Wavefront reconstruction using iterative
Fourier transforms
Frangois Roddier and Claude Roddier
University of Hawaii, Institute for Astronomy, 2680
Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822.
Received 4 February 1991.
Sponsored by James B. Breckinridge, Jet Propulsion Lab­
oratory.
0003-6935/91/111325-03$05.00/0.
© 1991 Optical Society of America.
The problem of obtaining a linear least-squares wavefront
estimate from an array of wavefront slope measurements has
long been discussed in the literature. 1,2 Noll3 has shown that
the solution is that of a Poisson equation with Neumann
boundary conditions. Succesive over relaxation (SOR) algo­
rithms are generally used to solve the problem numerically.4
Here we present a novel algorithm based on fast Fourier
transform (FFT) subroutines.
The basic idea is that the Laplacian operator ▿2 = ∂2/∂x2 +
∂ /∂y2 translates into a multiplication by u2 + υ2 in the
2
Fourier (u,υ) domain. Hence by taking the Fourier trans­
form of the wavefront Laplacian ▿2W, dividing it by u2 + υ2,
and taking an inverse Fourier transform one should be able
to retrieve the wavefront surface W. This is the basis of
Fourier methods for solving differential equations. This
simple approach would hold for a wavefront with no bound­
ary (function with unbounded support). In practice the
wavefront Laplacian is multiplied by the pupil transmission
function Pix,y), and its Fourier transform is, therefore, con­
volved by the Fourier transform of P{x,y). As a result the
simple property indicated above no longer holds. A proper
treatment should take the signal boundaries into account
using boundary conditions. Fourier methods have already
been proposed in the literature,5,6 but they essentially apply
to square or rectangular domains. The method described
here applies to domains with any arbitrary shape.
The basis of the method is an extrapolation of the wave-
front beyond the boundaries using a Gershberg type algo­
rithm. 7 A flow chart of the algorithm is shown in Fig, 1. One
starts with two arrays of numbers which are the sampled
wavefront x and y slopes inside the pupil domain and zeros
outside the domain. An FFT algorithm is used to take the
Fourier transform of these arrays which represent functions
of u and υ. The Fourier transform of the x slope is multiplied
by u, that of the y slope is multiplied by υ. Both arrays are
added, and the result is divided by u2 + υ2 everywhere except
at the origin where the ratio is undetermined. Since we seek
the solution which has zero mean, we put zero at the origin.
The division by u2 + υ2 can be considered as an apodization.
An even stronger apodization can be used at the beginning to
accelerate convergence.8 Next, one takes an inverse Fourier
transform. A result of the apodization is that the signal now
extends beyond the initial boundaries. However, we are
interested only in the part within the boundaries which is our
first wavefront estimate. The next step consists of taking
the x and y derivative of this estimate. The result will in
general differ from the original data. The rms difference
between the two set of numbers is a measure of the current
error in the reconstruction process. The algorithm consists
of putting back the original data inside the domain where
measurements have been made, whereas keeping the extrap­
olated signal outside the domain. The process is then iterat­
ed. When the error becomes below a preassigned level, the
next wavefront estimate is computed and the iterative pro­
cess is stopped.
Both the above described algorithm and a SOR algorithm
have been applied to the same simulated data. On 128 X
128-pixel arrays the computing time was found to be approx-
10 April 1991 / Vol. 30, No. 11 / APPLIED OPTICS 1325
Fig. 1. Flow chart of the iterative Fourier transform algorithm used
to reconstruct a wavefront W from the measured wavefront slopes
∂W/∂x and ∂W/∂y.
imately the same. However, the new algorithm was found to
produce better wavefront estimates especially near the
edges. This is clearly demonstrated in Fig. 2, which shows
an example of wavefront reconstruction. The full line is a
section of the original 2-D wavefront (spherical aberration).
A circular pupil was used with a 30-pixel radius. The dashed
line is the same section reconstructed with the SOR algo­
rithm. The dash/dot line is the section reconstructed with
the FFT based algorithm.
The approach described above is quite general and can
also be used to reconstruct wavefronts from wavefront La-
1326 APPLIED OPTICS / Vol. 30, No. 11 / 10 April 1991
Fig. 3. Flow chart of an iterative Fourier transform algorithm used
to reconstruct a wavefront W from the wavefront Laplacian mea­
sured from out of focus images.10
placians obtained directly from extra-focal images.9,10 Fig­
ure 3 shows a flow chart of a similar algorithm which recon­
structs wavefronts from wavefront Laplacians estimated by
taking the difference between the illuminations in symmetri­
cally defocused images. The boundary conditions are taken
into account by forcing to zero the radial derivative within a
narrow band surrounding the boundaries. This is equiva­
lent to solving the Poisson equation with a zero radial edge
slope as a Neumann boundary condition. Indeed the differ-
Fig. 2. Example of wavefront reconstructions
from wavefront slopes. Full line, original wave-
front; dashed line, reconstructed wavefront using
the SOR algorithm. Dash/dot line, reconstructed
wavefront using iterative Fourier transforms.
ence between extra-focal images produces a narrow edge
signal which is a measure of the wavefront radial edge slope.
This signal can also be considered as a Laplacian equal to the
difference between the wavefront radial slopes on each sides
of the edge. By forcing the outer slope to zero, one forces the
inner slope to be equal to the edge signal. Unlike previously
described algorithms, there is no need to somewhat arbitrari-
ly isolate the boundary wavefront slope signal from the inner
wavefront curvature signal. Here one takes the sensor signal
as a whole.
Clearly the Gershberg algorithm can be similarly used to
solve numerically any linear differential equation with
boundary conditions on any contour shape using FFT sub-
routines. To our knowledge, this very interesting applica-
tion of the Gershberg algorithm has not been considered
before.
This work has been supported by a grant from the Strate-
gic Defense Initiative Organization, Office of Innovative Sci-
ence and Technology, and managed by the Harry Diamond
Laboratories.
References
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10April 1991 / Vol. 30, No. 11 / APPLIED OPTICS 1327