Photon statistics in partially compensated wave fronts

To retrieve the high-spatial-frequency information of atmospherically distorted wave fronts, it is desirable to use an adaptive optics system with a high degree of compensation. However, in the visible only partial compensation is attainable. We analyze the photoevent statistics corresponding to wave fronts with partial compensation. It is shown that the photoevent statistics evolve from a Bose-Einstein distribution to a Laguerre distribution as the number of corrected Zernike polynomials increases. Furthermore, the photoevent statistics are also analyzed as a function of the position at the image plane. (C) 1999 Optical Society of America [S0740-3232(99)00210-0].