Wavefront sensors are one of the most important components of adaptive optical systems and determine the final modulation results of adaptive optical systems. At the same time, wavefront sensors play an increasingly important role in wavefront aberration detection of complex adaptive optical systems such as lasers, astronomy, microscopy, and ophthalmology, iris positioning aberration guidance, large-aperture high-precision optical component detection, detection and adjustment of collimator/telescope systems, infrared and near-infrared detection, laser beam performance, wavefront aberration, M^2, intensity detection, and surface quality detection of high-precision optical components.
Wavefront sensors can be divided into three stages according to the history of their technological development. In the first stage, in 1900, German scientist Hartmann used the aperture technology of digging holes to produce the world's first sensor that can be used to detect wavefronts. In the second stage, in 1971, R.K.Shack successfully developed a more accurate Shack-Hartmann wavefront analyzer using a lens array. In 2000, the French Phasics R&D team successfully developed a wavefront detector based on four-wave lateral shearing interferometry using four-wave shearing interferometry technology. This wavefront detector has the characteristics of high resolution, high dynamic range, achromatism, high sensitivity, high relative accuracy, no need for correction, small size and easy operation.
