Adaptive Laser Beam Shaping Using a Genetic Algorithm

As an active device, deformable mirror has been successfully used in adaptive optical systems to compensate phase aberrations and improve beam quality. However, it is often limited to correcting the phase aberrations for a flat reference wavefront. In this paper we present a new adaptive beam intensity profiles control technique based on the combination of a 19-element deformable mirror and a global genetic algorithm. This algorithm can adaptively adjust the voltages of the 19 actuators on the deformable mirror to reduce the difference between the target beam shape and the actual beam shape. The numerical simulations results show that within the mechanical constraints of the deformable mirror, this technique can create the given beam intensity profiles in a focal plane.