Diagnosing unknown aberrations in an adaptive optics system by use of phase diversity.

We outline a novel method for estimating a fixed aberration that is in the image path but not in the wave-front-sensor (WFS) path of an adaptive optics (AO) imaging system. We accomplish this through a nontraditional application of the Gonsalves [Proc. SPIE 207, 32 (1997)] least-squares phase-diversity technique, using an ensemble of images and WFS data. The diversity phases required for this technique are provided by the temporal differences in WFS residual phase measurements for different members of the ensemble. We demonstrate the technique by using actual observations from an operational AO system exhibiting such an aberration. An estimate of this aberration was obtained by the proposed algorithm that agrees reasonably well with the observed point-spread function.