Work

Four-zone varifocus mirrors with adaptive control of primary and higher-order spherical aberration

Year: 2016

Type: article

Abstract: Electrostatically actuated deformable mirrors with four concentric annular electrodes can exert independent control over defocus as well as primary, secondary, and tertiary spherical aberration. In this paper we use both numerical modeling and physical measurements to characterize recently developed deformable mirrors with respect to the amount of spherical aberration each can impart, and the dependence of that aberration control on the amount of defocus the mirror is providing. We find that a four-zone, 4 mm diameter mirror can generate surface shapes with arbitrary primary, secondary, and tertiary spherical aberration over ranges of ±0.4, ±0.2, and ±0.15 μm, respectively, referred to a non-normalized Zernike polynomial basis. We demonstrate the utility of this mirror for aberration-compensated focusing of a high NA optical system.

Source: Applied Optics

DOI: 10.1364/ao.55.005208

Authors: Sarah J. Lukes, Ryan D. Downey, Seth T. Kreitinger, David L. Dickensheets

Institution: Montana State University

Language: English

Topic: Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering

Awards: STTR Phase II: Compact Aberration Compensated Focus and Scan Control for Biomedical Sensors, Integrated wide-field imaging and confocal microscopy with agile 3D beam scanning, IDBR: Agile Electronic Focus and Aberration Control for Live Animal Microscopy, MRI: Development of an Active/Adaptive Scanning Laser Microscope