Coherent image synthesis from wave-front sensor measurements of a nonimaged laser speckle field : a laboratory demonstration

The first coherent images recovered in the laboratory from measurements made with a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor of the phase and amplitude of a laser speckle wavefront are reported. The design of the wavefront sensor, which can obtain the phase and amplitude of an optical field with a single intensity measurement is discussed, and a particular type of phase jump is pointed out that cannot be detected by the Shack-Hartmann sensor. Implementations of this technique that may permit near-diffraction-limited imaging through turbulent media are also discussed. (Author)