Holographic wavefront sensor based on Karhunen-Loève decomposition

In this paper we introduce the use of Karhunen-Loève functions as a basis set to decompose atmospheric phase aberrations in a digital holographic wavefront sensor (HWS). We show that the intermodal crosstalk when using Karhunen-Loève functions is reduced in comparison to the Zernike decomposition. Additionally, the sensor's response showed an improved linearity and better robustness to scintillation. Intermodal crosstalk remains a significant problem for this sensor but operation of an adaptive optics system based on HWS is less challenging when using Karhunen-Loève functions instead of Zernike polynomials.