Radial shearing dynamic wavefront sensor based on a geometric phase lens pair

A radial shearing dynamic wavefront sensor is theorized and experimentally verified. The proposed sensor is based on a geometric phase lens pair that generates two radially sheared wavefronts. A polarization pixelated camera instantaneously obtains polarization-multiplexed phase maps from a single acquired image using a spatial phase-shifting technique. Experimental tests applied several wavefront shapes with a deformable mirror. The results were compared with a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor to evaluate the performance.