Novel wavefront sensor for optical space communications

Summary form only given. Compensation of atmosphere turbulences by means of adaptive optics (AO) is a well-known technique in the field of astronomy, but so far has been mostly left out of considerations with respect to space laser links (SLL). In a first step, to reduce the complexity of the traditional adaptive optics system employing the bulky Shack-Hartmann sensor, we designed and fabricated a new type of compact polymer waveguide array in-line sensor keeping nearly 100% of the received power for the data transmission after wavefront correction is achieved.