First adaptive optics control of laser beam based on interferometric phase-front detection

We present an adaptive optics (AO) system for the control of geometrical fluctuations in a laser beam based on the interferometric detection of phase front. By comparison with the usual Shack-Hartmann and phase diversity based AO systems, we show that this technique is of particular interest when high sensitivity and high bandpass are required for correction of small perturbations like, for instance, the control of the input laser beam of gravitational waves interferometric detectors. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.