Designing and testing a high-bandwidth 2-D wavefront sensor for aero-optics

A novel two-dimensional high-bandwidth Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor was designed, addressing the high temporal bandwidth of optical aberrations caused by compressible flows. The principle of operation and modifications from an earlier version of the wavefront sensor are presented and compared to a commercially available wavefront sensor. A wavefront reconstruction algorithm is derived. The high-temporal resolution and spatial resolution of the sensor is demonstrated. A two-dimensional, acoustically forced heated jet was used to test the sensor.