Wavefront distortions of a liquid crystal tunable filter measured with a Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensor

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the wavefront distortions caused by the LCTF using the Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor. The LCTF-induced wavefront was analyzed by measuring the deviations of its wavefront distributions, parameters, and centroid positions from a reference wavefront. The spectral dependence of the Zernike coefficients by wavelength tuning was also analyzed. The results show that while the LCTF is observed to introduce deviations in its wavelength distributions, centroid positions, and spectral Zernike dependence, the LCTF is advantageous for optical or imaging systems that do not require spatial accuracy up to 0.2 μm.