Sensor-less aberration correction in optical imaging systems using blind optimization

The imperfection of optical devices in an optical imaging system deteriorates wavefront which results in aberration. This reduces the optical signal to noise ratio of the imaging system and the quality of the produced images. Adaptive optics composed of wavefront sensor (WFS) and deformable mirror (DM) is a straightforward solution for this problem. The need for a WFS in an AO system, raises the cost of the overall system, and there are also instances when they cannot be used, such as in microscopy. Moreover stray reflections from lens surfaces affect the performance of the WFS. In this paper, we describe a blind optimization technique with an in-expensive electronics without using the WFS to correct the aberration in order to achieve better quality images. The correction system includes an electromagnetic DM from Imagine, Mirao52d, with 52 actuators which are controlled by particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The results of the application of simulated annealing (SA), and genetic algorithm (GA) techniques that we have implemented in the sensor-less AO are used for comparison. © 2011 Copyright Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).