Abstract
Heterodyne detection is known to be highly sensitive to wavefront distortions. However, quantitative measurements of the effects of aberrations are not easy to obtain. We propose to use a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator as a programmable wavefront aberrator. This allows us to simulate experimentally a coherent detection system at λ=632.8 nm. Two frequency-shifted plane waves (backscattered signal and local oscillator) are generated. The programmable liquid-crystal wavefront aberrator is used to computer-control the phase of the backscattered signal, and the heterodyne efficiency is measured. We present experimental measurements of the field-of-view, the effect of defocus and the sensitivity to atmospheric perturbations. In all three cases, the experimental data are compared to the theoretical predictions.
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