Beam position estimation by means of detector arrays

The application of detector arrays for the estimation of optical beam position is considered. An estimation algorithm is synthesised, and estimator performance is analysed. Estimator performance depends on the number of detectors in the array and on the received radiation and its associated shot noise. It is shown that by choosing an appropriate number of detectors in the array, the designer can always drive the estimator into shot-noise-limited operation. In this case, the performance may be either quantum-limited or background-noise limited, depending on the energy of the optical beam and on the background field.