Wavefront reconstruction based on ASH-Net with less lenslets SHWFS

Abstract Generally, the number of lenslets in Shack–Hartman wavefront sensor (SHWFS) determines its spatial sampling frequency. However, increasing the number of lenslets is limited by the data processing delay time and low sensitivity in the adaptive optics system. In this paper, a wavefront reconstruction method based on ASH-Net for SHWFS is presented to recover the distorted wavefront from the light spots array with high accuracy with a spatial sampling frequency than traditionally required. The results show that the maximum number of Zernike modes recovered by the method is 36, 54, and 70 for 4 × 4, 6 × 6, and 8 × 8 lenslets arrays, respectively. Residual wavefront root mean square values are as low as about 0.02 μ m, corresponding to a Strehl Ratio of 0.99. This method breaks the limitation that the number of reconstructed Zernike modes in the traditional wavefront reconstruction algorithm must be less than the number of effective lenslets. Experiments in lab are used to validate the method. Additionally, fewer lenslets is valuable to improve the detection capability of SHWFS for faint targets. This is important for applications of adaptive optics in areas such as astronomy and retinal imaging.