A Tip–Tilt and Piston Detection Approach for Segmented Telescopes

Accurate segmented mirror wavefront sensing and control is essential for next-generation large aperture telescope system design. In this paper, a direct tip–tilt and piston error detection technique based on model-based phase retrieval with multiple defocused images is proposed for segmented mirror wavefront sensing. In our technique, the tip–tilt and piston error are represented by a basis consisting of three basic plane functions with respect to the x, y, and z axis so that they can be parameterized by the coefficients of these bases; the coefficients then are solved by a non-linear optimization method with the defocus multi-images. Simulation results show that the proposed technique is capable of measuring high dynamic range wavefront error reaching 7λ, while resulting in high detection accuracy. The algorithm is demonstrated as robust to noise by introducing phase parameterization. In comparison, the proposed tip–tilt and piston error detection approach is much easier to implement than many existing methods, which usually introduce extra sensors and devices, as it is a technique based on multiple images. These characteristics make it promising for the application of wavefront sensing and control in next-generation large aperture telescopes.