Abstract

New architectures for telescopes or powerful lasers require segmented wave front metrology. This paper deals with a new interferometric wave front sensing technique called PISTIL (PISton and TILt), able to recover both piston and tilts of segment beams. The main advantages of the PISTIL technique are the absence of a reference arm and an access to the tilt information. An explanation of the principle, as well as an experimental implementation and the use of a segmented active mirror, are presented. Measurement errors of λ/200 for piston and 40 µrad for tilts have been achieved, well beyond performances requested for the above mentioned applications.

Highlights

  • New applications using segmented wave fronts appeared recently in several projects

  • Other field where segmented wave fronts emerge is the new generation of high energy and high repetition rate lasers based on the combination of smaller individually amplified laser fibers as proposed, for example, for LaserWakeField Acceleration (LWFA) [3]

  • We investigate the PISTIL interferometer dedicated to the measurement of periodically segmented wave fronts

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Summary

Introduction

New applications using segmented wave fronts appeared recently in several projects. One is the new generation of telescopes for astronomy where one of the best known is the E-ELT [1]. Other field where segmented wave fronts emerge is the new generation of high energy and high repetition rate lasers based on the combination of smaller individually amplified laser fibers as proposed, for example, for LaserWakeField Acceleration (LWFA) [3]. These two applications require a wave front sensor to measure pistons and tilts of a wave front segmented into a Hexagonal or Cartesian mesh.

Piston and tilt interferometry description
Resolution and repeatability system measurement
Measurement with only piston
Conclusion and discussion

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