Abstract

Near-infrared wavefront sensing allows for the enhancement of sky coverage with adaptive optics. The recently developed HgCdTe avalanche photodiode arrays are promising due to their very low detector noise, but still present an imperfect cosmetic that may directly impact real-time wavefront measurements for adaptive optics and thus degrade performance in astronomical applications. We propose here a model of a Shack–Hartmann wavefront measurement in the presence of residual fixed pattern noise and defective pixels. To adjust our models, a fine characterization of such an HgCdTe array, the RAPID sensor, is proposed. The impact of the cosmetic defects on the Shack–Hartmann measurement is assessed through numerical simulations. This study provides both a new insight on the applicability of cadmium mercury telluride (CMT) avalanche photodiodes detectors for astronomical applications and criteria to specify the cosmetic qualities of future arrays.

© 2015 Optical Society of America

Performance comparison of centroiding algorithms for laser guide star wavefront sensing with extremely large telescopes

Olivier Lardière, Rodolphe Conan, Richard Clare, Colin Bradley, and Norbert Hubin
Appl. Opt. 49(31) G78-G94 (2010)

Centroid estimation for a Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensor based on stream processing

Fanpeng Kong, Manuel Cegarra Polo, and Andrew Lambert
Appl. Opt. 56(23) 6466-6475 (2017)

Mid-infrared Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor fully cryogenic using extended source for endoatmospheric applications

Clélia Robert, Vincent Michau, Bruno Fleury, Serge Magli, and Laurent Vial
Opt. Express 20(14) 15636-15653 (2012)

Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensing based on binary-aberration-mode filtering

Shuai Wang, Ping Yang, Bing Xu, Lizhi Dong, and Mingwu Ao
Opt. Express 23(4) 5052-5064 (2015)

Laser guide star wavefront sensing for ground-layer adaptive optics on extremely large telescopes

Richard M. Clare, Miska Le Louarn, and Clementine Béchet
Appl. Opt. 50(4) 473-483 (2011)