Under CopyrightMarin Palomo, PabloPabloMarin PalomoZepp, AndreasAndreasZeppGladysz, SzymonSzymonGladysz2022-03-1218.12.20142014https://publica.fraunhofer.de/handle/publica/38595610.1117/12.2067084Correction of atmospheric effects on the propagation of laser light can be achieved with adaptive optics (AO) by relying on adequate wavefront sensors. For free-space laser communications and for tracking of high-speed airborne objects, conventional wavefront sensing methods e.g. those based on the Shack-Hartmann sensor (SHS), are not always effective. Partial obscuration and saturation of the detector due to strong turbulence lead to errors in wavefront reconstruction. Another drawback of Shack-Hartmann wavefront-sensing is the timeconsuming readout of the whole detector and subsequent matrix-vector multiplication necessary to reconstruct the wavefront. We characterize a promising modal alternative: digital holographic wavefront sensor (DHWS).We examine the performance of the sensor for single-, and multimode operation and its dependence on the detector size, scintillation, residual tip/tilt and misalignments.endigital holographic wavefront sensorcomputer-generated hologramspatial light modulatoradaptive opticsturbulence004670conference paper