Quadriwave lateral shearing wavefront sensing based on a single phase continuous self-imaging grating

Wavefront sensors represent a powerful technique for quantitative phase measurement. This paper presents a single-phase continuous self-imaging grating (SPCSIG) for quadriwave lateral shearing interferometry with high measurement accuracy and high adaptability. The SPCSIG is characterized by a single-stage phase structure with the phase distribution in each period encoded by the macro pixel, which achieves an approximate complex amplitude transmittance. In the simulation, the SPCSIG far field stray light is significantly suppressed. The near field interferograms propagation is stable, and the residuals are close to the theoretical limit. The method is expected to be used in the future such as precision optical metrology, X-ray wavefront sensing, or polymer gratings where hybrid gratings are not suitable.