The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 01, 2003
Filed:
Oct. 09, 2001
Donald W. Davies, Torrance, CA (US);
Northrop Grumman Corporation, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
A lateral shearing interferometer wavefront sensor system ( ) that employs a double-shear/full aperture approach to correct for branch points in the wavefront of an optical beam ( ) that has been aberated. The wavefront sensor system ( ) includes a lateral shearing interferometer ( ) having a beam splitter ( ) that splits the beam ( ) into a first split beam ( ) and a second split beam ( ), a beam shifter ( ) that shifts the first split beam ( ) relative to the second split beam ( ), and a beam combiner ( ) that combines first shifted split beam ( ) and the second split beam ( ) into a combined beam ( ). The combined beam ( ) provides an interference pattern that includes a plurality of interfered beam portions ( ). A deformable mirror ( ) includes a plurality of actuators ( ) which deform the mirror ( ) to correct the beam wavefront. The interfered portions ( ) are twice the distance apart between actuators ( ),or a double shear such that interfering portions ( ) do not align with branch cuts between the actuators ( ).