SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EFFECTING HIGH-POWER BEAM CONTROL WITH OUTGOING WAVEFRONT CORRECTION UTILIZING HOLOGRAPHIC SAMPLING AT PRIMARY MIRROR, PHASE CONJUGATION, AND ADAPTIVE OPTICS IN LOW POWER BEAM PATH

摘要

A beam control system and method. In an illustrative embodiment, the inventive system (500) provides a first beam of electromagnetic energy (503); samples the first beam (503) and provides a second beam (505) in response thereto; detects aberrations in the second beam (505); and corrects aberrations in the first beam (503) in response to the detected aberrations. In a specific implementation, the invention (500) includes a beam director telescope (510) having a primary mirror (516) on which a holographic optical element (518) is disposed. The holographic optical element (518) samples the output high-power beam and provides a sampled beam to a wavefront sensor (520). The wavefront sensor (520) provides signals to an adaptive optics processor (580). The adaptive optics processor (580) analyzes the sampled wavefront, detects aberrations therein and provides a correction signal to an optical phased array (550).