Intensity-weighted wavefront reconstruction algorithm for wavefront sensor based on Talbot phenomenon

An image preprocessing procedure that is based on the intensity distribution of self-image pits is proposed to use in the Talbot wavefront sensor. It is shown that, based on the proposed methods, it is possible to decrease the shift error caused by the Gaussian beam up to three times for the pits on the edge of the beam profile. Adequate simulations are implemented to demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed approach. The proposed methods are applied to the experimentally measured self-images. It is shown the effectiveness of the proposed methods for the self-images of binary grating with small enough apertures 5×5 and 9×9 periods, where intensity distributions in the Talbot plane can be easily approximated with a Gaussian function.