Wavefront sensing through measurements of binary aberration modes.

A wavefront sensing technique is proposed based on the principle of aberration-mode filtering and detection. The mathematical foundation of the method is provided by a series of orthogonal and binary functions, for the optical aperture, derived from the Walsh series. It is shown that the expansion of a wavefront using these basis functions is explicitly related to the expansion of the optical field itself on the same basis. This permits the determination of the coefficients associated with the binary aberration modes through simple intensity measurements with the help of a phase-only spatial light modulator and a single-mode optical fiber. These coefficients can be independently acquired in sets that characterize wavefronts in various spatial resolutions. A numerical simulation and practical implementation of the technique are also discussed.