Banghe ZHU^*, Akira SHIRAKAWA, Mitsuru MUSHA, Ken-ichi UEDA and Kevin D. COLE¹

Institute for Laser Science, University of Electro-communications, 1-5-1 Choufugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan
¹Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, N104 Walter Scott Engineering Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588-0656, U.S.A.

(Received April 26, 2004; Accepted July 1, 2004)

We propose a new concept for wavefront curvature sensing, which is based on diffraction grating and fractional Fourier transforms systems. An explicit formula is derived expressing the wavefront curvature, and the wavefront shape can also be retrieved rapidly. The experimental setup is presented and numerical simulations show the validity of the proposed method.

Key words: adaptive optics, diffraction and gratings, optical sensing, fractional Fourier transforms

^*E-mail address: zhu@ils.uec.ac.jp