The interaction performance of white light, laser diode and He-Ne laser with two wavefront sensing systems

In this study, the interaction performance of three light sources, namely white light, laser diode and He-Ne laser, with two wave-front sensing systems was investigated experimentally using different sensing distances and sampling apertures (two hole-apertures for a Hartmann system and a spatial-light-modulator lenslet-array for a digital Shack-Hartmann system). It was found that the white light source was the best for the Hartmann system, while the He-Ne laser was the most suitable light source for the digital Shack-Hartmann system. Geometrical accuracy of a hole-array aperture and the sensing distance are important to generate stable wave fronts.