This volume supplies analytical tools for the design and development of adaptive optics systems to enhance their ability to adjust for atmospheric turbulence, optical fabrication errors, thermally induced distortions, and laser device aberrations.

Provides recommendations for selecting, testing, and installing a wavefront compensation system!

Written to improve image quality in optical and infrared equipment while tracking rapidly moving objects and compensating for laser beam distortion through the atmosphere, the Adaptive Optics Engineering Handbook

• surveys the developmental history of real-time distortion compensating systems
• lists a variety of operational systems to illustrate progressive techniques used by experts
• describes the wavefront sensor, the deformable mirror, and control system wavefront estimators (reconstructors)
• covers state-of-the-art technology in high-speed wavefront correction devices
• gives an overview of cutting-edge research in medical imaging
• reveals innovative methods for wavefront compensation that overcome field-of-view limits common to system configurations
• quantifies the first-order effects of the error mechanisms that determine overall effectiveness of an adaptive optics system
• and more!

Containing the guidelines, descriptions, scientific and technical results, formulas, and over 500 drawings, photographs, and equations to develop a working adaptive optics system, the Adaptive Optics Engineering Handbook is a key reference for optical, electrical, and mechanical engineers and physicists, as well as upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in these disciplines.