image sensor by calculating a rotation about a rotation axis.

An amplified laser device is provided with one or more Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) Micro-Mirror Arrays (MMAs) having tip, tilt and piston capability positioned on either side of the optical amplifier to correct the profile of the beam to improve the gain performance of the optical amplifier or to compensate for atmospheric distortion while steering the amplified beam over a FOR. The MEMS MMAs may be positioned in front of, behind or on both sides of the amplifier. The MEMS MMAs can be configured to optimize the combined amplifier performance, static and time varying, and compensation for atmospheric distortion together or separately.

An adaptive optical apparatus includes a first deformable mirror that includes a reflecting surface reflecting light propagated through an atmosphere, and a drive unit having a plurality of drive elements and changing an uneven shape of the reflecting surface, a second deformable mirror that includes a reflecting surface reflecting the light from the first deformable mirror and a drive unit having a plurality of drive elements and changing an uneven shape of the reflecting surface, a detector that detects light intensity of the light from the first deformable mirror and the second deformable mirror, and a controller that controls the drive unit of each of the first deformable mirror and the second deformable mirror. The controller is configured to execute a first update operation of controlling the drive unit of one deformable mirror based on a detected value by the detector.

When the optical system is illuminated with an illumination light flux emitted from one extant input image point, an interference image generated by superimposing an extant output light flux output from the optical system and a reference light flux coherent with the extant output light flux is imaged to acquire interference image data, and thus to acquire measured phase distribution, and this acquisition operation is applied to each extant input image point. Thus, each measured phase distribution is expanded by expanding functions μn(u, v) having coordinates (u, v) on a phase defining plane as a variable to be represented as a sum with coefficients Σn{Ajn.Math.μn(u, v)}. When the optical system is illuminated with a virtual illumination light flux, a phase Ψ(u, v) of a virtual output light flux is determined by performing interpolation calculation based on coordinates of a virtual light emitting point.

Conformal imaging vibrometer using adaptive optics with scene-based wave front sensing. An extended object is located at the first end of a link, and a reference-free, adaptive optical, conformal imaging vibrometer using scene-based wave front sensing is located at the second end of the link. An aberrated, free space or guided-wave path exists between the ends of the link. The adaptive optical system compensates for path distortions. Using a single interrogation beam, whole-body vibrations of opaque and reflective objects can be probed, as well as transparent and translucent objects, the latter pair employing a Zernike heterodyne interferometer.

Apparatus and method for detecting wavefront aberration of an objective lens, comprising a wavefront detection system, a planar mirror, and a planar mirror adjusting mechanism; the objective lens is placed between planar mirror and wavefront detection system; planar mirror is positioned at focal point of the objective lens. A test wavefront emitted by wavefront detection system passes through the objective lens, gets reflected by the planar mirror, and t passes through the objective lens again; the wavefront detection system receives and detects the test wavefront to derive a phase distribution thereof; an angle of the planar mirror tilts at is adjusted to obtain different return wavefronts; a polynomial for expressing wavefront aberration is selected, and expressions corresponding to all the return wavefronts are calculated; result of fitting the wavefront aberration of the objective lens when expressed by the selected polynomial is derived through fitting with the polynomial.

A wavefront analyser is modified to simply determine the differences in amplitude and tilt which can exist between the different regions of an initial wavefront (S0). To achieve this, interference between two waves only is produced from beams (F1, F2) which come from neighbouring regions on the initial wavefront. Such an analyser can be used to coherently combine laser radiation produced by different sources arranged in parallel. Another use is for the determination of the differences in height and inclination which exist between the neighbouring mirror segments of a Keck telescope.

A light source detection device may include: a cover including a common hole, a main condensing lens connected to the cover and covering the common hole, a printed circuit board provided inside the cover, a flash arranged on the printed circuit board at a position parallel to a central axis of the common hole and configured to radiate light to an outside through the common hole, and a plurality of light receiving elements comprising light receiving circuitry arranged on the printed circuit board symmetrically about the flash.