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Wavefront Sensors Gauge Optical System Performance

Joseph M. Geary, Center for Applied Optics, University of Alabama-Huntsville.

Light travels in straight lines, as evidenced by shadow-casting phenomenon, and the pinhole camera. The pinhole camera also helps define a "ray" of light. A point source emits light rays in all directions. A group of these rays would have a certain optical path length: length ? refractive index. The optical path length is a radius in this case, and the ray tips lie on the surface of a sphere whose center is the point source. This surface is a basic example of what is called a wavefront. (Rays and their associated wavefronts are always orthogonal to one another.) Examining that wavefront can...Read full article

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    Published: March 1999
    FeaturesSensors & Detectors

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