A modified phase diversity wavefront sensor with a diffraction grating

Phase diversity wavefront sensor is one of the useful tools to estimate the wavefront aberration, and it is often used as a wavefront sensor in adaptive optics system. However, the performance of the traditional phase diversity wavefront sensor is limited by the accuracy and dynamic ranges of the intensity distribution at focus and defocus positions of the CCD camera. In this paper, a modified phase diversity wavefront sensor based on a diffraction grating is proposed to improve the ability to measure the wavefront aberration with larger amplitude and higher spatial frequency. The basic principle and the optics construction of the proposed method are also described in detail. The noise propagation property of the proposed method is also analysed by using the numerical simulation method, and comparison between the diffraction grating phase diversity wavefront sensor and the traditional phase diversity wavefront sensor is also made. The simulation results show that the diffraction grating phase diversity wavefront sensor can obviously improve the ability to measure the wavefront aberration, especially the wavefront aberration with larger amplitude and higher spatial frequency.