Wavefront sensing using a 1*19 photonic lantern

Adaptive optics (AO) is widely used in the fields of ground-based telescopes, biological imaging, human eye aberration correction and laser communication to correct wavefront distortion. One of the key components of an AO system is a wavefront sensor (WFS). We demonstrate a 1×19 photonic lantern to be used as a single-aperture wavefront WFS. By detecting the power and the phase difference of 19 fundamental mode output at the single mode end of the photonic lantern, the lowest 19 order Zernike coefficients of the wavefront to be measured is determined. Simulation results show that when the wavefront distortion RMS< 1.5 π, the residual RMS between the reconstructed wavefront and the wavefront to be measured is always lower than 3.5 × 10⁻³ π, which provides a reliable technical means for realizing high-speed high accuracy and perfect common path wavefront sensing in AO system.