Adaptive optics by incoherent digital holography

Adaptive optics in astronomical and other imaging systems allows compensation of aberrations introduced by random variations of the refractive index in the imaging path. I propose what I believe is a new type of adaptive optics system that dispenses with the hardware lenslet arrays and deformable mirrors of conventional systems. Theoretical and experimental studies show that wavefront sensing and compensation can be achieved by numerical processing of digital holograms of the incoherent object and a guide star. The incoherent digital holographic adaptive optics is seen to be particularly robust and efficient, with envisioned applications in astronomical imaging, as well as fluorescence microscopy and remote sensing.