Zernike Polynomials via Phase Recovery

The Army is working to incorporate identifying and tracking targets, adjusting aim for ballistics, and compensating for wind into the next generation squad weapon. Fire control devices to identify and track movement are being developed for targeting and to steady aim. The Army is developing rifle integrated optics providing shooters with enhanced viewing to increase hit probability and reduce time to engagement and increase target recognition. To successfully develop such advanced fire control systems, the Army needs to fully characterize the wavefront error of optical systems. Commercial systems are based on interferometric methods and are unable to extract off-axis aberrations, like coma. The Army requires a non-interferometric method comprised of only a collimated, partially-coherent light source, a microscope objective, and a sensing array. Spectral Sciences, Inc. (SSI) and the University of Rochester (UR) propose to develop the Phase Recovery Imaging Microscope for Aberration (PRIMA), a prototype hardware and software system that provides the focus scan measurements necessary to find the complex Zernike coefficients by iteratively evaluating the Extended Nijboer-Zernike (ENZ) formulas. The design specification will be determined using a novel combination of hardware developed by UR with an Algorithm Development Kit (ADK) developed at SSI. The ADK will provide a unified software interface for calibration, algorithm testing, and performance evaluation. The Phase I proof-of-concept will be a demonstration of the technique on a lens with known aberrations. The Phase II product will be the hardware and software necessary to realize our procedure on a commercial system.