Modelization of a pyramid wavefront sensor for the E-ELT in the context of the COMPASS project

The COMputing Platform for Adaptive optics SystemS (COMPASS) will be used to perform end-to-end simulations of the AO system of the E-ELT. COMPASS will perform massively parallel computations using GPUs as accelerators. The completed project will involve several different aspects. In this paper we present the modelization of a pyramid wavefront sensor (P-WFS). This sensor offers an increased sensitivity compared to the Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor, and a time-varying phase modulation increases the dynamic range of the P-WFS. This makes it a particularly interesting choice for an extreme adaptive optics system, such as the one that will be used with the planetary camera and spectrograph (PCS) instrument dedicated to exoplanet characterization with the E-ELT. We review previous P-WFS models, and in addition to describing its current implementation in COMPASS, we give a first look at the P-WFS expected performance in the presence of realistic optical aberrations.

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