Vectorial adaptive optics: a new tool for aberration correction

Adaptive optics normally concerns the feedback correction of phase aberrations. Such correction has been of benefit in various optical systems, with applications ranging in scale from astronomical telescopes to superresolution microscopes. Here we extend this powerful tool into the vectorial domain, encompassing higher dimensional feedback correction of both polarisation and phase. This technique is termed vectorial adaptive optics (V-AO). This technique pushes the boundaries of traditional scalar beam shaping by providing feedback control of extra vectorial degrees of freedom. This paves the way for next generation AO functionality by manipulating the complex vectorial field.