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Photonics
Special Issues
Adaptive Optics: Recent Technological Breakthroughs and Applications
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Adaptive Optics: Recent Technological Breakthroughs and Applications

A special issue of Photonics (ISSN 2304-6732). This special issue belongs to the section "New Applications Enabled by Photonics Technologies and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2026) | Viewed by 2256

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Sergio Restaino

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Guest Editor
Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, USA
Interests: adaptive optics; high angular resolution imaging; propagation through turbulent media
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Freddie Santiago

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Guest Editor
US Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, USA
Interests: adaptive optics; flexible lenses; propagation through turbulent media; wavefront sensing

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Adaptive Optics techniques and applications have gone way beyond the correction of the Earth's turbulent atmosphere and are now in use in a wide variety of applications, from medicine to industry, from underwater imaging to Free Space Laser Communications.

We are pleased to invite you to submit manuscripts for the upcoming special issue of the Photonics journal on Adaptive Optics.

This Special Issue aims to publish papers on all aspects of Adaptive Optics. The special issue will focus, but won't be limited to:

  • Wavefront Sensing
  • Novel Adaptive Optics systems
  • Algorithms
  • Closed-loop performance enhancers
  • In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Sergio Restaino
Dr. Freddie Santiago
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Photonics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • adaptive optics
  • active optics
  • wavefront sensing
  • aberrations
  • algorithms
  • closed loop

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 3661 KB  
Article
Wavefront Prediction for Adaptive Optics Without Wavefront Sensing Based on EfficientNetV2-S
by Zhiguang Zhang, Zelu Huang, Jiawei Wu, Zhaojun Yan, Xin Li, Chang Liu and Huizhen Yang
Photonics 2026, 13(2), 144; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics13020144 - 2 Feb 2026
Viewed by 840
Abstract
Adaptive optics (AO) aims to counteract wavefront distortions caused by atmospheric turbulence and inherent system errors. Aberration recovery accuracy and computational speed play crucial roles in its correction capability. To address the issues of slow wavefront aberration detection speed and low measurement accuracy [...] Read more.
Adaptive optics (AO) aims to counteract wavefront distortions caused by atmospheric turbulence and inherent system errors. Aberration recovery accuracy and computational speed play crucial roles in its correction capability. To address the issues of slow wavefront aberration detection speed and low measurement accuracy in current wavefront sensorless adaptive optics, this paper proposes a wavefront correction method based on the EfficientNetV2-S model. The method utilizes paired focal plane and defocused plane intensity images to directly extract intensity features and reconstruct phase information in a non-iterative manner. This approach enables the direct prediction of wavefront Zernike coefficients from the measured intensity images, specifically for orders 3 to 35, significantly enhancing the real-time correction capability of the AO system. Simulation results show that the root mean square error (RMSE) of the predicted Zernike coefficients for D/r0 values of 5, 10, and 15 are 0.038λ, 0.071λ, and 0.111λ, respectively, outperforming conventional convolutional neural network (CNN), ResNet50/101 and ConvNeXt-T models. The experimental results demonstrate that the EfficientNetV2-S model maintains good wavefront reconstruction and prediction capabilities at D/r0 = 5 and 10, highlighting its high precision and robust wavefront prediction ability. Compared to traditional iterative algorithms, the proposed method offers advantages such as high precision, fast computation, no need for iteration, and avoidance of local minima in processing wavefront aberrations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Adaptive Optics: Recent Technological Breakthroughs and Applications)
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16 pages, 4909 KB  
Article
Multi-Spectral and Single-Shot Wavefront Detection Technique Based on Neural Networks
by Xunzheng Li, Aoyang Wang, Mao Fan, Lianghong Yu and Xiaoyan Liang
Photonics 2025, 12(11), 1110; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics12111110 - 11 Nov 2025
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 972
Abstract
Conventional wavefront sensors face challenges when detecting frequency-domain information. In this study, we developed a high-precision, and fast multi-spectral wavefront detection technique based on neural networks. Using an etalon and a diffractive optical element for spectral encoding, the measured pulses were spatially dispersed [...] Read more.
Conventional wavefront sensors face challenges when detecting frequency-domain information. In this study, we developed a high-precision, and fast multi-spectral wavefront detection technique based on neural networks. Using an etalon and a diffractive optical element for spectral encoding, the measured pulses were spatially dispersed onto the sub-apertures of the Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (SHWFS). We employed a neural network model as the decoder to synchronously calculate the multi-spectral wavefront aberrations. Numerical simulation results demonstrate that the average calculation time is 21.38 ms, with a root mean squared (RMS) wavefront residual error of approximately 0.010 μm for 4-wavelength, 21st-order Zernike coefficients. By comparison, the conventional modal-based algorithm achieves an average calculation time of 102.98 ms and wavefront residuals of 0.090 μm. Remarkably, for 10-wavelength analysis, traditional centroid algorithms fail; this approach maintains high simulation accuracy with the RMS wavefront residual error below 0.016 μm. The proposed approach significantly enhances the measurement capabilities of SHWFS in multi-spectral and single-shot wavefront detection, particularly for single-shot spatio-temporal characterization in ultra-intense and ultra-short laser systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Adaptive Optics: Recent Technological Breakthroughs and Applications)
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