Extension of the modal wave-front reconstruction algorithm to non-uniform illumination.

Attempts are made to eliminate the effects of non-uniform illumination on the precision of wave-front measurement. To achieve this, the relationship between the wave-front slope at a single sub-aperture and the distributions of the phase and light intensity of the wave-front were first analyzed to obtain the relevant theoretical formulae. Then, based on the principle of modal wave-front reconstruction, the influence of the light intensity distribution on the wave-front slope is introduced into the calculation of the reconstruction matrix. Experiments were conducted to prove that the corrected modal wave-front reconstruction algorithm improved the accuracy of wave-front reconstruction. Moreover, the correction is conducive to high-precision wave-front measurement using a Hartmann wave-front sensor in the presence of non-uniform illumination. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America