Comparison of Phase Diversity and Curvature Wavefront Sensing

We compare phase diversity and curvature wavefront sensing. Besides having completely different reconstruction algorithms, the two methods measure data in different domains: phase diversity very near to the focal plane, and curvature wavefront sensing far from the focal plane in quasi-pupil planes, which enable real-time computation of the wavefront using analog techniques. By using information-theoretic lower bounds, we show that the price of measuring far from the focal plane is an increased error in estimating the phase. Curvature wavefront sensing is currently operating in the field, but phase diversity should produce superior estimates as real-time computing develops.