Analytical model for Shack-Hartmann-based adaptive optics systems

Abstract

In this paper, we present a novel approach to modeling Shack-Hartmann-based adaptive optics (AO) system which allow to easily predict their performance. The idea is to start for the power spectral density (PSD) of the turbulent phase and to derive the PSD of the compensated phase by taking into account the various errors affecting the AO correction, which can be expressed analytically in the Fourier domain. Once the PSD of the compensated phase is known, the computation of the residual point spread function is straightforward.