An interferometric wavefront sensor for high sensitivity, low amplitude measurements

We present a wavefront sensor design for the purpose of measuring post-AO corrected light, especially in the cases of high-Strehl and when using natural guide stars. It is inspired by holographic design principles and offers approximately two orders of magnitude increase in sensitivity over a conventional Shack-Hartmann design. The theoretical design and that of a laboratory prototype are presented, together with simulation results for a case-study of sinusoidal phase and the corresponding results from a laboratory experiment.