Noise reduction in the Fourier spectrum of Hartmann patterns for phase demodulation

A simple method to reduce the noise in the Fourier spectrum of Hartmann patterns for filtering the fundamental sidelobes (first harmonics) is presented. The method consists on replacing the Hartmann pattern by a fringe pattern within a circular pupil. The fringes are cosine square type and the pupil is apodized with a Gaussian function. These fringes follow the centroid spots of the Hartmann pattern along the horizontal and vertical directions. The width of the fringes in each direction is constant and it is determined according to the distortion of the Hartmann pattern. In this way, it is possible to obtain the wavefront’s slopes more accurate in comparison with the traditional method. We present experimental results to show the advantages of our method.