Reconstruction of discontinuous light-phase functions

Abstract

The reconstruction of discontinuous light-phase functions is of major importance in adaptive optics. An efficient and simple algorithm that can reconstruct large arrays of phases from phase differences is presented. We prove that the algorithm yields a perfect result in the absence of noise, and we describe the function that it maximizes. We suggest a method that makes use of the reconstructed phase to measure the position of branch points. A simulation of the reconstruction of a 33x33 phase array is presented.